While the word seder literally means order, for our family it has another special meaning, it also means memories.  Each year of our lives we have sat at our family's seder table, building a treasure chest  of memories rich with tradition, love, and yiddishkeit, from which we draw each day of our lives.  As children we sat at the table of our parents and as we became parents, we set the table for our children.  \We thank everyone here for joining us tonight and helping us add to the beauty of the memory of all those with whom we have been blessed to share a seder over the years.  In the words of someone most of here remember, "Thanks for the memories" - for being part of them and for helping us to make more of them.  Now, let's get started.

Usually on Pesach one first recites the blessings and then lights the candles without covering one’s eyes.

May these candles, lit on the Festival of Freedom, bring light into our hearts and minds. May they renew our courage to act for justice and freedom here and now. May they illumine the path to truth, justice and peace. And so we repeat the ancient blessing:

 All woman say ….Blessing #1:

Bo-ruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom A-sher Ki-de-sho-nu Be-mitz-vo-sov Ve-tzi-vo-nu Le-had-lik Ner Shel Yom Tov.  

English:Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified us by commanding us to light the holiday candles.                                                                               

Blessing #2:Bo-ruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom She-heche-yo-nu Ve-ki-yi-mo-nu Ve-higi-o-nu Liz-man Ha-zeh  English:Blessed are you, Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive and brought us to this happy moment in our lives.  

 A Traditional Woman’s’ Prayer at Candle Lighting

 May it be Your will, God of our ancestors, that You grant my family and all Israel a good and long life. Remember us with blessings and kindness; fill our home with your Devine Presence. Give me the opportunity to raise my children, grandchildren, unborn grandchildren and grand-dog, to be truly wise, lovers of God, people of truth, who illuminate the world with Torah, good deeds and the work of the Creator. Please hear my prayer at this time. Regard me as a worthy descendant of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, our mothers, and let my candle burn and never be extinguished. Let the light of your face shine upon us. Amen.

Our journey starts. The drama begins. We support one another and share one another’s strengths.

This evening’s adventure will slide in and out of time, pulling together many of the stories of our people—we will leave Egypt following Moses, Miriam and Aaron. We will dine with the Rabbis of ancient Judaea as they experience the Roman occupation. We recall the suffering and creativity of the Jewish communities of Europe in their thousand year settlement there. We will share stories of our own contemporary experiences as Jews living in North America. These are our stories—but not our only teachers. We have much to learn from our guests and neighbors for whom these stories are totally fresh. Whether this is a ritual we have experienced every year since our birth or one that is new to us, we turn to it now for the chance to learn something about oppression and freedom, something about the miracles of the world we live in, and something of our connections to ancient traditions as they can be understood in our own time.

We share our power to bless.

May God bless and guide us. May truth become strong within us, may we speak our words in charity, may we act out of love and justice. We have received a noble heritage from which we draw strength. We encourage the child in us to grow toward mystery and mastery.

Yesimcha Elohim k’Efraim v’chiMenasheh. 

We emulate Ephraim and Menasheh, who carried forward the life of our people.

Yesimech Elohim k’Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, v’Leah.

We emulate Sarah and Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, who carried forward the life of our people.

Yevarechecha Adonai v’yishmerecha Ya’eir Adonai panav eilecha vichuneka Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v’yasem lecha shalom.

May the Source of all caress and protect us. May the energies of the Source of all glow within us and be generous to us. May we feel the Source of all present within us filling us with wholeness. 

קַדֵּשׁ Kiddush (the blessing over wine) | kadeish |

וּרְחַץ Ritual hand-washing in preparation for the seder | urchatz |

כַּרְפַּס Dipping a green vegetable in salt water| karpas |

יַחַץ Breaking the middle matzah | yachatz |

מַגִּיד Telling the story of Passover | magid |

רָחְצָה Ritual hand-washing in preparation for the meal | rachtza |

מוֹצִיא מַצָּה The blessing over the meal and matzah | motzi matzah |

מָרוֹר Dipping the bitter herb in sweet charoset | maror |

כּוֹרֵךְ Eating a sandwich of matzah and bitter herb | koreich |

שֻׁלְחָן עוֹרֵךְ Eating the meal! | shulchan oreich |

צָפוּן Finding and eating the Afikomen | tzafoon |

בָּרֵךְ Saying grace after the meal and inviting Elijah the Prophet | bareich |

הַלֵּל Singing songs that praise God | hallel |

נִרְצָה Ending the seder and thinking about the future | nirtzah |

The following Seder is for a weeknight. (On Shabbat we add the words in parentheses)

(רָיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי. וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכָל צְבָאַָם. וַיְכַל אֱלֹקִים בַּיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אוֹתוֹ כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר בֶָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת.)

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָפֶן.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר בָּחַר בָּנוּ מִכָּל עָם וְרוֹמְמָנוּ מִכָּל לָשׁוֹן וְקִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו. וַתִּתֶּן לָנוּ יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ בְּאַהֲבָה (שַׁבָּתוֹת לִמְנוּחָה וּ) מוֹעֲדִים לְשִׂמְחָה, חַגִּים וּזְמַנִּים לְשָׂשׂוֹן, אֶת יוֹם (הַשַׁבָּת הַזֶה וְאֶת יוֹם) חַג הַמַצוֹת הַזֶה, זְמַן חֵרוּתֵנוּ (בְּאַהֲבָה), מִקְרָא קֹדֶשׁ, זֵכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. כִּי בָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ וְאוֹתָנוּ קִדַּשְׁתָּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, (וְשַׁבָּת) וּמוֹעֲדֵי קָדְשֶךָ (בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן,) בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְשָׂשׂוֹן הִנְחַלְתָּנוּ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי, מְקַדֵּשׁ (הַשַׁבָּת וְ) יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהַזְּמַנִּים.  

On Saturday night include the following section:

(בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא מְאוֹרֵי הָאֵשׁ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמַבְדִיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל, ין אוֹר לְחשֶׁךְ, בֵּין יִשְׂרָאֵל לָעַמִּים, בֵּין יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי לְשֵׁשֶׁת יְמֵי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה. בֵּין קְדֻשַּׁת שַׁבָּת לִקְדֻשַּׁת יוֹם טוֹב הִבְדַּלְתָּ, וְאֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִשֵּׁשֶׁת יְמֵי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה קִדַּשְׁתָּ. הִבְדַּלְתָּ וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ אֶת עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּקְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ. ,בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי הַמַּבְדִיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְקֹדֶשׁ.)

Say this Shehechiyanu blessing the first Seder night only:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶה

Like almost every Jewish holiday and ritual, we begin the Passover Seder by saying a blessing over grape juice, otherwise known as "Kadesh."  While we only recite a blessing over one cup of grape juice at this point in the seder, we actually recite blessings over four cups of grape juice throughout the entire seder.   These four cups represent the four promises made by God to Moses during the Book of Exodus, for God promised Moses and the Israelites that he would (1) Take them out of Egypt, (2) Free them from slavery, (3) Redeem them as a people, and (4) Take them into the land of Israel.   Each time we recite a blessing over grape juice, we are recalling the promises that God made to the Israelites, while our thanking God for giving these special days on the Jewish calendar for us to celebrate.

In the Torah, only the priests of the Temple are commanded to wash, and only before they partake of the sacrificial meal. Today, we have no Temple in Jerusalem, no altar, no priests and no sacrifices. Instead, every home can be a Temple, every table an altar, every meal a sanctified experience, and every Jew a priest. And eating, a mechanical biological function, can be transformed into a ritual filled with meaning. 

Why Wash?

Let your HANDS take the first step, nose ahead, do the talking: 

R' Yitzchak Mirsky, in his  Hegyoni Halachah Haggadahi, writes about the significance of Urechatz--of the additional washing of one's hands before eating vegetables on the night of the Seder. In  Mesachet Sottah  4B it says, "One who takes the Mitzvah of washing one's hands lightly will be removed from the world." The Ba'er Hatav comments that even if one is normally vigilant about washing his hands before eating bread (and the Maateh Yosef says that this also applies to washing before eating vegetables), but disregards this Mitzvah purposely just one time, he is still liable to the punishment set forth in the Gemarah. 

The question arises though as to why the Gemarah stipulates such a strict punishment, even for missing the Mitzvah just once?! 

The Maharal of Prague says that there is deep symbolism involved when one washes his hands for the purpose of a Mitzvah. Hands represent the beginning of the human body, for when one stretches out his hands to reach forward or above, it is the hands that are at the front or at the top of the body. The Maharal explains that that the way one begins an action greatly influences the direction and tone of all that follows from that point, and therefore, even a seemingly insignificant sin, but one involving the "bodily leader," is particularly wrong, for a misguided beginning will lead to an incomplete and incorrect conclusion. On Pesach, the Maharal continues, we should be extremely careful in our observance of this idea, for Pesach is the annual point of beginning for everything that exists, in all times. 

At this time of beginning and renewal, R' Mirsky concludes, it is essential to remind ourselves of the importance of a correct beginning in any action and endeavor we undertake- something which is symbolized by the additional washing of our hands at the Seder.

Passover, like many of our holidays, combines the celebration of an event from our Jewish memory with a recognition of the cycles of nature. As we remember the liberation from Egypt, we also recognize the stirrings of spring and rebirth happening in the world around us. The symbols on our table bring together elements of both kinds of celebration.

We now take a vegetable, representing our joy at the dawning of spring after our long, cold winter. Most families use a green vegetable, such as parsley or celery, but some families from Eastern Europe have a tradition of using a boiled potato since greens were hard to come by at Passover time. Whatever symbol of spring and sustenance we’re using, we now dip it into salt water, a symbol of the tears our ancestors shed as slaves. Before we eat it, we recite a short blessing:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree ha-adama.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who creates the fruits of the earth.

We look forward to spring and the reawakening of flowers and greenery. They haven’t been lost, just buried beneath the snow, getting ready for reappearance just when we most needed them.

-

We all have aspects of ourselves that sometimes get buried under the stresses of our busy lives. What has this winter taught us? What elements of our own lives do we hope to revive this spring?

There are three pieces of matzah stacked on the table. We now break the middle matzah into two pieces. The host should wrap up the larger of the pieces and, at some point between now and the end of dinner, hide it. This piece is called the afikomen, literally “dessert” in Greek. After dinner, the guests will have to hunt for the afikomen in order to wrap up the meal… and win a prize.

We eat matzah in memory of the quick flight of our ancestors from Egypt. As slaves, they had faced many false starts before finally being let go. So when the word of their freedom came, they took whatever dough they had and ran with it before it had the chance to rise, leaving it looking something like matzah.

Uncover and hold up the three pieces of matzah and say:

This is the bread of poverty which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry, come and eat; all who are needy, come and celebrate Passover with us. This year we are here; next year we will be in Israel. This year we are slaves; next year we will be free.

These days, matzah is a special food and we look forward to eating it on Passover. Imagine eating only matzah, or being one of the countless people around the world who don’t have enough to eat.

What does the symbol of matzah say to us about oppression in the world, both people literally enslaved and the many ways in which each of us is held down by forces beyond our control? How does this resonate with events happening now?

A WAY IN Jewish Mindfulness Program

Haggadah Supplement

MATZAH

Bread of Affliction, Bread of Hope and Possibility

Ha lachma anya— This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.

As we go through the seder, the matzah will be transformed. It will cease to be the bread of affliction and it will become the bread of hope, courage, faith and possibility.

And it begins with a breaking.

YACHATZ: Breaking the Matzah

Reader:

Each person is invited to hold a piece of matzah, to mindfully feel its weight, notice its color, its shape and texture.

Resting the matzah on our open palms, we remember that the Passover story teaches that oppression and suffering result from fear and the unwillingness to open one’s heart to the pain and the experiences of others.

It was fear that brought about the enslavement of the Israelites and it was the hardening of the heart that kept the Israelites, the Egyptians and the Pharaoh in bondage. From fear and a hardened heart came violence, anguish and grief.

One person lifts the plate of three matzot. We all take a moment of silence and then call out the beginning of the prayer:

Ha lachma anya – This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.

We return to silence and each raise up a piece of matzah.

We maintain silence while all, at the same time, break our matzot in half.

We listen to the sound of the bread of affliction cracking open.

As we hold the two pieces in our hands we set an intention to break open and soften our hearts:

All:

May our eyes be open to each other’s pain.

May our ears be open to each other’s cries.

May we live with greater awareness.

May we practice greater forgiveness.

And may we go forward as free people—able to respond to ourselves and each other with compassion, wonderment, appreciation and love.

We place the matzah back on the plate and continue the prayer:

Let all who are hungry come and eat.

Let all who are in need join us in this Festival of Liberation.

May each of us, may all of us, find our homes.

May each of us, may all of us, be free.

