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TABLE OF CONTENTS
We’ve been bound by a hardened heart
And our inability to see ourselves in each other.
We have been puffed up by ego and pride.
Enslaved by how things have always been.
And now it is time to go.
But fear threatens to paralyze.
How can we possibly exist any other way?
Our imagination falters
The attachment to what we know is so great
It doesn’t matter that it causes us so much pain.
We dig in.
We will not be moved.
But the season tells us it is time to go.
Maybe we can depart without
Causing too much suffering.
Maybe we can go without destroying what is left behind.
Can we find new ways out of narrowness?
Out of the confines of habits that restrict our growth
And bind our spirit?
Delicate white flowers rise out of hard ground.
Trees broken by ice begin to bloom.
The season tells us it is time to go.
The journey starts with one step.
A simple step,
A momentary willingness,
A slight turn.
Green shoots are scattered among long fallen leaves
The way forward is uncertain
The path has not yet been cleared.
But the season tells us,
All of us together,
It is time to go.
This poem originally appeared on Ritualwell.org.
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Moishe House (www.moishehouse.org) worked with educators from JewishLearning.com to create this awesome quick guide to your seder plate!
The Orange on the Seder Plate
By Susanna Heschel, April 5, 2001
In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came across a Haggadah that had been written by some Oberlin students to express feminist concerns. One ritual they devised was placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate) Charoset, a mixture of fruit, nuts, wine and spices, represents the mortar our ancestors used to build the structures of Mitzrayim At the next Passover, I placed an orange on our family’s seder plate. During the first part of the Seder, I asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community (I mentioned widows in particular). Karpas, a green vegetable, symbolizes hope and renewal. Chazeret, the bitter herb for the “sandwich” we eat later, following the custom established by Hillel the Elder, as a reminder that our ancestors “ate matzah and bitter herbs together” (20) Bread on the Seder plate brings an end to Pesach – it renders everything hametz. And it suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism. I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism. (All the items on the Seder plate also correspond to different kabbalistic sephirot) 19 (21) 20 Why An Orange on the Seder Plate? When lecturing, I often mentioned my custom as one of the many new feminist rituals that have been developed in the last twenty years. Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred: My idea of an orange and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men were transformed. Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate. A woman’s words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of lesbians and gay men is simply erased. Isn’t that precisely what’s happened over the centuries to women’s ideas? Keep one orange on the Seder plate, and pass out orange slices. As we hold the fruit in our hands, shout out marginalized and invisibilized folks that we want to recognize and fully welcome in to the circle of the loving community we are creating.
Our Shabbat table becomes the symbolic representation of the Mishkan in our home. We light Shabbat candles; symbolic of the sacred lamp, the menorah. We say kiddush over wine, symbolic of the sanctification of the meal, taken from the sacrifices made. We have two challahs symbolic of the shew-bread. We sprinkle salt on the challah before we eat it, symbolic of the destruction of the Temple modeled after the Mishkan. The cutting of the challah with the knife is symbolic of our sacrificing the animals brought to the altar. Some substitute the use of the knife by pulling apart the Challah as a way of demonstrating that violence is not condoned and that Shabbat is a time of peace. Before we say the Motzi, the blessing over bread before we eat, we wash our hands, symbolic of the priest’s using the laver. While we are washing our hands, we are purifying our souls. We are silent before the Motzi blessing, to make sure that that purity is sustained into the first bit of our Shabbat meal and beyond.
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May the festival lights we now kindle inspire us to use our powers wisely, to heal and not to harm, to help and not to hinder, to bless and not to curse, to work in the name of freedom, love and peace.
In the beginning there was Light, the Light which gives Life, the Light which illuminates and the Light which enlightens. With joy we bring Light to the Seder and being our celebration of Pesach.
Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-Olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir shel (Shabbatv'shel) Yom Tov.
