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Invocation for Women's Seders

by Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner

Source : Foundation for Family Education, Inc.

From the Ma'yan Haggadah
http://www.ritualwell.org/holidays/passover

Why is this night different from all other nights?

On this night, we gather together to prepare for Passover, outside of our kitchens, in a way our foremothers could have never imagined.

On this night we join as a community to rid ourselves of a different kind of chameitz. What do we cleanse ourselves of tonight? The exhaustion of cleaning and cooking. The echo of exclusionary language.

The weight of history.

The fear of women's voices.

The silencing of women's stories.

The violence done to women's bodies.

The pressure to conform to one image of who Jewish women are supposed to be.

The lingering belief that this tradition doesn't belong to women.

Let us gather all this together like crumbs. Like chameitz we are ready to burn. Let us enter into this seder as if there were no more chameitz anywhere.

As if God had forever delighted in the image of Herself in each and every one of us.

As if freedom had been ours always, fully - like an open sea.

From The Journey Continues: The Ma'yan Haggadah (Ma'yan, 2000) [email protected].

Warsaw 1943

by Charles Quinton

Source : self

Warsaw Ghetto, 1943

The date that the Nazis chose to destroy the Warsaw Ghetto was Passover, April 19, 1943. By this time, the Jews of the Ghetto knew that the daily trains to Treblinka were not transporting anyone to resettlement camps in the East, but were taking them to be killed in the gas chambers.

In spite of the Nazis' efforts to enslave and dehumanize our people before they murdered us, we maintained our values and traditions. Public prayer became a forbidden act, punished by severe beatings or even execution, but prayer services continued secretly, in hundreds of hidden sanctuaries. When kosher slaughter was outlawed, we risked our lives to avoid violating the laws of Kashrut. We observed Passover in any and every way that we could: matzah was baked in clandestine factories; raisin wine and beet juice filled the Four Cups of the Seder.

The Piaseczner Rebbe held prayer services, provided meals, and gave derashot (Hasidic teachings) throughout the three years of occupation and the Ghetto. He spoke of our unshakable faith in our Creator. He taught that despite all appearances, the world is still a holy place, and all evil will one day be transformed into good. If we stayed true to our G*d and our Torah, we would survive, and we must never forget our dignity and self-respect. We are royalty; even while being beaten, we remain royalty. Most of all, the Rebbe taught us compassion: compassion for other Jews, whom one must help in any way possible, and compassion for G*d, who suffers with us when we are in pain.

In the face of the Nazis’ efforts to destroy us, we remained faithful to our Torah and to our G*d, never giving up hope that the world would one day emerge from darkness.

Together:

We remember the heroism of the Jews--men, women, and children--
who fought in the ghettos, in the forests, on the war fronts,
together with all of democratic humanity,
to stop the curse of fascism from engulfing the earth.

We will honor their memory by dedicating ourselves to the cause of
peace and freedom in our land and throughout the world.

Door of Hope

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

“Pharonic oppression, deliverance, Sinai, and Canaan are still with us as powerful memories shaping our perceptions of the political world. The “door of hope” is still open; things are not what they might be even when what they might be isn’t totally different from what they are. This is

a central theme in Western thought, always present though elaborated in many different ways. We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught, or what it has commonly been taken to teach about the meaning and possibility of politics and about its proper form:

-First, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt;

-Second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land;

-Third, that “the way to the land is through the wilderness.” There is no way to get there from here to there except by joining together and marching.

—Michael Walzer

Miracles

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk maintained that "whoever believes in miracles is a fool; and whoever does not believe in miracles is an atheist."

How can the idea of the miraculous be meaningful to us today? We may be guided by the biblical Hebrew term for miracle, nes, which means "sign." A miracle is an event that signifies something of significance, something that makes an important difference in my life or in the life of my community. A miracle is an intimation of an experience of transcending meaning. The sign-miracle does not refer to something beyond or contrary to logic or nature. It refers to events and experiences that make us take notice of the extraordinary in the ordinary, the wonder in the everyday, the marvel in the routine. Signs do not violate reason or nature. They are natural moments in our lives that we recognize as transforming.

--Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis

Door of Hope

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

-First, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt;

-Second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land;

-Third, that “the way to the land is through the wilderness.” There is no way to get there from here to there except by joining together and marching.

—Michael Walzer

The Dr. Seuss Version of the 4 Questions

by Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner

Source : Foundation for Family Education, Inc.