II. Later in the seder, after we have told the story, we say the blessing over the matzah and prepare to eat it for the first time. We take a moment and acknowledge our capacity for healing and love:

Reader:

Every time we make a decision not to harden our hearts to our own pain or to the pain of others, we step toward freedom.

Every time we are able to act with compassion rather than anger, we stop the flow of violence.

And each moment we find the strength and courage to see ourselves in each other, we open possibilities for healing and peace.

This is the bread that we bless and share.

All:

May all who are hungry come and eat.

May all who are in need join together in this Festival of Freedom.

A WAY IN Jewish Mindfulness Program weaves together Jewish tradition and Mindfulness practice. A 501c(3) charitable organization, A Way In is guided by Rabbi Yael Levy, whose approach to mindfulness grows out of her deep personal commitment to spiritual practice and a passionate believe in its potential to change not only individuals but the world.

For more information on A Way In: www.mishkan.org/a-way-in; www.Facebook.com/jmindfulness. Follow us on Twitter: @awayinms

We take the piece of matzah that rests in the middle of the pile. We hold it up for the rest of the guests to see, and we announce, "This is how God split the Red Sea." We break the matzah in half. The bigger piece we set aside to become the afikoman. The smaller piece is returned to the pile.

Pour the second glass of wine for everyone.

The Haggadah doesn’t tell the story of Passover in a linear fashion. We don’t hear of Moses being found by the daughter of Pharaoh – actually, we don’t hear much of Moses at all. Instead, we get an impressionistic collection of songs, images, and stories of both the Exodus from Egypt and from Passover celebrations through the centuries. Some say that minimizing the role of Moses keeps us focused on the miracles God performed for us. Others insist that we keep the focus on the role that every member of the community has in bringing about positive change.

Each Pesach, the four questions asked by the youngest child are exactly the same. Why do we aks them year after year? Because as we grow and change, our questions take on new meanings, and the answers to them differ. Because as we grow and change, we understand that there is no one right answer. Because as we grow and change, a different one among us may be asking the questions for the first time.

To ask questions is to acknowledge first and foremost that we do not live in isolation, that we need each other. To ask questions is to signal our desire to grow. By admitting what we do not know, we take the first steps toward greater knowledge and learning. To ask questions is to signify our freedom.

Fill the second cup.

The formal telling of the story of Passover is framed as a discussion with lots of questions and answers. The tradition that the youngest person asks the questions reflects the centrality of involving everyone in the seder. The rabbis who created the set format for the seder gave us the Four Questions to help break the ice in case no one had their own questions. Asking questions is a core tradition in Jewish life. If everyone at your seder is around the same age, perhaps the person with the least seder experience can ask them – or everyone can sing them all together.

מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילות

Ma nishtana halaila hazeh mikol haleilot?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכלין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה  הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלּוֹ מצה  

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin chameitz u-matzah. Halaila hazeh kulo matzah.

On all other nights we eat both leavened bread and matzah.
Tonight we only eat matzah.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין שְׁאָר יְרָקוֹת הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה מָרוֹר

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin shi’ar yirakot haleila hazeh maror.

On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables,
but tonight we eat bitter herbs.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אֵין אָֽנוּ מַטְבִּילִין אֲפִילוּ פַּֽעַם אחָת  הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה שְׁתֵּי פְעמים

Shebichol haleilot ain anu matbilin afilu pa-am echat. Halaila hazeh shtei fi-amim.

On all other nights we aren’t expected to dip our vegetables one time.
Tonight we do it twice.

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָֽנוּ אוֹכְלִין בֵּין יוֹשְׁבִין וּבֵין מְסֻבִּין.  :הַלַּֽיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלָּֽנוּ מְסֻבין

Shebichol haleilot anu ochlin bein yoshvin uvein m’subin. Halaila hazeh kulanu m’subin.

On all other nights we eat either sitting normally or reclining.
Tonight we recline.

פֿאַרוואָס איז די נאַכט פֿון פּסח אנדערש פֿון אַלע נעכט פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר?

Farvos iz di nakht fun peysekh andersh fun ale nekht fun a gants yor?

אַלע נעכט פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר עסן מיר חמץ אָדער מצה; אָבער די נאַכט פֿון פּסח, עסן מיר נאָר מצה.

Ale nekht fun a gants yor esn mir khomets oder matse; ober di nakht fun peysekh, esn mir nor matse.

אַלע נעכט פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר עסן מיר אַלערליי גרינסן; אָבער די נאַכט פֿון פּסח, עסן מיר ביטערע גרינסן.

Ale nekht fun a gants yor esn mir alerley grinsn; ober di nakht fun peysekh, esn mir bitere grinsn.

אַלע נעכט פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר טונקען מיר ניט אײַן אַפֿילו איין מאָל ניט; אָבער די נאַכט פֿון פּסח, טונקען מיר אײַן צװײ מאָל.

Ale nekht fun a gants yor tunken mir nit ayn afile eyn mol nit; ober di nakht fun peysekh, tunken mir ayn tsvey mol.

אַלע נעכט פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר עסן מיר סײַ זיצנדיק און סײַ אָנגעלענט; אָבער די נאַכט פֿון פּסח, עסן מיר נאָר אָנגעלענט.

Ale nekht fun a gants yor esn mir say zitsndik un say ongelent; ober di nakht fun peysekh, esn mir nor ongelent.

בְכָל דוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְאִלו הוא יצָא מִמִצְרַָים , שֶנֶאֱמַר: וְהִגַדְתָ לְבִנְךָ בַיוֹם הַהוא לֵאמרֹ, בַעֲבור זֶה עָשָה יי לִי בְצֵאתִי מִמִצְרַים . לֹא אֶת אֲבוֹתֵינו בִלְבָד גָאַל הַקָדוֹש בָרוךְ הוא, אֶלָא אַף אוֹתָנו גָאַל עִמָהֶם, שֶנֶאֱמַר: וְאוֹתָנו הוֹצִיא מִשָם , לְמַעַן הָבִיא אתָֹנו, לָתֶת לָנו אֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶר נִשָבַע לַאֲבתֵֹנו.

In every generation, one must see himself as if he himself had personally come out of Egypt, as it is said: “You should say to your son on that day, ‘It is because of that which God did to me when I left Egypt.’ It is not only our ancestors that the Holy One Blessed Be He redeemed. Rather, he redeemed us too, along with them, as it is said: “He brought us out of there, in order so that he could bring us to and give us the land which He had promised to our ancestors.”

To answer the remaining questions, we invoke Rabban Gamliel who used to say: "All who have not explained the significance of three things during the Pesach seder have not yet fulfilled their duty. The three are: The Pesach lamb, the matza, and the maror." 

We are going to do this actively. (*See directions below*)

Here are the traditional answers to get you started: 

Matza al shum ma - This matza! Why do we eat it?  

To remind ourselves that even before the dough of our ancestors in Egypt had time to rise and become leavened, the King of kings, the Holy one Blessed be G1d, revealed G1dself and redeemed them. The Torah says: "They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had taken out of Egypt, for it was not leavened since they had been driven out of Egypt and coud not delay; nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves." (ex. 12:39)

Maror al shum ma? This Maror! Why do we eat it?

To remind ourselves that the Egyptians embittered our ancestors' lives: "They embittered their lives with hard labor, with mortar and bricks and with field work. Whatever the task, they worked them ruthlessly" (Ex 1:14)

Pesach - Pesach al shum ma? Why do we recall the Passover lamb that our ancestors sacrificed and ate?  

To remind ourselves that G1d passed over our ancestors' houses in Egypt, at this very hour, on this very date. As Moshe instructed "When your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this ceremony?' you shall say: 'It is the Passover offering to G1d, because G1d passed over the houses of Israel in Egypt when G1d struck the Egyptians, but saved our houses...'"(Ex.12:26-27)

Directions for activity: (*5 pieces of flip chart paper are hung up around the room. One says "Matza" one "Maror" one "Pesach" one  "Karpas" one "Haroset". Ask Seder participants what each of those symbols means to them. Write their ideas at the top of each flip chart. For example, for Matza one might say "hurry", for Maror "bitterness". Now give everyone post it notes and ask them to write down the activities they do each day, or in a week, or regularly. When done ask them to put their post it notes on the flip chart that it corresponds to. For example, someone might put "Babysit my granddaughter" under Charoset because it adds sweetness to their lives.*)

רַבָן גַמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר:כָל שֶלֹא אָמַר שְלשָה דְבָרִים אֵלו בַפֶסַח, לֹא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וְאֵלו הֵן: פֶסַח, מַצָה, ומָרוֹר.

Point to the shank bone
פֶסַח שֶהָיו אֲבוֹתֵינו אוֹכְלִים בִזְמַן שֶבֵית הַמִקְדָש הָיָה קַיָם, עַל שום מָה? עַל שום שֶפֶָסַח הַקָדוֹש בָרוךְ הוא עַל בָתֵי אֲבוֹתֵינו בְמִצְרַים , שֶנֶאֱמַר: וַאֲמַרְתֶם זֶבַח פֶסַח הוא לַיי, אֲשֶר פֶָסַח עַל בָתֵי בְני יִשְרָאֵל בְמִצְרַים בְנָגְפוֹ אֶת מִצְרַים , וְאֶת בָתֵינו הִצִיל? וַיִקדֹ הָעָם וַיִשְתַחוו.

Point to the matzah
מַצָה זו שאנו אוֹכְלִים, עַל שום מה? עַל שום שֶלֹא הִסְפִיק בְצֵקָם שֶל אֲבוֹתֵינו לְהַחֲמִיץ עַד שֶנִגְלָה עֲלֵיהֶם מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְלָכִים, הַקָדוֹש בָרוךְ הוא, וגְאָלָם, שֶנֶאֱמַר: וַיאֹפו אֶת הַבָצֵק אֲשֶר הוֹצִיאו מִמִצְרַים עֻגתֹ מַצוֹת, כִי לֹא חָמֵץ,
כִי גרְֹשו מִמִצְרַים וְלֹא יָכְלו לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַ, וְגַם צֵדָה לֹא עָשו לָהֶם.

Point to the marror
מָרוֹר זֶה שֶאָנו אוֹכְלִים, עַל שום מה? עַל שום שֶמֵרְרו הַמִצְרִים אֶת חַיֵי אֲבוֹתֵינו בְמִצְרַים , שֶנֶאֱמַר: וַיְמָרֲרו אֶת חַיֵיהם בַעֲבדָֹה קָשָה, בְחמֶֹר ובִלְבֵנִים ובְכָל עֲבדָֹה בַשָדֶה אֶת כָל עֲבדָֹתָם אֲשֶר עָבְדו בָהֶם בְפָרֶךְ.

In the early 1980s, while speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding 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). Heschel felt that to put bread on the Seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz violates Passover. So, at her next Seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. She offered the orange as a symbol of the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life.  This story evolved to the urban legend that a rabbi said to Heschel that a woman on the bimah is as out of place as an orange on a Seder plate.  In remembrance, some began to place an orange on their Seder plate.  We did as well for a few years.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to create my own Seder plate. Through the clay in my hands I had the awesome power to decide to stay with or break from tradition in a lasting way.  Is there a way to break tradition yet honor it at the same time?  My goal was to maintain the ideals and values that the generations before me held dear and  interpret them in a way that demonstrates their transcendent nature; to clarify that they endure in each generation. 

Martin Buber writes:

Tradition constitutes the noblest  freedom for a generation that lives it meaningfully, but it is the most miserable slavery for habitual inheritors who merely accept it, tenaciously and complacently.

Balancing the desire to honor tradition or institute change  is a dynamic struggle we face on regular basis  particularly at momentous occasions.

You will find on our family plate there is a dish with the Hebrew word Makom meaning place.  Hamakom, literally ‘the place’, is an ancient name for God.  It is meant to represent the ideal that there is a place at our table, a prominent place, for all; that no group should be marginalized as there is a spark of God in each of us. It is an opening, an opportunity for conversation.

We have committed vegetarians in our household; the opportunity to omit a place for meat was  promising.  The mitzvah is to remember the sacrifice, so the Hebrew word Pesach  (offering) is on the dish on which we place the roasted beet in remembrance of the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb. 

The plates sit side by side; the inspiration and the interpretation. 

- Esther Heimberg, Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley

Four times the Torah commands us to tell our children about the Exodus from Egypt and because of this, traditional Haggadot speak of four kinds of sons. The Hebrew word for “children” is the same word as “sons” and either can be used. Our sages teach that perhaps there is really a part of each of the four children in us all.

The wise child questions, “What is the meaning of the laws and observanc- es which the Lord, our God, has commanded you?” In response to this child we explain the observances of the Passover in-depth.

The scornful child questions, “What does this service mean to you?” This child says “to you” and does not feel a part of our observances. By excluding God — and himself, this child would not have been redeemed had he or she been in Egypt. We ask this child to listen closely and become part of our tra- ditions and learn what the Seder means.