Hebrew needed
You are Blessed, O God, Spirit of the World, who makes us holy with mitzvot and commands us to kindle the light of (Shabbat and of) the festival day.
Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-Olam shehecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higianu laz'man hazeh.
Hebrew needed
You are Blessed, Our God, Spirit of the World, who keeps us in life, who sustains us and who enables us to reach this season.
It’s been a crazy week. The world with all its worries and bothers is still clamoring for your attention. The first step is to forget all that. Leave it behind. Enter into a timeless space, where you, your great-grandparents and Moses all coincide.
The beginning of all journeys is separation. You’ve got to leave somewhere to go somewhere else. It is also the first step towards freedom: You ignore the voice of Pharaoh inside that mocks you, saying, “Who are you to begin such a journey?” You just get up and walk out.
This is the first meaning of the word, “Kadesh” -- to transcend the mundane world. Then comes the second meaning: Once you’ve set yourself free from your material worries, you can return and sanctify them. That is when true spiritual freedom begins, when you introduce a higher purpose into all those things you do.
Kiddush (the blessing over wine) | kadeish | קַדֵּשׁ
All Jewish celebrations, from holidays to weddings, include wine as a symbol of our joy – not to mention a practical way to increase that joy. The seder starts with wine and then gives us three more opportunities to refill our cup and drink.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen.
We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine.
We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who chose us from all peoples and languages, and sanctified us with commandments, and lovingly gave to us special times for happiness, holidays and this time of celebrating the Holiday of Matzah, the time of liberation, reading our sacred stories, and remembering the Exodus from Egypt. For you chose us and sanctified us among all peoples. And you have given us joyful holidays. We praise God, who sanctifies the people of Israel and the holidays.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-hechiyanu v’key’manu v’higiyanu lazman hazeh.
We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who has kept us alive, raised us up, and brought us to this happy moment.
Drink the first glass of wine!
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Why do we eat cheese at our Passover Seder? Isn't it treyf (not kosher ) to mix milk and meat?
Because cheese is delicious, that's why. And with all this matzah, what else are we supposed to do?
As Jews in 2015/5775 we have the freedom to observe the traditional laws of kashrut as much or as little as we choose. With this cheese plate, we celebrate that freedom and put these giant matzah crackers to good use.
Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech haolam shehakol nihyah bidvaro
[Greens held up for all to see.]
KARPAS - Parsley and celery are symbols of all kinds of spring greenery. The second time, the salt water and the green can help us to remember the ocean and green plants and the Earth, from which we get the water and air and food that enable us to live.
Leader: N'-varekh `et pri ha-`Adamah.
Everyone:
Let us bless the fruit of the Earth.
[Please dip your parsley into salt water two times and eat it.]
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Ha lachma anya d’achaloo avhatana b’ara d’meetzrayeem. Kol dichfeen yay-tay vi’yachool, kol deetzreech yay-tay viyeesfsach. Hashata hach. Li’shana ha-ba-aa bi’arah di’yeesrael. Hashata av’day, li’shana ha-ba a bi’nay choreen.
This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need, come and celebrate Passover. Today, we are here. Next year, in the land of Israel. Today, we are slaves. Next year, we will be free.
Written in Aramaic, this statement begins the narration of the Seder by inviting the hungry to our table. Aramaic, Jewish legend has it, is the one language which the angels do not understand. Why then is Ha Lachma spoken in Aramaic? To teach us that where there is hunger, no one should rely upon the angels, no one should pray to the heavens for help. We know the language of the poor, for we were poor in the land of Egypt. We know that we are called to feed the poor and to call them to join our celebration of freedom.
The Wicked Child
I read the haggadah backwards this year
The sea opens,
the ancient Israelites slide back to Egypt
like Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk
Freedom to slavery
That’s the real story
One minute you’re dancing hallelujah,
shaking your hips to the j-j-jangle of the prophetesses’ tambourines,
the next you’re knee deep in brown muck
in the basement of some minor pyramid
The angel of death comes back to life
two zuzim are refunded.