(Professor Eliezer Segal, http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/)

Why is it only

on Passover night

we never know how

to do anything right?

We don't eat our meals

in the regular ways,

the ways that we do

on all other days.

`Cause on all other nights

we may eat

all kinds of wonderful

good bready treats,

like big purple pizza

that tastes like a pickle,

crumbly crackers

and pink pumpernickel,

sassafras sandwich

and tiger on rye,

fifty falafels in pita,

fresh-fried,

with peanut-butter

and tangerine sauce

spread onto each side

up-and-down, then across,

and toasted whole-wheat bread

with liver and ducks,

and crumpets and dumplings,

and bagels and lox,

and doughnuts with one hole

and doughnuts with four,

and cake with six layers

and windows and doors.

Yes--

on all other nights

we eat all kinds of bread,

but tonight of all nights

we munch matzah instead.

And on all other nights

we devour

vegetables, green things,

and bushes and flowers,

lettuce that's leafy

and candy-striped spinach,

fresh silly celery

(Have more when you're finished!)

cabbage that's flown

from the jungles of Glome

by a polka-dot bird

who can't find his way home,

daisies and roses

and inside-out grass

and artichoke hearts

that are simply first class!

Sixty asparagus tips

served in glasses

with anchovy sauce

and some sticky molasses--

But on Passover night

you would never consider

eating an herb

that wasn't all bitter.

The Four Sons-A Digression

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

FOR DISCUSSION Look again at the Four Sons, for the simplicity of the account is deceptive.

What makes the Wise One wise? If he's wise, why must he ask a question?

Who is this Wicked One? Why is he at the table, instead of staying home on Seder night? What is his wickedness? Why does the text say, "were he in Egypt, he would not have been freed?" Is cynicism a form of slavery? What is the motivation for his cynicism? How do you suppose he became wicked? What turns children against the values of their parents?

Is the Simple One's simplicity a reflection of innocence and wonder, or indifference and apathy? Is there really ever such thing as an "innocent bystander' in life? Can one claim to be an "innocent bystander" to poverty, war, slavery, genocide?

Have you ever been "The One Who Does Not Know How To Ask?" So thoroughly confused, baffled, or overwhelmed by life that you couldn't even form the question?

Which one of these is you, now, in your life? Are you the Wise, the Wicked, the Simple, or the Silent?

Elijah's Cup

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

-The prophet Elijah symbolizes the dreams of the Jewish people.Elijah challenged the injustice of the powerful and overthrew worship of idols. He healed the sick and protected the helpless. At the end of his days, Elijah was carried off to heaven in fiery chariot. The prophet Malachi promised that Elijah will return one day to announce the coming of the Messiah, when all the world will celebrate universal freedom. Legend relates that Elijah returns to earth each day to carry forward the work of bringing justice and peace.

-This cup is Elijah's cup. In setting this cup at our table, we invite Elijah to join us, and we bring his passion for justice into our lives. But the cup is empty. No one has yet stepped forward to fill it.

-According to Hasidic custom begun at the table of the master Rabbi Naftali of Ropschutz, we pass Elijah's cup from person to person at the table, each person pouring a little wine into Elijah's cup from our own cups, until it is filled. In this way we recognize that we must act together, each contributing our best talents and energies, to bring Elijah's promise to the world. Only through the efforts of our hands will the world be redeemed. We open the door, we stand, and we sing of the Jewish dream of freedom.

Eliyahu ha-navi. Eliyahu ha-tish-bee. Eliyahu, Eliyahu, Eliyahu ha-gee-ladee. Beem’hay’rah b’yamay’nu Yavo ay’laynu Eem mashiach ben daveed

-Legend relates that Elijah enters the world each day in disguise, waiting for someone to do him a simple act of kindness. That one, caring act will trigger the redemption of the world. Where is Elijah? He could be anywhere - with a homeless family living on the street; in the AIDS ward of your local hospital; in a delapidated inner-city kindergarten classroom. He could even be the person sitting beside you right now.

Elijah's Cup

by Valley Beth Shalom (VBS)

Source : Valley Beth Shalom Haggadah

Eliyahu ha-navi. Eliyahu ha-tish-bee. Eliyahu, Eliyahu, Eliyahu ha-gee-ladee. Beem’hay’rah b’yamay’nu Yavo ay’laynu Eem mashiach ben daveed

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