The simple child questions, “What is this ceremony about?” We say, “We are remembering a time long ago when we were forced to work as slaves. God made us a free people and we are celebrating our freedom.” We hope by observing the Seder year after year, this child will come to appreciate the mes- sage of the Passover holiday.

The innocent child doesn't think to question. To this child we say, “In the spring of every year we remember how we were brought out of slavery to freedom.”

Some rabbis remind us that there is also a fifth child... the one who is not at this table. This is the person who should be with us, but is not... and we mark his absence.

Judaism is all about asking questions!” Jews are a people who love questions, who are characterized by questions, who “answer a question with a question.” Or so we tell ourselves.

At Passover we encounter this line of thinking a lot. The Haggadah’s Four Questions, its question-and-answer of the Four Sons, the Talmud’s instruction that if one is having a seder alone, one must still ask oneself, What makes this night different? – all of these elaborate on the basic theme of Judaism’s love of questions. In his outstanding Haggadah, Rabbi Mishael Zion quotes Rabbi Steven Greenberg, who puts the sentiment beautifully: “Autocrats hate questions. We train children at the Passover Seder to ask why, because tyrants are undone and liberty is won with a good question. It is for this reason that God loves it when we ask why.”

But the Jewish People has no monopoly on questions. The most famous questioner in history was Socrates. The great philosophers, artists, writers, and political leaders who have asked powerful questions are, by and large, not Jews. Yes, Talmudic reasoning is animated by question-and-answer, but so are most quality intellectual traditions. So to say that asking questions is an inherently Jewish activity isn’t true. Jews may revel in questions more than some others, but the act of questioning belongs to all human beings.

Nevertheless, there is no disputing that the Seder is a night of questions. It is a night for discovery of the new. But it is also a night for rediscovery of what we already know. Questions become gateways to new reading, to new understanding, to “modes whereby to discover, interminably, new relationships or subtle correspondences, beauty kept secret or hidden intentions,” in the words of French philosopher (and Jew) Vladimir Jankelevitch. The questions of the Seder express the rebirth and renewal of the spring, the Jewish people’s season of redemption.

But not all questions lead to this kind of experience. There are different types of questions, and there are different ways to use questions. Questions can lead to connection and learning, but they can also lead to disconnection and disintegration. Questions can be used to build up, but they can also be used to destroy. All questions are not created equal.

Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, one of the great Torah scholars of the twentieth century, elaborated on this theme in explaining the answer prescribed for the Wicked Son in the Haggadah. The Haggadah reads:

The Wicked Son, what does he ask? ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ To you, and not to him. By thus excluding himself from the community he has denied that which is fundamental. You, therefore, blunt his teeth and say to him: ‘It is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt’; for me, but not for him. If he had been there, he would not have been redeemed.

Among the striking elements of this passage is the fact that in the previous paragraph, the Haggadah tells us that the Wise Son also asks a question in the second person: “What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the Lord our God has commanded you?” Like the Wicked Son, the Wise Son refers to “you,” and not to “us.” So why does the Haggadah come down so hard on the Wicked Son?

Rav Hutner comments that the issue here is the Wicked Son’s stance in asking his question. “The Wicked Son does not contribute to fulfilling the commandment to discuss the Exodus through question-and-answer,” he writes in his work, the Pachad Yizchak. “Only a question genuinely asked as a question contributes to fulfillment of the commandment.” The spirit, the tone, the emotion behind, surrounding, and within a question, matters just as much as the words of the question itself.

This is one of the most important insights of the Seder into the dynamic of questions: Questions don’t exist independent of a questioner. A question must be asked in order to exist. And thus a question implies a relationship, a stance of the questioner to the one to whom the question is asked. Yes, as Steven Greenberg reminds us, questions can be sources of instability, harbingers of revolution. But questions, when asked genuinely and coupled with real listening, are also seed-bearers of conversation and mutual understanding, of empathy and community.

The Wicked Son is the person who uses his question as a weapon, who is not interested in listening. He is there to remind us, through a negative example, of the amazing potential of questions.

The Seder is a night of questions. But more than this, the Seder is a night of questions and stories. It is a night of renewing relationships—to one another, to ourselves, to our tradition, to God. The Seder calls us to ask our questions with generosity. It demands of us to take our questions seriously, not only as an intellectual or rhetorical exercise, but with our whole self.

So when we say that the Jewish people are a people of questions, and that Passover is a holiday of questions and questioning, let’s delve a little deeper into what we mean. The great questions—the Big Questions—of Jewish tradition are ones that invite us into an eternal conversation. They are questions asked by everyone in every generation, questions that matter to everyone and that everyone can and must answer. In asking those questions, in having those conversations, we renew our lives and our commitments. That is what we aim for in the questions of the Seder.

(to the tune of "Clementine")

Said the father to his children, "At the seder you will dine,

You will eat your fill of matza, you will drink four cups of wine."

Now this father had no daughters, but his sons they numbered four.

One was wise and one was wicked, one was simple and a bore.

And the fourth was sweet and winsome, he was young and he was small.

While his brothers asked the questions he could scarcely speak at all.

Said the wise one to his father, "Would you please explain the laws?

Of the customs of the seder, will you please explain the cause?"

And the father proudly answered, "As our fathers ate in speed,

Ate the paschal lamb 'ere midnight, and from slavery were freed."

So we follow their example, and 'ere midnight must complete

All the seder and we should not, after 12 remain to eat.

Then did sneer the son so wicked, "What does all this mean to you?"

And the father's voice was bitter, as his grief and anger grew.

"If you yourself don't consider, a son of Israel,

Then for you this has no meaning, you could be a slave as well."

Then the simple son said simply, "What is this," and quietly

The good father told his offspring, "We were freed from slavery."

But the youngest son was silent, for he could not ask at all.

His bright eyes were bright with wonder as his father told him all.

My dear children, heed the lesson and remember ever more

What the father told his children told his sons that numbered four.

Our story starts in ancient times, with Abraham, the first person to have the idea that maybe all those little statues his contemporaries worshiped as gods were just statues. The idea of one God, invisible and all-powerful, inspired him to leave his family and begin a new people in Canaan, the land that would one day bear his grandson Jacob’s adopted name, Israel.

God had made a promise to Abraham that his family would become a great nation, but this promise came with a frightening vision of the troubles along the way: “Your descendants will dwell for a time in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years; however, I will punish the nation that enslaved them, and afterwards they shall leave with great wealth."

Raise the glass of wine and say:

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְלָֽנוּ

V’hi she-amda l’avoteinu v’lanu.

This promise has sustained our ancestors and us.

For not only one enemy has risen against us to annihilate us, but in every generation there are those who rise against us. But God saves us from those who seek to harm us.

The glass of wine is put down.

In the years our ancestors lived in Egypt, our numbers grew, and soon the family of Jacob became the People of Israel. Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt grew alarmed by this great nation growing within their borders, so they enslaved us. We were forced to perform hard labor, perhaps even building pyramids. The Egyptians feared that even as slaves, the Israelites might grow strong and rebel. So Pharaoh decreed that Israelite baby boys should be drowned, to prevent the Israelites from overthrowing those who had enslaved them.

But God heard the cries of the Israelites. And God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with great awe, miraculous signs and wonders. God brought us out not by angel or messenger, but through God’s own intervention. 

Scene 1:  In the Desert  Moses is galloping (skipping on foot while clopping coconuts together to sound like hoofbeats) across the desert. He comes to a burning bush.

Bush: Halt! Who goes there!

Moses: A shrubbery! A talking shrubbery! One that looks nice, but is not too expensive. It is a good shrubbery. I like the laurels particularly.

Bush: Moses! Moses, Leader of the Israelites! 

(Moses looks stunned, drops to his knees in awe and bows his head to the ground in front of the burning bush.)

Bush:  Oh, don't grovel! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people groveling.

Moses: Sorry-- 

Bush: And don't apologize. Every time I try to talk to someone, it's "sorry this" and "forgive me that" and "I'm not worthy". What are you doing now!?

Moses: I'm averting my eyes, oh Lord.

Bush: Well, don't. It's like those miserable Psalms -- they're so depressing. Now knock it off.

Moses: Yes, Lord.

Bush: Right! Moses, leader of the Israelites your people shall have a task to make them an example in these dark times.

Moses: Good idea, Lord!

Bush: Of course it's a good idea! Behold! This is your task to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.

Moses: A blessing! But are you sure I shouldn't deliver a pizza instead

Scene 2: In Egypt

Moses: I never wanted to do this job of deliverance in the first place. At least delivering pizzas pays good tips!  I wanted to be a lumberjack, even though its a bit hard doing that in the desert. 

(Israelites sing)    Oh, we're Egyptian slaves. It's not OK.    We work all night and we work all day.    We quarry blocks and make mud bricks    And want to run away!

Scene 3: Asking Pharaoh to leave

Moses approaches Pharaoh and his advisors to ask for permission for the Israelites to leave Egypt. 

Pharaoh and his advisors say, "Ni! We are the keepers of the sacred words: Ni, Ping, and Neeee-wommmm!  We want a shrubbery!!!" 

Moses says, "I already found a shrubbery in the desert. It told me it was God, and told me to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt." 

When Pharaoh asks for proof that Moses speaks for God, he shows Pharaoh the holy hand grenade and Aaron pulls the holy pin, making mincemeat of half the advisors.

Scene 4: The Ten Plagues

Killer rabbits. 

Dead parrots. 

The Spanish Inquisition.  

Silly walks. 

1000-ton weights. 

Plague six. There IS no plague six! 

Crunchy frogs. 

Spam. 

Giant badgers. 

The killing of the first born. 

The morning after the final plague, the Egyptian garbage collectors roam the streets calling, "Bring out your dead!"  People bring corpses of plague victims to the dead cart.  

When they start to pick up one body, one of the collectors says, "Wait a bit.  He's not dead.  He's just resting." A lightning bolt comes out of the sky, hitting the body and killing it.  The collectors smile and heave it onto the cart. 

Scene 5: The Exodus

Aaron (addressing the assembled Israelite multitude): We need to sneak out of Egypt quickly without Pharaoh's army noticing. In this demonstration, we hope to show how to leave Egypt without being seen. This is Miriam of the Tribe of Levi. She can not be seen. Now I am going to ask her to stand up. Sister Miriam, will you stand up please?  

In the distance Miriam stands up. There is a clap of thunder and Miriam crumples to the ground.

Aaron: This demonstrates the value of not being seen

Stop! This is getting too silly!

Scene 6: Arriving at the Red Sea.

The Red Sea guard challenges the fleeing Israelites as they arrive, saying, "None shall pass." 

Guard: What is your name?

Moses: Moses.

Guard: What is your quest?

Moses: To reach the Promised Land.

Guard: What are your favorite colors?

Moses: Blue and white.

Guard: You may pass.

The Israelites pass through the Red Sea.  Now Pharaoh's army approaches, led by Rameses.

   Guard:     What is your name?    Rameses: Rameses, Pharaoh of Egypt    Guard:     What is your quest?    Rameses: To bring back the fleeing Israelite slaves.

Guard:     What is the capital of modern-day Abyssinia

Rameses: I don't know that.

The guard unleashes a flood of water onto Rameses and the army, drowning them all. 

Rameses:  Auuugh!

Aaron watches awestruck, then asks Moses how he was able to answer the questions so well. Moses says, "You have to know these sorts of things when youre a leader of the Israelites, you know."

Narrator:  Forty years later, after wandering around in the desert searching for the Holy Grail, Moses and Joshua stumble across a dragon ship and sail across the river Jordan to swelling music, but just as everything looks like there will be a happy ending ....

Moses: No afikomen here. Let's head back.

And now for something completely different.

Scene 7: The seder plate

To help us remember the story of the first Passover, we have assembled various symbolic foods on a Seder plate. There's egg and spam; shankbone and spam; greens and spam, bitter herbs and spam, charoses and spam, and spam, and spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam matzoh and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam... Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! 

But I can't eat spam, it's not kosher! 

I'll eat yours, dear. I'm Reform

Scene 8: The Four Questions

Setting:  A dusty street in an small Egyptian city.  Moses:  It's time to ask the five questions.   Aaron:  Four, sir!  It's FOUR questions. Moses:  Right.  Thou shalt ask four. No more. No less. Four shall be the number thou shalt ask, and the number of the asking shall be four. Five shalt thou not ask, nor either ask thou three, excepting that thou then proceed to four.

Enter King Arthur and the Black Knight.   King Arthur fights the Black Knight. First King Arthur cuts off the Black Knight's right arm, but he keeps on fighting. Then Arthur cuts off the Black Knight's left arm, followed by his right leg, and then finally cuts off his left leg. The Black Knight keeps fighting. King Arthur turns toward the camera with a puzzled look and asks, "Why is this knight different from all other knights?"  

Pause.  Let the audience groan.  Then continue.  Yes, we know that's only one question, but who's counting?  