When armies emerge from the sea like a returning scuba expedition
the Pharoah calls out for the towel boy.
The bread has plenty of time to rise.
I read the hagaddah backwards this year,
left a future Jerusalem,
scrubbed off the bloody doorposts,
wandered back to Aram.
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Five rabbis, living under the Roman oppression in the second century, gather for a Seder and lose track of the time, until reminded by their students that dawn has come. Some scholars suggest that they used this Seder, with its themes of liberation from oppression, to plan a revolution. With their students posted as look-outs to warn of the approach of Roman authorities, the debate raged all night long:
Pacifism or militant revolt? Is there a right time to take up arms against an enemy? Do the ends of revolution justify the means of violence? Is war ever justified? Does Judaism require political freedom, political power to survive? May we step away from the world of politics and practice our spirituality, oblivious to the material conditions of human existence? Or is our spirituality tied intimately to the real lives of our people? Perhaps it was the passion of their teachers in debate, that moved the students to exclaim: Dawn has arrived!
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A story is told of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiba, and Rabbi Tarfon, who were sitting at a Seder in B'nay Brock. All night long, they told the story of the Exodus from Egypt until their students came and said to them: “Our teachers, dawn has broken, it is time to say the morning prayer!”
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“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
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Baruch Ha-Mokum. Baruch Hoo. Baruch Sheh-Natan Torah L'amo Yisrael. Baruch Hoo. Praised is God. Praised is the One who gave Torah to the People Israel. Praised is God.
Key Elements to Include in your Telling of the Passover Story
by Isaac Zones
o Context: Joseph sold to slavery by brothers and heads to Egypt. Interprets Pharoah’s dreams and helps Egypt stock up on food before predicted famine. Joseph rescues rest of family and brings them to Egypt when they are starving. Jews begin living in Egypt.
o Centuries later the new Pharoah fears the power of the many Jews and enslaves them before they can rise up against him. He also orders the death of the first born sons.
o Moses is the first born son in his family. He is sent out in a basket on the Nile river and sister Miriam follows. He is adopted by the Pharoah’s daughter and becomes a “Prince of Egypt.”
o At an older age he fights an Egyptian slave master who is beating a Jewish slave and Moses kills the slave master. He then flees the palace and becomes a shepherd and marries.
o While tending his flock Moses comes across G-d disguised as a burning bush and G-d tells Moses to instruct Pharoah to “let his people go.” Moses brings his brother Aaron because he’s got a stutter and is timid.
o Moses’ plea is denied and G-d sends a plague: turning water to blood. After each plague Moses returns to pharaoh to demand he let his people go. Each time he is denied. G-d sends 10 plagues: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Beasts, Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness and finally the death of the first born son.
o At the sight of his firstborn son’s death, Pharoah instructs Moses to take the Jews away. The Jews had marked their doors with lamb’s blood so that the angel of death would “pass-over” their homes and not kill their first born.
o The Jews fled quickly with only enough time to make matzah instead of bread.
o Pharoah’s army chased them and soon they were stuck when they approached the Red Sea.
o Nachshon entered the water and only when he had gone in past his nose did the sea part and allow the Jews to cross safely. The waters crashed down on the Egyptians when they tried to cross and the army drowned.
o Jews celebrated on the other side with Moses’s sister Miriam leading the way. G-d reminded the Jews not to celebrate the death of the Egyptians – for they were also his children.
o This began a 40 year journey through the desert where they searched for the promised land. Over this time they receive the torah and 10 commandments at Mt. Sinai and learned who they were as a people. No Jew from Egypt lived to see the promised land and the Jews entered the land of milk and honey as a people who had been born free.
As we recite each of the Ten Plagues, we dip out a drop of wine from our wine cup. When human beings suffer, even evil human beings, our joy cannot be complete.