Scene 9:  Dinner

It's time to eat dinner before finishing the rest of the Haggadah.  While eating dinner, make sure to defend yourself against the possibility that the person to your right will attack you with a banana.  

Scene 10:  The Afikomen

The children are sent out of the room to find the Afikomen.  They return, shouting:

Children:  An afikomen! An afikomen! An afikomen! We've got an afikomen!: We have found an afikomen, may we eat it? 

Father:     Eat it! Eat! 

Mother:    How do you know it is an afikomen?

Children:  It looks like one. It has warts on it.  And it turned me into a newt!

Scene 11: Elijah's Cup

Well, it's just after eight o'clock, and time for to open the door for Elijah's penguin. (Participant opens the door and in comes a penguin. The penguin explodes.

Scene 12:  Conclusion Narrator:  We conclude tonight's program with the question, 'Is there life after death?'. And here to discuss this question are three dead people.  The late Pharaoh Ramses, former ruler of the kingdom of Egypt, circa 1400 BCE; the late Moshe ben Amram, tribal spokesperson and record holder for longest road trip across the wilderness; and putting forward the view of the Powers that Be, the prophet Elijah the Gileadite. Gentlemen, is there life after death or not? (Prolonged silence)

Well there we have it!  Three say "No". On next week's program we'll be discussing the question 'Does the state of France have a right to exist?. And until then, goodnight. 

THE END

As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom was hard-earned. We regret that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human beings made in the image of God. We pour out a drop of wine for each of the plagues as we recite them.

Dip a finger or a spoon into your wine glass for a drop for each plague.

These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians:

Blood | dam | דָּם

Frogs | tzfardeiya |  צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ

Lice | kinim | כִּנִּים

Beasts | arov | עָרוֹב

Cattle disease | dever | דֶּֽבֶר

Boils | sh’chin | שְׁחִין

Hail | barad | בָּרָד

Locusts | arbeh | אַרְבֶּה

Darkness | choshech | חֹֽשֶׁךְ

Death of the Firstborn | makat b’chorot | מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת

The Egyptians needed ten plagues because after each one they were able to come up with excuses and explanations rather than change their behavior. Could we be making the same mistakes? Make up your own list. What are the plagues in your life? What are the plagues in our world today? What behaviors do we need to change to fix them? 

Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: How does one derive that, after the ten plagues in Egypt, the Egyptians suffered fifty plagues at the Sea? Concerning the plagues in Egypt the Torah states that “the magicians said to Pharaoh, it is the finger of God.” However, at the Sea, the Torah relates that “Israel saw the great hand which the Lord laid upon the Egyptians, and the people revered the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.” It reasons that if they suffered ten plagues in Egypt, they must have been made to suffer fifty plagues at the Sea.

Rabbi Eliezer says: How does one derive that every plague that God inflicted upon the Egyptians in Egypt was equal in intensity to four plagues? It is written: “He sent upon them his fierce anger, wrath, fury and trouble, a band of evil messengers.” Since each plague was comprised of 1) wrath, 2) fury, 3) trouble and 4) a band of evil messengers, they must have suffered forty plagues in Egypt and two hundred at the Sea.

Rabbi Akiva says: How does one derive that every plague that God inflicted upon the Egyptians in Egypt was equal in intensity to five plagues? It is written: “He sent upon them his fierce anger, wrath, fury and trouble, a band of evil messengers.” Since each plague was comprised of 1) fierce anger 2) wrath 3) fury 4) trouble and 5) a band of evil messengers, they must have suffered fifty plagues in Egypt and two hundred and fifty at the Sea.

And the women dancing with their timbrels followed Miriam as she sang her song.

Sing a song to the One whom we’ve exalted, Miriam and the women danced and danced the whole night long.

And Miriam was a weaver of unique variety, the tapestry she wove was one which sang our history, with every strand and every thread she crafted her delight,

A woman touched with spirit she dances toward the light.

Chorus

And Miriam the prophet took her timbrel in her hand, And all the women followed her just as she had planned, And Miriam raised her voice in song She sang with praise and might, We’ve just lived through a miracle, we’re going to dance tonight.

When Miriam stood upon the shores and gazed across the sea,

the wonder of this miracle she soon came to believe,

whoever thought the sea would part with an outstretched hand,

and we would pass to freedom and march to the Promised Land.

Chorus

And Miriam the prophet took her timbrel in her hand, And all the women followed her just as she had planned, And Miriam raised her voice in song She sang with praise and might, We’ve just lived through a miracle, we’re going to dance tonight.

Cover the matzah and raise the cup of wine until it is drunk at the end of maggid

לְפִיכָךְ אֲנַחְנו חַיָבִים לְהוֹדוֹת, לְהַלֵל, לְשַבֵחַ, לְפָאֵר, לְרוֹמֵם, לְהַדֵר, לְבָרֵךְ, לְעַלֵה ולְקַלֵס לְמִי שֶעָשָה לַאֲבוֹתֵינו וְלָנו אֶת כָל הַנִסִים הָאֵלו: הוֹצִיאָנו מֵעַבְדות לְחֵרות מִיָגוֹן לְשִמְחָה, ומֵאֵבֶל לְיוֹם טוֹב, ומֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹר גָדוֹל, ומִשִעְבוד לִגְאֻלָה. וְנאֹמַר לְפָנָיו שִירָה חֲדָשָה: הַלְלויָה.

הַלְלויָה הַלְלו עַבְדֵי יי, הַלְלו אֶת שֵם יי. יְהִי שֵם יי מְברָֹךְ מֵעַתָה ועְִַד עוֹלָם. מִמִזְרַח שֶמֶש עַד מְבוֹאוֹ מְהֻלָל שֵם יי. רָם עַל כָל גוֹיִם יי, עַל הַשָמַיִם כְבוֹדוֹ. מִי כַיי אֱלֹהֵינו הַמַגְבִיהִי לָשָבֶת, הַמַשְפִילִי לִרְאוֹת בַשָמַיִם ובָאָרֶץ? מְקִימִי מֵעָפָר דָל, מֵאַשְפתֹ יָרִים אֶבְיוֹן, לְהוֹשִיבִי עִם נְדִיבִים, עִם נְדִיבֵי עַמוֹ. מוֹשִיבִי עֲקֶרֶת הַבַיִת, אֵם הַבָנִים שִמְחָה. הַלְלויָה.

בְצֵאת יִשְרָאֵל מִמִמִרַָים , בֵית יַעֲקבֹ מֵעַם לֹעֵז, הָיְתָה יְהודָה לְקָדְשוֹ, יִשְרָאֵל מַמְשְלוֹתָיו. הַיָם רָאָה וַיַָנסֹ, הַיַרְדֵן יִסבֹ לְאָחוֹר. הֶהָרִים רָקְדו כְאֵילִים, גְבַָעוֹת - כִבְנֵי צאֹן. מַה לְךָ הַיָם כִי תָנוס, הַיַרְדֵן - תִסבֹ לְאָחוֹר, הֶהָרִים - תִרְקְדו כְאֵילִים, גְבַָעוֹת - כִבְנֵי צאֹן. מִלְפְנֵי אָדוֹן חולִי אָרֶץ, מִלְפְנֵי אֱלוֹהַ יַעֲקבֹ. הַהפְֹכִי הַצור אֲגַם מָיִם, חַלָמִיש - לְמַעְיְנוֹ מָיִם.

Raise the cup of wine until it is drunk at the end of Magid.

Therefore it is our duty to thank and praise, pay tribute and glorify, exalt and honor, bless and acclaim the One who performed all these miracles for our fathers and for us. He took us out of slavery into freedom, out of grief into joy, out of mourning into a festival, out of darkness into a great light, out of slavery into redemption. We will recite a new song before Him! Halleluyah

Praise the Lord! Praise, you servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the Lord’s name is to be praised. High above all nations is the Lord; above the heavens is His glory. Who is like the Lord our God, who though enthroned on high, looks down upon heaven and earth? He raises the poor man out of the dust and lifts the needy one out of the trash heap, to seat them with nobles, with the nobles of His people. He turns the barren wife into a happy mother of children. Halleluyah!

When Israel went out of Egypt, When the household of Jacob left a people with a strange tongue, Judah became the place from which God’s holiness went forth, Israel became the seat from which the world would know of Gods rule. The sea looked and fled, The Jordan reversed its curse. Mountains skipped like rams and the hills jumped about like young lambs. What is happening that you turn back, O sea, Jordan, why do you reverse your course? Mountains, why do you skip like rams And hills why do you jump like lambs? You are beholding the face of your Creator, Before God, before the God of Jacob, Turning rocks into swirling waters and stone into a flowing spring.

Psalms Chapter 114 תְּהִלִּים

We raise our cups as we recall the second promise of liberation to the people of Israel. Let us glorify God who performed these miracles for our ancestors and for us. Let us rejoice at the wonder of our deliverance from bondage to freedom, from servitude to redemption. Hallelujah. We praise God who has delivered us and our ancestors from Egypt and brought us here this night to eat matzoh and maror. Our God and God of our ancestors, help us celebrate future holidays and festivals in peace and in joy.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen.

Praised be thou, O Lord Our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine!

All drink the entire second cup of wine

As we now transition from the formal telling of the Passover story to the celebratory meal, we once again wash our hands to prepare ourselves. In Judaism, a good meal together with friends and family is itself a sacred act, so we prepare for it just as we prepared for our holiday ritual, recalling the way ancient priests once prepared for service in the Temple.

Some people distinguish between washing to prepare for prayer and washing to prepare for food by changing the way they pour water on their hands. For washing before food, pour water three times on your right hand and then three times on your left hand.

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.

The blessing over the meal and matzah | motzi matzah | מוֹצִיא מַצָּה

The familiar hamotzi blessing marks the formal start of the meal. Because we are using matzah instead of bread, we add a blessing celebrating this mitzvah.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא לֶֽחֶם מִן הָאָֽרֶץ

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who brings bread from the land.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתַָיו וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מַצָּה

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al achilat matzah.

We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who made us holy through obligations, commanding us to eat matzah.

Distribute and eat the top and middle matzah for everyone to eat.

The next step of the Seder is to fulfill the mitzvah of eating bitter herbs (usually fresh ground horseradish or romaine lettuce). Maror is symbolic of the bitterness of slavery. We do not, however, eat the maror alone, but temper it with a small amount of
charoset*. Some people have the custom of dipping the maror into charoset and then shaking off the charoset. (*A tasty mixture of chopped walnuts, wine, cinnamon and apples that represents the mortar the Jewish slaves used to build Pharaoh’s cities--recipes may vary by community).

Everyone takes some maror and dips it in the charoset. All then recite the following blessing, after which everyone should immediately eat their maror without leaning to the left.

Ba’ruch Ah’tah Ah’doh’nai Eh’lo’hay’nu Melech ha’o’lam ah’sher kidishanu b’mitz’vo’tav v’tzee’vanu al ah’chee’laht ma’ror.
Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us in His commandments and commanded us to eat bitter herbs.

***POINTS TO PONDER***

How Much Maror?
In order to fulfill the commandment of eating maror, the rabbis determined that one must eat a k’zayit (“like an olive”) of maror. Depending on what one chooses to use for maror, this measurement translates into:
--For those eating grated horseradish: a little more than one ounce.
--For those eating romaine lettuce leaves: enough leaves to cover an area roughly the size of a sheet of paper.
--For those eating stalks of lettuce: an amount comparable to an area equal to a 3x5 photograph.

Bitter-Sweet Slavery

One may look at this mixture of the bitter herbs (a reminder of slavery) with the sweet charoset as symbolic of the fact that not all that one considers bitter lacks sweetness, and vice-versa. It was only through the bitterness of slavery that the
Jews were able to recognize and accept the freedom inherent in the Torah and to unite into one nation.

Your Thoughts

As you eat the maror , reflect on what significance maror has to you:

Eating a sandwich of matzah and bitter herb | koreich | כּוֹרֵךְ

When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the biggest ritual of them all was eating the lamb offered as the pesach or Passover sacrifice. The great sage Hillel would put the meat in a sandwich made of matzah, along with some of the bitter herbs. While we do not make sacrifices any more – and, in fact, some Jews have a custom of purposely avoiding lamb during the seder so that it is not mistaken as a sacrifice – we honor this custom by eating a sandwich of the remaining matzah and bitter herbs. Some people will also include charoset in the sandwich to remind us that God’s kindness helped relieve the bitterness of slavery.

Why did Hillel advise eating the meat of the Paschal Lamb in this way?

The Torah commands us that on the afternoon before the Pesach holiday, we should roast a goat or lamb kid over a flame and then consume the meat together with the Matzah and the bitter herbs later that night at the holiday meal.

Now each of these foods has its own significance. But it is implied by the wording of the Torah verse that we should eat them all together. The verse reads, “ al Matzot u’merorim yochluhu, ” literally, “you shall eat it [the meat of the Paschal Lamb]  upon  matzot and bitter herbs.” Wishing to be in full compliance with the instructions of the verse, Hillel popularized the custom of actually placing the sacrificial meat on top of the maror and matzah and eating them all together. In fact, according to Hillel, one would not have fulfilled his Paschal obligations unless he consumed the three together.

Now, for the past two thousand years when we have not had a Temple and have been unable to perform the sacrificial rites, we cannot fulfill the Mitzvah of eating the Pesach sacrifice at our Seder. We do however have the ability to do the mitzvah of eating matzah, which is a separate commandment by itself. And although eating maror is really part of the Biblical commandment of eating the sacrificial meat and not a mitzvah of its own – the Sages enacted a rabbinical commandment that we continue to eat the maror as a remembrance of the Biblical command which we cannot observe today.

While the English Earl of Sandwich is generally credited for inventing the snack of his namesake, Hillel may have originated it two thousand years ago by combining matzah, a slice of paschal lamb, and a bitter herb. Jews no longer sacrifice and eat the lamb, so the Passover sandwich is only matzah, charoset, and a bitter herb now.

Each person receives some bitter herbs and ḥaroses, which they place between two pieces of matzo.

All say in unison: “Kein ah-saw Hillel” and eat the sandwich reclining.

Charoset is a smooth mixture of various chopped fruits including apples, and nuts, as well as wine and spices. It represents the mixture of clay and straw from which we made the mortar during our bondage. It also calls to mind the women of Israel who bore their children in secret beneath the apple trees of Egypt,  and, like the apple tree that first produces fruit and then sprouts leaves to protect the fruit, our heroic mothers first bore children without any assurance of security or safety. This beautiful and militant devotion sweetened the misery of slavery, even as we dip our bitter herbs in Charoset. The pattern of our celebration is the mixture of the bitter and the sweet, sadness and joy, of tales of shame that end in praise.

It once happened that Rabbis Eliezer, Joshua, Elazar ben Azaryah, Akiva and Tarfon were reclining at the seder table in Bnei Brak. They spent the whole night discussing the Exodus until their students came and said to them: “Rabbis, it is time for us to recite the morning Shema.”

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: I am like a seventy-year old man and I have not succeeded in understanding why the Exodus from Egypt should be mentioned at night, until Ben Zoma explained it by quoting: “In order that you may remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life.” The Torah adds the world all to the phrase the days of your life to indicate that the nights are meant as well. The sages declare that “the days of your life” means the present world and “all” includes the messianic era.

The meal is now served. It is customary to start with hard-boiled eggs in or with salt water, various explanations have been made for this custom such as, the roundness of the egg symbolizes life, The salt water has also been connected to the Reed Sea over which we passed on our way out of Egypt to the Promised Land so indirectly reminding us of the Song of the Sea as mentioned earlier.. It has also been compared to the tears shed during our long and difficult Exile.

Hard-boiled eggs are also eaten as a sign of mourning. The first day of Pesach is the same day of the week as is Tisha b'Av (the Ninth of Av), the day of the destruction of both Temples, which we commemorate by a 25 hour fast. We thus connect life and the time of our redemption from Egypt to the day of mourning for the Temple and exile from our Land to the redemption and return to Eretz Yisrael, thus coming a full circle as is the egg. Together with the piece of roasted meat on the Seder dish we also place a roasted egg as a symbol of the Chagiga offering which was brought on every festival, the egg that we eat is perhaps a reminder of that. This roasted egg may now be eaten. If not eaten now it should be eaten at some time and not thrown away as it symbolizes the special festival offering.

OM NOM NOM.

Toward the end of the meal, the children look for the afikoman, which has been hidden. Since neither the meal nor the Seder can be concluded before everyone has eaten a piece of it, whoever finds the afikoman is given a reward. Nothing is eaten after the afikoman, so that the matzoh may be the last food tasted. This custom of hiding the afikoman is not found in early Haggadot and was probably added as a device to keep up the interest of young children who might otherwise become bored with the ceremony.

In Temple times the Passover sacrifice was eaten at the end of the meal, when everyone was full. In remembrance of this, we each partake of the afikoman as the very last food to be eaten at our Seder.

Eat the afikoman

שִיר הַמַעֲלוֹת, בְשוב יְיָ אֶת שִיבַת צִיוֹן, הָיִינו כְחלְֹמִים. אָז יִמָלֵא שְחוֹק פִינו ולְשוֹנֵנו רִנָה, אָז יאֹמְרו בַגוֹיִם, הִגְדִיל יְיָ לַעֲשוֹת עִם אֵלֶה. הִגְדִיל יְיָ לַעֲשוֹת עִמָנו, הָיִינו שְמֵחִים. שובָה יְיָ אֶת שְבִיתֵנו, כַאֲפִיקִים בַנֶגֶב. הַזרְֹעִים בְדִמְעָה
בְרִנָה יִקְצרֹו. הָלוֹךְ יֵלֵךְ ובָכהֹ נשֵֹא מֶשֶךְ הַזָרַע, באֹ יָבאֹ בְרִנָה נשֵֹא אֲלֻמתָֹיו
תְהִלַת יְיָ יְדַבֶר פִי, וִיבָרֵךְ כָל בָשָר שֵם קָדְשוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. וַאֲנַחְנו נְבָרֵךְ יָה מֵעַתָה וְעַד עוֹלָם הַלְלויָה. הוֹדו לַייָ כִי טוֹב כִי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדוֹ. מִי יְמַלֵל גְבורוֹת יְיָ
יַשְמִיעַ כָל תְהִלָתוֹ.

Include parenthesis when there is a minyan present

Leader

רַבוֹתַי נְבָרֵךְ.

Participants

יְהִי שֵם יְיָ מְברָֹךְ מֵעַתָה וְעַד עוֹלָם.

Leader

יְהִי שֵם יְיָ מְברָֹךְ מֵעַתָה וְעַד עוֹלָם. בִרְשות מָרָנָן וְרַבָנָן וְרַבוֹתַי נְבָרֵך (אֱלֹהֵינו) שֶאָכַלְנו מִשֶלוֹ.

Participants

בָרוךְ (אֱלֹהֵינו) שֶאָכַלְנו מִשֶלוֹ ובְטובוֹ חָיִינו.

Leader

בָרוךְ )אֱלֹהֵינו( שֶאָכַלְנו מִשֶלוֹ ובְטובוֹ חָיִינו.

All together

בָרוךְ הוא ובָרוך שְמוֹ.

בָרוךְ אַתָה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינו מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַזָן אֶת הָעוֹלָם כֻלוֹ בְטובוֹ בְחֵן בְחֶסֶד ובְרַחֲמִים הוא נוֹתֵן לֶחֶם לְכָל בָשָר, כִי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדוֹ. ובְטובוֹ הַגָדוֹל תָמִיד לֹא חָסַר לָנו וְאַל יֶחְסַר לָנו מָזוֹן לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. בַעֲבור שְמוֹ הַגָדוֹל כִי הוא אֵל זָן ומְפַרְנֵס לַכלֹ ומֵטִיב לַכלֹ ומֵכִין מָזוֹן לְכָל בְרִיוֹתָיו אֲשֶר בָרָא. בָרוךְ אַתָה יְיָ, הַזָן אֶת הַכלֹ.
נוֹדֶה לְךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו עַל שֶהִנְחַלְתָ לַאֲבוֹתֵינו אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָה טוֹבָה ורְחָבָה, וְעַל שֶהוֹצֵאתָנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם ופְדִיתָנו מִבֵית עֲבָדִים, וְעַל בְרִיתְךָ שֶחָתַמְתָ בִבְשָרֵנו, וְעַל תוֹרָתְךָ שֶלִמַדְתָנו, וְעַל חֻקֶיךָ שֶהוֹדַעְתָנו, וְעַל חַיִים חֵן וָחֶסֶד שֶחוֹנַנְתָנו, וְעַל אֲכִילַת מָזוֹן שָאַתָה זָן ומְפַרְנֵס אוֹתָנו תָמִיד בְכָל יוֹם ובְכָל עֵת ובְכָל שָעָה.
וְעַל הַכלֹ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו אֲנַחְנו מוֹדִים לָךְ ומְבָרְכִים אוֹתָךְ יִתְבָרַךְ שִמְךָ בְפִי כָל חַי תָמִיד לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. כַכָתוב, וְאָכַלְתָ וְשָבָעְתָ ובֵרַכְתָ אֶת יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ הַטבָֹה אֲשֶר נָתַן לָךְ. בָרוךְ אַתָה יְיָ, עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל הַמָזוֹן.
רחֶַם נָא יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו עַל יִשְרָאֵל עַמֶךָ וְעַל יְרושָלַיִם עִירֶךָ וְעַל צִיוֹן מִשְכַן כְבוֹדֶךָ וְעַל מַלְכות בֵית דָוִד מְשִיחֶךָ וְעַל הַבַיִת הַגָדוֹל וְהַקָדוֹש שֶנִקְרָא שִמְךָ עָלָיו. אֱלֹהֵינו אָבִינו רְעֵנו זונֵנו פַרְנְסֵנו וְכַלְכְלֵנו וְהַרְוִיחֵנו וְהַרְוַח לָנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו מְהֵרָה מִכָל צָרוֹתֵינו. וְנָא אַל תַצְרִיכֵנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו לֹא לִידֵי מַתְנַת בָשָר וָדָם וְלֹא לִידֵי הַלְוָאָתָם, כִי אִם לְיָדְךָ הַמְלֵאָה הַפְתוחָה הַקְדוֹשָה וְהָרְחָבָה, שֶלא נֵבוֹש וְלֹא נִכָלֵם לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.

On Shabbat

רְצהֵ וְהַחֲלִיצֵנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו בְמִצְוֹתֶיךָ ובְמִצְוַת יוֹם הַשְבִיעִי הַשַבָת הַגָדוֹל וְהַקָדוֹש הַזֶה. כִי יוֹם זֶה גָדוֹל וְקָדוֹש הוא לְפָנֶיךָ לִשְבָת בוֹ וְלָנוחַ בוֹ בְאַהֲבָה כְמִצְוַת רְצוֹנֶךָ. ובִרְצוֹנְךָ הָנִיחַ לָנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו שֶלֹא תְהֵא צָרָה וְיָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה בְיוֹם
מְנוחָתֵנו. וְהַרְאֵנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו בְנֶחָמַת צִיוֹן עִירֶךָ ובְבִנְיַן יְרושָלַיִם עִיר קָדְשֶךָ כִי אַתָה הוא בַעַל הַיְשועוֹת ובַעַל הַנֶחָמוֹת.

אֱלֹהֵינו וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינו, יַעֲלֶה וְיָבאֹ וְיַגִיעַ וְיֵרָאֶה וְיֵרָצֶה וְיִשָמַע וְיִפָקֵד וְיִזָכֵר זִכְרוֹנֵנו ופִקְדוֹנֵנו, וְזִכְרוֹן אֲבוֹתֵינו, וְזִכְרוֹן מָשִיחַ בֶן דָוִד עַבְדֶךָ ,וְזִכְרוֹן יְרושָלַיִם עִיר קָדְשֶךָ, וְזִכְרוֹן כָל עַמְךָ בֵית יִשְרָאֵל לְפָנֶיךָ, לִפְלֵטָה לְטוֹבָה לְחֵן ולְחֶסֶד ולְרַחֲמִים, לְחַיִים ולְשָלוֹם בְיוֹם חַג הַמַצוֹת הַזֶה. זָכְרֵנו יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינו בוֹ לְטוֹבָה ופָקְדֵנו בוֹ לִבְרָכָה וְהוֹשִיעֵנו בוֹ לְחַיִים. ובִדְבַר יְשועָה וְרַחֲמִים חוס וְחָנֵנו וְרַחֵם עָלֵינו וְהוֹשִיעֵנו, כִי אֵלֶיךָ עֵינֵינו, כִי אֵל מֶלֶךְ חַנון וְרַחום אָתָה.