God brought Ten Plagues upon the Egyptians, and they were:
Blood | Dam
Frogs | T'z'fardaya
Lice | Keeneem
Beasts | Arov
Blight | Dever
Boils | Shecheen
Hail | Barad
Locusts | Arbeh
Darkness | Choshech
Death of Firstborn | Makat Bechorot
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When Israel saw the wondrous power which the Lord had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord; they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moses. Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They sang: "I will sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously." Midrash: At that moment, the angels of heaven wanted to sing praises to God. But God silenced Mthem, saying: "My children are drowning in the sea and you want to sing before me?"
Moses confronts Pharaoh. The one represents the power of the moral, the other, a morality of power. Who will prevail? Can raw power extinguish the human spirit? Can the police state control the human imagination? The victory of God over Pharaoh is the foundation of the ultimate Jewish faith in the future. At the Red Sea, history became transparent — its pattern and meaning became visible.
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Sefer Shemot illustrated through LEGOs
We say the blessing over the second glass now.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen.
We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam,
she-hechiyanu v’key’manu v’higiyanu lazman hazeh.
We praise God, Ruler of Everything,
who has kept us alive, raised us up, and brought us to this happy moment.
Drink the second glass of wine
Filling Miriam's Cup follows the second cup of wine; before washing the hands.
Raise the empty goblet and say:
Miriam's Cup is filled with water, rather than wine. I invite women of all generations at our seder table to fill Miriam's Cup with water from their own glasses.
The plagues and our subsequent redemption from Egypt are but one example of the care God has shown for us in our history. Had God but done any one of these kindnesses, it would have been enough – dayeinu.
אִלּוּ הוֹצִיאָֽנוּ מִמִּצְרַֽיִם, דַּיֵּנוּ
Ilu hotzi- hotzianu, Hotzianu mi-mitzrayim Hotzianu mi-mitzrayim, Dayeinu
If God had only taken us out of Egypt, that would have been enough!
אִלּוּ נָתַן לָֽנוּ אֶת־הַתּוֹרָה, דַּיֵּנוּ
Ilu natan natan lanu, natan lanu et ha-Torah, Natan lanu et ha-Torah , Dayeinu
If God had only given us the Torah, that would have been enough.
The complete lyrics to Dayeinu tell the entire story of the Exodus from Egypt as a series of miracles God performed for us. (See the Additional Readings if you want to read or sing them all.)
Dayeinu also reminds us that each of our lives is the cumulative result of many blessings, small and large.
As we transition from the Passover story to the celebratory meal, we again wash our hands to prepare ourselves.
After you have poured the water over your hands, recite this short blessing.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ עַל נְטִילַת יָדָֽיִם
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al n’tilat yadayim.
[We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to wash our hands.]
It was practice of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak each Passover to supervise the bakeries of Berditchev. In addition to the kashrut of the matzot, he was concerned with the working conditions of the women and children employees. One year, observing that they were being exploited, being forced to work from early morning until late at night, he approached the bakery owner. “Our enemies used to cause great consternation among our people,“ he said, “charging that we use non-Jewish blood to bake our matzah. Today, however, God knows and you know as well that this is a foolish lie. But among our many sins, I see that there are Jewish bakers who prepare their matzah with Jewish blood, with the blood of the poor Jewish women and children from whom, unfortunately, they squeeze out the last bit of strength.”
As we eat this matzah, the bread of affliction, we remember the conditions of the unseen workers who help to bring us food. We follow in the example of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and acknowledge that the kashrut of our food also depends on the conditions of the workers who make it for us.
Let us commit ourselves to ending this barbaric economic system of capitalism that continues to enslave workers around the world.
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, Hamotzi lechem min haaretz.
Blessed are you, Spirit of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.