ובְנֵה יְרושָלַיִם עִיר הַקדֶֹש בִמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינו. בָרוךְ אַתָה יְיָ, בוֹנֵה בְרַחֲמָיו יְרושָלָיִם. אָמֵן.
בָרוךְ אַתָה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינו מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הָאֵל אָבִינו מַלְכֵנו אַדִירֵנו בוֹרְאֵנו גאֲֹלֵנו יוֹצְרֵנו קְדוֹשֵנו קְדוֹש יַעֲקבֹ, רוֹעֵנו רוֹעֵה יִשְרָאֵל הַמֶלֶךְ הַטוֹב וְהַמֵטִיב לַכלֹ שֶבְכָל יוֹם וָיוֹם הוא הֵטִיב הוא מֵטִיב הוא יֵיטִיב לָנו. הוא גְמָלָנו הוא גוֹמְלֵנו
הוא יִגְמְלֵנו לָעַד לְחֵן ולְחֶסֶד ולְרַחֲמִים ולְרֶוַח הַצָלָה וְהַצְלָחָה בְרָכָה וִישועָה נֶחָמָה פַרְנָסָה וְכַלְכָלָה וְרַחֲמִים וְחַיִים וְשָלוֹם וְכָל טוֹב, ומִכָל טוב לְעוֹלָם אַל יְחַסְרֵנו.
 הרָחַמֲן הוא יִמְלֹךְ עָלֵינו לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יִתְבָרַךְ בַשָמַיִם ובָאָרֶץ. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יִשְתַבַח לְדוֹר דוֹרִים וְיִתְפָאַר בָנו לָעַד ולְנֵצַח נְצָחִים וְיִתְהַדַר בָנו לָעַד ולְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְפַרְנְסֵנו בְכָבוֹד. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יִשְבר עֻלֵנו מֵעַל צַוָארֵנו וְהוא יוֹלִיכֵנו קוֹמְמִיות לְאַרְצֵנו. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יִשְלַח לָנו בְרָכָה מְרֻבָה בַבַיִת הַזֶה וְעַל שֻלְחָן זֶה שֶאָכַלְנו עָלָיו. הָרַחֲמָן הוא יִשְלַח לָנו אֶת אֵלִיָהו הַנָבִיא זָכור לַטוֹב וִיבַשֶר לָנו בְשוֹרוֹת טוֹבוֹת יְשועוֹת וְנֶחָמוֹת.
הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת

For one’s parents

אָבִי מוֹרִי (בַעַל הַבַיִת הַזֶה) וְאֶת אִמִי מוֹרָתִי (בַעֲלַת הַבַיִת הַזֶה), אוֹתָם וְאֶת בֵיתָם וְאֶת זַרְעָםוְאֶת כָל אֲשֶר לָהֶם,

For one’s family

אוֹתִי )וְאֶת אִשְתִי/בַעֲלִי/זַרְעִי( וְאֶת כָל אֲשֶר לִי,

For one’s hosts

בַעַל הַבַיִת הַזֶה וְאֶת בַעֲלַת הַבַיִת הַזֶה, אוֹתָם וְאֶת בֵיתָם וְאֶת זַרְעָם וְאֶת כָל אֲשֶר לָהֶם,

For all others

וְאֶת כָל הַמְסֻבִין כַאן,

 אוֹתָנו וְאֶת כָל אֲשֶר לָנו, כְמוֹ שֶנִתְבָרְכו אֲבוֹתֵינו אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקבֹ בַכלֹ מִכלֹ כלֹ, כֵן יְבָרֵךְ אוֹתָנו כֻלָנו יַחַד בִבְרָכָה שְלֵמָה, וְנאֹמַר אָמֵן
בַמָרוֹם יְלַמְדו עֲלֵיהֶם וְעָלֵינו זְכות שֶתְהֵא לְמִשְמֶרֶת שָלוֹם. וְנִשָא בְרָכָה מֵאֵת יְיָ וצְדָקָה מֵאֱלֹהֵי יִשְעֵנו. וְנִמְצָא חֵן וְשֵכֶל טוֹב בְעֵינֵי אֱלֹהִים וְאָדָם

On Shabbat

הָרַחֲמָן הוא יַנְחִילֵנו יוֹם שֶכֻלוֹ שַבָת ומְנוחָה לְחַיֵי הָעוֹלָמִים.

הָרַחֲמָן הוא יַנְחִילֵנו יוֹם שֶכֻלוֹ טוֹב.

Some add the following

הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת כָל אֲחֵנו בְנֵי יִשְרָאֵל הַנְתונִים בְצָרָה, וְיוֹצִיאֵם מֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה.
הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת מְדִנַת יִשְרָאֵל, רֵאשִית צְמִיחַת גְאֻלָתֵנו.
הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת חַיָלֵי צְבָא הֲגַנָה לְיִשְרָאֵל, וְיָגֵן עֲלֵיהֶם.
הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְבָרֵךְ אֶת מְדִנַת הַזאתֹ, וְאֶת חַיָלֶיהָ, וְיָגֵן עֲלֵיהֶם.
הָרַחֲמָן הוא יַשְכְין שָלוֹם בֵין בְנֵי יַעֲקבֹ ובְנֵי יִשְמָעֵאל.

הָרַחֲמָן הוא יְזַכֵנו לִימוֹת הַמָשִיחַ ולְחַיֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָא.
מִגְדוֹל יְשועוֹת מַלְכוֹ וְעשֶֹה חֶסֶד לִמְשִיחוֹ לְדָוִד ולְזַרְעוֹ עַד עוֹלָם. עשֶֹה שָלוֹם בִמְרוֹמָיו הוא יַעֲשֶה שָלוֹם עָלֵינו וְעַל כָל יִשְרָאֵל, וְאִמְרו אָמֵן.
יְראו אֶת יְיָ קְדשָֹיו כִי אֵין מַחְסוֹר לִירֵאָיו. כְפִירִים רָשו וְרָעֵבו וְדרְֹשֵי יְיָ לֹא יַחְסְרו כָל טוֹב. הוֹדו לַייָ כִי טוֹב כִי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדוֹ. פוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ ומַשְבִיעַ לְכָל חַי רָצוֹן. בָרוךְ הַגֶבֶר אֲשֶר יִבְטַח בַייָ וְהָיָה יְיָ מִבְטַחוֹ. נַעַר הָיִיתִי גַם זָקַנְתִי וְלֹא רָאִיתִי צַדִיק נֶעֱזָב וְזַרְעוֹ מְבַקֶש לָחֶם. יְיָ עזֹ לְעַמוֹ יִתֵן יְיָ יְבָרֵךְ אֶת עַמוֹ בַשָלוֹם.

Shir Hama’alot, b’shuv Adonai et shivat Tzion, hayinu k’cholmim. Az y’malei s’chok pinu ul- shoneinu rina, az yomru vagoyim, higdil Adonai la-asot im eileh. Higdil Adonai la-asot imanu, hayinu s’meichim. Shuva Adonai et sh’viteinu, ka-afikim banegev. Hazor’im b’dima b’rina yiktzoru. Haloch yeileich uvacho nosei meshech hazara, bo yavo v’rina, nosei alumotav.

T’hilat Adonai y’daber pi, vivareich kol basar shem kod’sho l’olam va’ed. Va-anachnu n’varech ya, mei-ata v’ad olam, hal’luya. Hodu la-Adonai ki tov, ki l’olam chasdo. Mi y’maleil g’vurot Adonai, yashmi’a kol t’hilato.

Include parentheses when there is a minayn present.

Leader:

Rabotai n’vareich.

Participants:

Y’hi sheim Adonai m’vorach mei-atah v’ad olam.

Leader:

Y’hi sheim Adonai m’vorach mei-atah v’ad olam. Birshut maranan v’rabanan v’rabotai, n’vareich (Eloheinu) she’achalnu mishelo.

Participants:

Baruch (Eloheinu) she’achalnu mishelo uv’tuvo chayinu.

Leader:

Baruch (Eloheinu) she’achalnu mishelo uv’tuvo chayinu.

All together:

Baruch hu u-varuch sh’mo.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, hazan et ha-olam kulo b’tuvo, b’chein b’chesed uv-rachamim, hu noten lechem l’chol basar, ki l’olam chasdo, uv-tuvo hagadol, tamid lo chasar lanu v’al yechsar lanu mazon l’olam va’ed. Ba-avur sh’mo hagadol, ki hu Eil zan um’farneis lakol, u-meitiv lakol u-meichin mazon l’chol- b’riyotav asher bara. Baruch atah Adonai, hazan et hakol.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, hazan et ha-olam kulo b’tuvo, b’chein b’chesed uv-rachamim, hu noten lechem l’chol basar, ki l’olam chasdo, uv-tuvo hagadol, tamid lo chasar lanu v’al yechsar lanu mazon l’olam va’ed. Ba-avur sh’mo hagadol, ki hu Eil zan um’farneis lakol, u-meitiv lakol u-meichin mazon l’chol- b’riyotav asher bara. Baruch atah Adonai, hazan et hakol.

V’al hakol Adonai Eloheinu anachnu modim lach um’varchim otach, yitbarach shimcha b’fi kol chai tamid l’olam va’ed. Kakatuv, v’achalta v’savata uveirachta et Adonai Elohecha al ha’aretz hatova asher natan lach. Baruch atah Adonai al ha-aretz v’al hamazon.

Racheim na Adonai Eloheinu al Yisrael amecha v’al Y’rushalayim irecha v’al Tzion mishkan k’vodecha v’al malchut beit David m’shichecha v’al habayit hagadol v’hakadosh shenikra shimcha alav. Eloheinu Avinu r’einu zuneinu parn’seinu v’chalk’lenu v’harvicheinu v’harvach’lanu Adonai Eloheinu m’heira mikol-tzaroteinu. V’na al tatz’richeinu Adonai Eloheinu, lo lidei matnat basar vadam v’lo lidei hal’va’atam, ki im l’yad’cha ham’lei’a hap’tucha hak’dosha v’har’chava, shelo neivosh v’lo nikaleim l’olam va’ed.

On Shabbat:

R’tzei v’hachalitzeinu Adonai Eloheinu b’mitzvotecha, uv’mitvat yom hash’vi’i haShabbat hagadol v’hakadosh hazeh. Ki yom zeh gadol v’kadosh hu l’fanecha, lishbat bo v’lanuach bo b’ahavah k’miztvat r’tzonecha. U’birtzoncha hani’ach lanu Adonai Eloheinu, shelo t’hei tzara v’yagon va’anacha b’yom m’nuchateinu. V’har’einu Adonai Eloheinu b’nechamat Tzion irecha, uv’vinyan Yerushalayim ir kodshecha, ki atah hu ba’al ha’y’shuot u’va’al hanechamot.

Eloheinu vEilohei avoteinu, yaleh v’yavo v’yagiah v’yeira’eh v’yeiratzeh v’yishma v’yipakeid, v’yizacheir zichroneinu ufikdoneinu, v’zichron avoteinu, v’zichron Mashiach ben David avdecha, v’zikhron Y’rushalayim ir kodshecha, v’zichron kol amkha beit Yisrael l’fanecha, lifleita l’tova l’chein ul’chesed ul’rachamim, l’chayim ul’shalom b’yom chag hamatzot hazeh zochreinu Adonai Eloheinu bo l’tova ufokdeinu vo livracha v’hoshieinu vo l’chayim. uv’dvar y’shuah v’rachamim chus v’chaneinu v’racheim aleinu v’hoshieinu ki eilecha eineinu, ki eil melech chanun vrachum ata.

Uv’nei Y’rushalayim ir hakodesh bimheira v’yameinu. Baruch atah Adonai, boneh v’rachamav Y’rushalayim. Amein.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, ha’Eil Avinu Malkeinu Adireinu Bor’einu Go’aleinu Yotz’reinu K’dosheinu k’dosh Ya’akov ro’einu ro’ei Yisrael Hamelech hatov v’hameitiv lakol sheb’chol yom vayom hu heitiv, hu meitiv, hu yeitiv lanu. Hu g’malanu hu gomleinu hu yig’m’leinu la’ad, l’chein ul’chesed ul’rachamim ul’revach hatzala v’hatzlacha, b’racha vi’shua nechama parnasa v’chalkala v’rachamim v’chayim v’shalom v’chol-tov, u’mikol tuv l’olam al y’chasreinu.

Harachaman hu yimloch aleinu l’olam va’ed. Harachaman hu yitbarach bashamayim u’va’aretz. Harachaman hu yishtabach l’dor dorim, v’yitpa’ar banu la’ad u’l’neitzach n’tzachim, v’yit’hadar banu la’ad ul’olmei olamim. Harachaman hu y’far’n’seinu b’chavod. Harachaman hu yishbor uleinu mei’al tzavareinu, v’hu yolicheinu kom’miyut l’artzeinu. Harachaman hu yishlach lanu b’racha m’ruba babayit hazeh, v’al shulchan zeh she’achalnu alav. Harachaman hu yishlach lanu et Eliyahu Hanavi zachur latov, vivaser lanu b’sorot tovot y’shu’ot v’nechamot.

Harachaman hu y’vareich et

for one’s parents:

et avi mori (ba’al ha-bayit ha-zeh), v’et imi morati (ba’alat ha-bayit) ha-zeh, otam v’et beitam, v’et zar’am, v’et kol asher lahem,

for one’s family:

oti (v’et ishti / ba’ali / zar-i v’et) kol asher li,

for one’s hosts:

ba’al ha-bayit ha-zeh, v’et ba-alat ha-bayit ha- zeh, otam v’et beitam, v’et zar’am, v’et kol asher lahem,

for all others:

v’et kol ham’subim kan, otanu v’et kol asher lanu, k’mo she’nitbarchu avoteinu Avraham Yitzchak v’Ya’akov bakol mikol kol, kein y’vareich otanu kulanu yachad bivracha sh’leima, v’nomar, Amein.