The most devastating effect of slavery, ultimately, is that the slave internalizes the master's values and accepts the condition of slavery as his proper status. People who live in chronic conditions of poverty, hunger, and sickness tend to show similar patterns of acceptance and passivity. As with slaves,their deprivation deprives from their political and economic status and then becomes moral and psychological reality. It is this reality that was overthrown in the Exodus.
—Irving Greenberg
We got used to standing in line at seven o'clock in the morning, at twelve noon, and again at seven o'clock in the evening. We stood in a long queue with a plate in our hand into which they ladled a little warmed-up water with a salty or a coffee flavor. Or else they gave us a few potatoes. We got used to sleeping without a bed, to saluting every uniform, not to walk on the sidewalks, and then again to walk on the sidewalks. We got used to undeserved slaps, blows, and executions. We got accustomed to seeing piled up coffins full of corpses, to seeing the sick amidst dirt and filth, and to seeing the helpless doctors. We got used to the fact that from time to time one thousand unhappy souls would come here, and that from time to time, another thousand unhappy souls would go away.
—Peter Fischel, age 15, perished at Auschwitz, 1944
Korech: Mixing the Bitter and the Sweet
One of my favorite moments of the seder comes just before dinner is served. It is called Korech. It is also known as the Hillel sandwich. It is the moment when we eat maror (the bitter herbs) and the charoset (the sweet apple and nut mixture) on a piece of matzah. What a strange custom to eat something so bitter and something so sweet all in one bite. I can taste it now, just thinking about it, and the anticipation is almost too much to bear. I dread it, and I long for it all at the same time. Why do we do such a thing? We do it to tell our story.
The Jewish people tells our story through our observance of Jewish holidays throughout the year. The holidays of Passover, Chanukah and Purim remind us just how close the Jewish people has come to utter destruction and how we now celebrate our strength and our survival with great joy, remembering God’s help and our persistence, and our own determination to survive.
We also tell the story throughout our lifetime of Jewish rituals. The breaking of a glass at a Jewish wedding reminds us that even in times of life’s greatest joys we remember the sadness of the destruction of the Temple. When we build a home, some Jews leave a part unfinished to remember that even when building something new, we sense the times of tragedy in the Jewish people. And on Passover we mix the sweet charoset with the bitter maror, mixing bitter and sweet of slavery and freedom all in one bite.
Throughout each year and throughout our lifetimes, we challenge ourselves to remember that even in times of strength, it is better to sense our vulnerability, rather than bask in our success. We all have memories of times in which bitter and sweet were mixed in our lives, all in the same bite. Judaism says, sometimes life is like that. We can celebrate and mourn all at the same time. And somehow, everything will be ok. What is your korech moment?
(Adapted from Alida Liberman)
Pour the third cup of wine
The prophet Isaiah said: They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again know war. But they shall sit every one under their vines and fig trees, and none shall make them afraid.
The swords have not yet been put aside, and the time of the plowshare and the pruning hooks is still to come. But the journey has begun. Towards that redemption, let us lift once again our glasses of wine and join in the blessing:
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha'olam boreh p'ri ha-gafen.
[ We praise You, O God, Sovereign of the Universe, Who brings forth the fruit of the vine. ]
Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be...to pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.
-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Freedom. It isn’t once, to walk outunder the Milky Way, feeling the riversof light, the fields of dark—freedom is daily, prose-bound, routineremembering. Putting together, inch by inchthe starry worlds. From all the lost collections.
"For Memory," A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far
Hinei ma tov umanaim
Shevet achim gam yachad
Hinei ma tov umanaim
Shevet achim gam yachad
Behold how good and
How pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together
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On the Impossibility of Passover
by Robert Cohen
‘On Passover we celebrate as if we ourselves have been set free’
On my journey
To the Promised Land
My feet have become entangled
In the roots of upturned trees
Across the Jordan
I see homes turned to rubble
By the strong hand and the outstretched arm
Blocking the path to righteousness
Deliverance is held up at the checkpoint
Freedom chooses hunger
To make its case
And what is there left to celebrate
With timbrels and dancing?