Bamarom y’lamdu aleihem v’aleinu z’chut she’t’hei l’mishmeret shalom. V’nisa v’racha mei’eit Adonai, utz’daka mei’Elohei yisheinu, v’nimtza chein v’seichel tov b’einei Elohim v’adam.

On Shabbat:

Harachaman hu yanchileinu yom shekulo Shabbat u’minucha ul’chayei ha’olamim.

Harachaman hu yanchileinu yom shekulo tov.

Some add the following blessings:

Harachaman hu y’variech et kol acheinu B’nei Yisrael han’tunim betzarah, v’yotzi’eim mei’afeilah l’orah.

Harachaman hu y’variech et M’dinat Yisrael, reishit tz’michat g’u’lateinu.

Harachaman hu y’variech et chayalei Tz’va Hagana l’Yisrael, v’yagein aleihem.

Harachaman hu y’variech et m’dinat hazot, v’et chayaleiha, v’yagein aleihem.

Harachaman hu yashkiyn shalom Bayn binei Ya’akov u’vnei Yishma’ayl.

Harachaman hu y’zakeinu limot Hamashiach ul’chayei ha’olam haba.

Migdol y’shu’ot Malko v’oseh chesed limshicho l’David ul’zar’o ad olam. Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol Yisrael v’imru, Amein.

Y’ru et Adonai k’doshav, ki ein machsor lirei’av. K’firim rashu v’ra’eivu, v’dorshei Adonai lo yach’s’ru chol tov. Hodu l’Adonai ki tov ki l’olam chasdo. Potei’ach et yadecha, u’masbia l’chol chai ratzon. Baruch hagever asher yivtach b’Adonai, V’haya Adonai mivtacho. Na’ar hayiti gamzakan’ti,v’lora’ititzadikne’ezav,v’zar’om’vakesh lachem. Adonai oz l’amo yitein,

Adonai y’vareich et amo vashalom.

A Song of Ascents. When the Lord returned us from exile back to Zion, it was as though we were dreaming. We laughed in joy and sang happy songs. It was said around the world: “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord did great things for us, and we rejoiced. God, restore our captives. We shall be like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall ultimately reap in joy. Though the farmer bears the measure of seed to the field in sadness, he shall come home with joy, bearing his sheaves.

T’hilat Adonai y’daber pi, vivareich kol basar shem kod’sho l’olam va’ed. Va-anachnu n’varech ya, mei-ata v’ad olam, hal’luya. Hodu la-Adonai ki tov, ki l’olam chasdo. Mi y’maleil g’vurot Adonai, yashmi’a kol t’hilato.

Include parentheses when there is a minayn present.

Leader:

Friends, let us say grace.

Participants:

Praised be the name of the Lord now and forever.

Leader:

Praised be the name of the Lord now and forever. With your permission, let us now bless

(our God) whose food we have eaten.

Participants:

Blessed be (our God) whose food we have eaten and through whose goodness we live.

Leader:

Blessed be )our God( whose food we have eaten and through whose goodness we live.

All together:

Blessed be He and blessed be His name.

Praised are you, Adonai our God, King of the universe, who nourishes the whole world with grace, kindness and mercy. You provide food to all creatures, for your kindness endures forever.Through this great goodness we have never been in want; may we never be in want of sustenance. God sustains us all, doing good to all, and providing food for all creation. Praised are you, Adonai, who sustains all.

We thank you, Adonai, our God, for having given a beautiful, good, and spacious land to our ancestors as a heritage; for having taken us out from the land of Egypt and redeemed us from the house of slavery; your covenant which you sealed in our flesh; for your Torah which you taught us; for your laws which you have given to us; for the life, grace and kindness you have granted us; and for the food with which you always sustain us.

For everything, Adonai, our God, we thank and praise you. May your name be blessed by all forever, as it is written: “After you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless Adonai, our God for the good land he has given you.” Praised are you, Adonai, for the land and the food.

Have mercy, Adonai our God, on Israel your people, on Jerusalem your city, on Zion the abode of your glory, on the kingdom of the house of David your anointed one, and on the great and holy Temple that bears your name. Our God, our Father, tend and feed us; sustained and support us and relieve us. Speedily, Adonai our God, grant us relief from all our troubles. Lord our God, O make us not rely on the gifts and loans of men but rather on your full, open and generous hand, that we may never be put to shame and disgrace.

On Shabbat:

Favor us and strengthen us, Lord our God, with your commandments – with the commandment concerning the seventh day, this great and holy Sabbath. This day is great and holy before you to abstain from work and rest on it in love according to your will. In your will, Lord our God, grant us rest so that there be nor sorrow and grief on our day of rest. Let us, Lord our God, live to see Zion your city comforted, Jerusalem your holy city rebuilt, for you art Master of all salvation and consolation.

Our God and God of our fathers, may the remembrance of us, of our fathers, of the anointed son of David your servant, of Jerusalem your holy city, and of all your people the house of Israel, ascend, come, appear, be heard, and be accepted before you for deliverance and good, for grace, kindness and mercy, for life and peace, on this day of the Festival of Matzot. Remember us this day, Lord our God, for goodness; consider us for blessing; save us for life. With a word of salvation and mercy spare us and favor us; have pity on us and save us, for we look to you, for you art a gracious and merciful God and King.

Rebuild Jerusalem the holy city speedily in our days. Praised are you, Adonai, who will rebuild Jerusalem in mercy. Amen.

Praised are you, Adonai our God, king of the universe. Adonai, you are our father, our king and sovereign, our creator, our redeemer, our maker, the holy one of Jacob, the shepherd of Israel, the good king who does good to all and has done good, is doing good, and will do good. You bestow favors on us constantly. You lavish on us kindness and mercy, relief and deliverance, success, blessing, salvation, comfort, sustenance, support mercy, life and peace and all goodness. May you never deprive us of any good thing.

May the Merciful One reign over us forever and ever. May the Merciful One be blessed in heaven and on earth. May the Merciful One be praised for all generations; may He be glorified in us forever and ever; may He be honored in us to all eternity. May the Merciful One grant us an honorable livelihood. May the Merciful One break the yoke from our neck; may He lead us upstanding into our land. May the Merciful One send ample blessing into this house and upon this table at which we have eaten. May the Merciful One send us Elijah the prophet of blessed memory who will bring us good tidings of consolation and comfort.

May the Merciful One bless

for one’s parents:

(my revered father) the master of this house and )my revered mother( the mistress of this house, them, and their household, and their children, and everything that is theirs, for one’s family: me )and my wife/husband/children( and all that is mine for one’s hosts:

our host and our hostess, them, and their household, and their children, and everything that is theirs,

for all others: and all who are seated here, us all together and all our possessions just as He blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with every blessing. May He bless us all together with a perfect blessing, and let us say, Amen.

May heaven find merit in us that we may enjoy a lasting peace. May we receive blessings from the Lord, justice from the God of our salvation, and may we find favor and good sense in the eyes of God and men.

On Shabbat:

May the Merciful One cause us to inherit the day which will be all Sabbath and rest in the eternal life.

May the Merciful One cause us to inherit the day of total goodness.

Some add the following blessings:

Harachaman hu y’variech et kol acheinu B’nei Yisrael han’tunim betzarah, v’yotzi’eim mei’afeilah l’orah.

May the Merciful One bless the State of Israel. reishit tz’michat g’u’lateinu.

May the Merciful One bless those who serve in the IDF and watch over them.

May the Merciful One bless this country, and its soldiers, and watch over them.

Harachaman hu yashkiyn shalom Bayn binei Ya’akov u’vnei Yishma’ayl.

May the Merciful One enable us to live in the days of the Messiah and in the world to come.

God is our tower of salvation, showing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendents forever. May he who creates peace in his heavenly heights, may he grant peace for us, all Israel; and and all humanity, and we can say, Amen.

Revere the Lord, you his holy ones for those who revere him suffer no want. Lions may be famishing and starving, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his kindness endures forever. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is in the Lord. I have been young and now I am old, but never have I seen the righteous man forsaken, nor his children wanting bread. The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.

Fill the third cup of wine

Together we take up the third cup of wine, now recalling the third divine promise to the people of Israel: “And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.”

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen.

We now drink the third cup of wine

There, in the very center of the Seder table, stands a special, ornate kiddush-cup brimming with wine, awaiting the one still expected but as yet un-arrived guest -- the prophet Elijah. 

Will Elijah come this year, to drink of our wine, to bring tidings of the long anticipated,final redemption of all humankind on this anniversary of Israel's redemption from Egypt? I hope so, but I think not. 

The world at large is not yet ready for redemption, although it is sorely in need of it. There is still too much hatred, too much disease, too much evil. There is still too much poverty, oppression, misery. We have not yet conquered our tendency to conquer others, nor have we yet mastered the art of conquering ourselves. 

But aren't these the very reasons we are in need of redemption? Yes, but this kind of redemption must first come from within; it cannot be brought about from without. We are the ones who must redeem ourselves from all these ills, find solutions for all these conflicts and raise mere “hope” to the level of action before we can expect to see the first glimmerings of a final redemption.

The real meaning of redemption is for us to work toward building a better world, and, as we progress, we will pave the way toward greater progress, until Elijah will be able to reach our doors without stumbling into the pitfalls and potholes we have left in his path. 

"When will redemption come?," R. Yehoshua b. Levi asked Elijah.

Elijah replied, "Go and ask the Messiah who sits and waits at the Old City gates."

"Today!, " replied the Messiah.

And so, elated, R. Yehoshua patiently waited the day away, and still the Messiah had not arrived, nor had redemption come to the world.

When he next encountered Elijah, R. Yehoshua accosted him and as much as accused the Messiah of lying.

"'Today!,' he told me, yet today has become yesterday, and still no redeemer has brought redemption."

The perennial prophet simply sipped his cup and said, "I fear you may have misunderstood him. He was quoting scripture to you from the book of Psalms. Here is what it says: "'Today', [I will come] if only all of you would hearken to My [God's] voice." 

Let us set out the ornate cup in the center of our Seder tables and fill it with sweet wine. Let us open the door to redemption; not only the physical door to our homes, but the metaphorical spiritual doors which, while still locked, prevent us from working to bring about the " athalta d’geulah," the beginnings of that great, final redemption. Let us be the ones who engage in paving the road that Elijah and we must walk to complete his - and our - journey.

The Cup of Elijah

We now refill our wine glasses one last time and open the front door to invite the prophet Elijah to join our seder.

In the Bible, Elijah was a fierce defender of God to a disbelieving people. At the end of his life, rather than dying, he was whisked away to heaven. Tradition holds that he will return in advance of messianic days to herald a new era of peace, so we set a place for Elijah at many joyous, hopeful Jewish occasions, such as a baby’s bris and the Passover seder.

אֵלִיָּֽהוּ הַנָּבִיא, אֵלִיָּֽהוּ הַתִּשְׁבִּיאֵלִיָּֽהוּ, אֵלִיָּֽהוּ,אֵלִיָּֽהוּ הַגִּלְעָדִי

בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵֽנוּ יָבוֹא אֵלֵֽינוּ

עִם מָשִֽׁיחַ בֶּן דָּוִד

עִם מָשִֽׁיחַ בֶּן דָּוִד

Eliyahu hanavi
Eliyahu hatishbi
Eliyahu, Eliyahu, Eliyahu hagiladi
Bimheirah b’yameinu, yavo eileinu
Im mashiach ben-David,
Im mashiach ben-David

Elijah the prophet, the returning, the man of Gilad:
return to us speedily,
in our days with the messiah,
son of David.

On Passover we

Opened the door for Elijah

Now our cat is gone.

מִן הַמֵּצַר קָרָאתִי יָּהּ עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ

Singing songs that praise God | hallel | הַלֵּל

This is the time set aside for singing. Some of us might sing traditional prayers from the Book of Psalms. Others take this moment for favorites like Chad Gadya & Who Knows One, which you can find in the appendix. To celebrate the theme of freedom, we might sing songs from the civil rights movement. Or perhaps your crazy Uncle Frank has some parody lyrics about Passover to the tunes from a musical. We’re at least three glasses of wine into the night, so just roll with it.

Fourth Glass of Wine

As we come to the end of the seder, we drink one more glass of wine. With this final cup, we give thanks for the experience of celebrating Passover together, for the traditions that help inform our daily lives and guide our actions and aspirations.

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.

Drink the fourth and final glass of wine! 

The Four Cups by Rabbi Yael Levy

It is time, the Infinite calls,Come

V’hotzeyti, I will take you out

V’hitzalti, I will deliver you to a new place

V’ga’alti, I will help you to transform

V’lakachti, I will take you into relationship

And you will know your beloved place amid the myriad of all life (Exodus 6:6-7).

I can’t the soul cries, I am so afraid.

Of course you are, the Infinite responds.