I ask my questions
Eat bitter herbs
And count the plagues that we have sent
Cleansed
Refugeed
Absenteed
Unrecognised
Occupied
Besieged
Walled
Segregated
Sewaged over
Passed over
Grafitti on the Separation Wall in the West Bank. Credit: Robert Cohen
We have melted our inheritance
To cast a new desert idol
And the words from Sinai
Are crushed beneath its hooves
There is no Moses to climb the mountain a third time
Elijah is detained indefinitely
The mission is lost
Freedom is drowned
And the angels gather to weep
It is the first night of the Feast of Freedom
I open the Haggadah
Place olives on the Seder plate
And confront the impossibility of Passover
This year in Mitzrayim
This year in the narrow place
(Adapted from Machar Congregation)
Fill the fourth glass of wine
We now fill a glass, and open the front door, to invite the prophet Elijah to join our seder.
Open the door for Elijah
This tradition symbolizes the hope that Elijah will return to herald the coming of a messiah and a new era of peace. Yet for now the tasks of saving the world must be taken up by us mere mortals, by common people with shared goals. Working together for change, we can bring about the improvement of the world, tiqqun ha-olam - for justice and for peace, we can and we must.
Everyone: L'Tiqqun Olam!
Drink the fourth glass
Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment without rush,
without engines;
we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.
Fisherman in the cold sea would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.
Now I'll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go.
—from Extravagaria (translated by Alastair Reid, pp. 27-29, 1974)
Who Knows One?
1. One is Hashem, one is Hashem, one is Hashem! In the Heaven and the Earth אחד אלוהינו שבשמיים ובארץ
2. Two are the tablets that Moshe brought שני לוחות הברית
3. Three are the Fathers שלושה אבות
4. Four are the Mothers ארבע אימהות
5. Five are the books of the Torah חמישה חומשי תורה
6. Six are the books of the Mishnah שישה סידרי משנה
7. Seven are the days of the week ooh-ah שיבעה ימי שבתא
8. Eight are the days til the Brit Milah שמונה ימי מילה
9. Nine are the months til the baby's born תישעה ירחי לידה
10. Ten are the ten Commandments עשרה דיבריא
11. Eleven are the stars in Joseph's dream אחד עשר כוכביא
12. Twelve are the tribes of Israel שנים עשר שיבטיא
13. Thirteen are the attributes of Hashem שלושה עשר מידיא
Echad mi yode'a
Echad ani yode'a
Echad Elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shnaim mi yode'a
Shnaim ani yode'a
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shlosha mi yode'a,
Shlosha ani yode'a.
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Arba mi yode'a
arba ani yode'a
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Chamisha, mi yode'a
Chamisha, ani yode'a
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shisha, mi yode'a?
Shisha, ani yode'a
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shiv'ah mi yode'a
shiv'ah ani yode'a.
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shmonah mi yode'a
shmonah ani yode'a
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Tish'ah mi yode'a
tish'ah ani yode'a.
tish'ah chodshei leidah
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Asara mi yode'a
asara ani yode'a
asara dibraya
tish'ah chodshei leidah
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Achad asar mi yode'a
achad asar ani yode'a
achad asar kochvaya
asara dibraya
tish'ah chodshei leidah
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shneim-asar mi yode'a
shneim-asar ani yode'a
shneim-asar shivtaya
achad asar kochvaya
asara dibraya
tish'ah chodshei leidah
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.
Shlosha-asar mi yode'a
Shlosha-asar ani yode'a
Shlosha-asar midaya
shneim-asar shivtaya
achad asar kochvaya
asara dibraya
tish'ah chodshei leidah
shmonah yemei milah
shiv'ah yemei shabatah
Shisha, sidre mishna
Chamisha chumshei torah
arba imahot
Shlosha avot,
shnei luchot habrit
echad elokeinu shebashamaim uva'aretz.