You have been in the narrow place for so very long

But I will lift you up,

So just for a moment you will see

The expanse of possibilities,

Then you will decide what is more frightening   

To stay where you are   

Or to step out towards what might be.

The Four Parshiot and the Four Children

Dr. Meir Ben-Yitzhak, Bar Illan School of Education

The Sages established the formulation of the Haggadah and the rules of the Seder

evening as an educational array to strengthen faith through an unparalleled family

experience celebrated in Jewish homes.  In the spirit of the vacations taken during this

holiday, I might define the special characteristics of the Seder as the  “4 X 4 Israel Trail”

– four cups of wine, four questions, four sons and four (or five) expressions of

Redemption.  It is important to note, however, that this route does not begin on the

Seder eve, nor does it end there.

The Sages established a preparatory routine of four special Torah readings, leading up

to Passover.  The order of these readings points to four essential stages in building the

Jewish people:

1)  Parashat Shekalim, symbolizing belonging and mutual responsibility as a

precondition to establishing the nation.

2)  Parashat Zakhor, symbolizing trust in G?d defending us against outside foes who

threaten our survival.

3)  Parashat Parah, teaching us about the need to differentiate between the ritually

clean and ritually unclean in the life of the people as a precondition for a proper society.

4)   Parashat ha-Hodesh, symbolizing the destiny of the Jewish people – to uphold

the Torah and its commandments.

The four special Torah readings can also be viewed as a detailed didactic response to

the four sons mentioned in the Haggadah:

1)  What does the wicked son say?  “What is this worship of yours?”  Yours, not his.

This son does not see himself as belonging.  Parashat Shekalim is the answer to the

wicked son, for the half-shekel paid by every Jew completes that of his fellow.  Thus,

through this commandment we are taught the fundamental value of mutual responsibility

and belonging to the Jewish people.

2)  He who does not know to ask – you begin to tell him.  This son does not understand

why he must belong to the Jewish people, so acquainted with grief.  So how shall we

begin to explain?  Begin with Parashat Zakhor, which teaches us to have faith and trust

in G?d, who delivers us from our enemies that have risen up against us in every

generation in an effort to annihilate us, since the time of Amalek in the wilderness,

through Purim, until this very day.

3)  What does the simple son say?  “What is this?”  This son does not understand the

need for the commandments in the context of his life.  Parashat Parah teaches Jews

about an important principle:  to distinguish between the ritually clean and the ritually

unclean precisely when they are intermingled in the daily life of each of us, and in

general to observe the commandments even if the reasons behind them are not at all

clear to us, as typified by the ritual of the Red Heifer.

4)  What does the wise son say?  “What mean the decrees, laws, and rules that the

Lord our G?d has enjoined?  The wise son knows to distinguish between laws and rules

and takes an interest in the details of the commandments.  The answer to his question

is Parashat ha-Hodesh, symbolizing precise detailing of the commandments which

relate to the Passover sacrifice, matzah and hametz.  This son is on a level where he

can accept the burden of performing the commandments without question. 

Let us pray that this “Israel Trail” lead us to a rebuilt Jerusalem, speedily in our day. 

K'neged arba banim dibra Torah--the Torah speaks of four children. We might be forgiven for thinking that this section of the Haggadah is a quote from the Torah, and indeed, the familiar story of the four children asking questions about Pesach does include many quotations from the Torah. But the passage itself is an adaptation of texts found not in the Torah, but rather in the Mekhilta, a midrash from the time of the Tannaim (first and second centuries C.E.), and in the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi).

Reversing the Answers

Interestingly, the version in the Yerushalmi contains some significant differences from the version we find in our Haggadot. (Though we might think that our Haggadah would be closer to the later Yerushalmi version, instead it more closely resembles the earlier Mekhilta version).

From the Yerushalmi: "The Torah speaks of four children. One is wise, one is wicked, one is foolish (tipesh), and one does not know how to ask questions. The wise child asks: What are the testimonies, statutes, and ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded us to do? And you should respond: with a mighty fist has the Lord rescued us from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 13:14)."

We know that answer: It is the one given to the simple child in our Haggadah!

Meanwhile, in the Yerushalmi: "The foolish child asks mah zot, what is all this? And you should: 'teach him the laws of Passover, that they do not end [with] afikoman [M 10:8]. What is afikoman? That one should not get up from one fellowship and join another fellowship [as was customary in after-dinner revelry gatherings]." (Translation, Baruch Bokser.)

That answer, too, is familiar to us--as the answer our Haggadot offer for the wise child.

How is it that the Yerushalmi has confused the answers of the wise and the simple children? Or is it the Haggadah that has confused the two?

The implication in our Haggadah is that since the wise child has asked an excellent and intelligent question, he or she is treated to a lengthy explanation of the laws of Pesach, including the laws of afikoman. The answer is meant to be a compliment; perhaps such a child is even to be told laws known only to the scholars, the best and the brightest. On the other hand, even though similar words are used, the implication of the answer to the foolish child in the Yerushalmi is that he or she is too ignorant even to know the rules of the afikoman. We have to explain it to the foolish child.

Times change, generations change, places change, expectations change. An answer that is regarded as foolish and simple in Israel in the early years of the Common Era is regarded as considered and wise in medieval and modern times.

More Differences & Similarities

Nor is that the only difference between the story of the four children as we know it in the Haggadah and the much earlier version in the Yerushalmi; there are many. For example, in the Yerushalmi the wise child asks what the Lord our God has commanded us, while most Haggadot follow the Mekhilta version and have the wise child asking what the Lord our God has commanded you, sparking many a discussion about the differences between the wise and the wicked children.

Some modern Haggadot, such as the Feast of Freedom, return to the version of the Yerushalmi. It does make the difference between the wise child and the wicked child much clearer.

A the same time, the renditions of both the wicked child and the one who does not know how to ask are fairly similar in the Yerushalmi, in the Mekhilta, and in our Haggadah, at least in implication if not in precise language.  But the differences in the precise language are also interesting.  The Haggadah reads:

"The wicked child asks: 'what is all this work to you?' S/he says to you and not to him. Thus s/he separates her/himself from the community and denies the point of it all. You should set her/his teeth on edge (hak'he et shinav) and tell her/him that God did this for me when I went out of Egypt, for me and not for her/him.  Had s/he been there, s/he would not have been redeemed."

The phrase hak'he et shinav is particularly remarkable. It is an odd phrase, usually translated as "setting the teeth on edge,"--that is, making the child very uncomfortable. This bears some resemblance to a passage from Jeremiah 31:28, that in the future days no longer will parents eat vinegar and set the teeth of the children on edge. But literally it might mean to punch the child in the mouth, thus getting the child's attention rather dramatically. Furthermore, that phrase does not appear in the Yerushalmi, and while it does appear in some printed version of the mekilta, it is not found in the manuscript versions. Perhaps it was even retroactively put into the printed mekilta to make the text accord with the familiar Haggadah.

Again, times change and later generations apparently found the need to be clearer and more graphic in the treatment of the wicked child. The passage without the phrase "hak'he et shinav" did not censure the wicked child strongly enough.

Modern Questions

Modern Haggadot bring other questions to the story. Perhaps the four children represent four generations of American Jews (Riskin). Perhaps every one of us is in reality all four of these children (Feast of Freedom, and others). Perhaps the four children represent questions asked at different ages and life positions (Prince of Egypt Haggadah). Maybe we should be worried about a fifth child – the one who does not show up at seder at all (Hartman).

The passage begins: "k'neged arba banim dibra Torah," the Torah speaks of four children. But this passage is not a quote from the Torah and it has grown, changed, and developed over the years, each generation finding meaning in the text as they found it.

By Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman

There is a certain inherent ambivalence when we think of the meaning of freedom, and its association with the holiday of Pesach. One of the essential features of the liberation story is our freedom from human subjugation: "Yesterday we were slaves to Pharaoh, today we are free men and women."

This freedom, however, did not come about as a result of a revolution instigated by the Jewish people but rather, as the biblical story relates, through the redemptive hand of God. As a result, this physical redemption is often connected with a religious duty: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery; You shall have no other gods besides me” (Exodus 20, 2-3).

What is the nature of this connection? Is it an obligation or an opportunity? Is our commitment to God and the Torah a price we pay for the Exodus, or is it a gift – a gift made possible by our physical freedom, but one that we may choose whether or not to receive? The question we as Jews ought to reflect on this Pesach is whether the freedom from Egypt is limited to liberation from physical servitude, or does it include freedom of conscience and faith. 

Historically, Jews did not engage extensively in questions of personal autonomy; at most, they spoke about what Isaiah Berlin referred to as "positive liberty" (Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty). As opposed to the simple, more intuitive concept of negative liberty - “the freedom from” constraints or compulsion, positive liberty is “the freedom to” - the freedom to be all one ought to be, to do that which is the fullest expression of one’s potential. The notion of positive liberty is clearly present in the rabbinic tradition, in such statements as, "There is no free person but he or she who studies Torah" (Avot 6:2). Freedom, for Jews, has traditionally meant “the freedom to” - the ability to achieve complete self-realization, through a firm, unwavering commitment to God and His word.

Commitment to religious freedom 

Standing alone, however, positive liberty is an extremely precarious concept. We need look no further than the 20th century, when different fascist leaders established their rule on a promise of positive liberty (the freedom to live in a stable society, the freedom to attain financial prosperity, the freedom to fulfill one’s destiny as a member of the master race), to appreciate the danger it harbors: the creation of oppressive, totalitarian regimes, violently trampling the rights of their citizens in the name of freedom. Without the underlying basis of negative liberty, positive liberty means nothing more than the freedom to do that which others determine you ought, to fulfill what others have decided to be your potential.

This question becomes all the more pointed in the context of the State of Israel. So long as Jews lived in Western liberal democracies, they vicariously inherited the value of negative liberty and function within its confines. But an essential question facing the modern State of Israel, the only Jewish democracy, is what concept of liberty does it officially espouse? Is Israel a “free state” that dictates the forms of Judaism that are most appropriate? Or does it guarantee its citizens the right and conditions to determine their own individual Jewish path?

If Pesach is going to be not simply a liberation story of our past but a modern, continuous liberation story "in every generation,” we must recognize that positive liberty is an incomplete liberty, that the freedom from Egypt - indeed our very existence as a free people in our own country - must be accompanied by a commitment to religious freedom and the diversity it will engender.

The spirit of Pesach requires a national pledge to free Israeli society of all and any vestiges of religious coercion, including the manipulation of public funds in order to constrain spiritual choices. In the spirit of Pesach we must commit ourselves to speaking only in the language of education, and never in the language of indoctrination and coercion.

One of the great paradoxes of Israeli society is that those who function in the name of positive liberty actively limit the actualization of the spiritual potential of Jews. Consequently, the State of Israel is one of the only places in which non-Orthodox Jews can barely receive a Jewish education. Religious coercion and legislation hasn’t furthered our marriage with God; rather, it has created an ever-increasing rift and divorce.

The freedom of Pesach has multiple dimensions. It is our responsibility to ensure it is understood and employed as a catalyst for progress, as a basis for assimilating the broadest notions of negative liberty within our religious language and values. Just as we reject being enslaved by Pharaoh, so too must we reject the subjugation of our minds and souls to any authority. In the end, if God is to be the God of the Jewish people, if Judaism and its values are to shape our lives, it will not be because we owe God for our redemption from Egypt, but because we choose a life with God as free men and women.

The Plagues happened at the same time as a massive volcano eruption. The volcano Santorini sent ash in to the air effecting the surrounding area. The ash is found in Cairo and the Nile River, proven by testing the composition of the ash. This volcanic eruption happened between 1500-1650BC while the Plagues happened between 1400-1550BC. So it fits there. 

1st Plague. River ran red LIKE blood. But there is a common algae plume called the Red Tide. This makes the river, or any water, look red like blood. Why did this happen? The ash changes the PH level of the river allowing the algae to bloom. 

2nd Plague. Frogs. The algae is killing fish. Fish eat frog eggs. No fish, record number of frogs. Frogs can't live in polluted water and so leave the river. 

3rd and 4th Plague. Lice and flies. The translation can actually be lice, fleas, gnats, or midges. But you have riverfull of dead fish, and now dead frogs. This brings the insects of the 3rd and 4th Plague. 

5th Plague. Pestilence. Flies, dead frogs, dead fish, easy enough no? 

6th Plague. Boils. Certain types of flies that bite can leave behind boils. The bites get infected, they turn in to boils. 

7th Plague. Fire and Hail. Ash in the air causes a mixture of ash and water. The ash, very high in the air, causes the water to freeze so when it falls it is hail and not rain. The fire? I saw this amazing picture in Nat. Geo. of a volcanic eruption. There was red lightning. It was amazing to see bright red lightning. Why is it red? Chemicals in the ash makes red lightning. So fire in the sky, and hail. 

8th Plague. Locusts. Locusts come about when the ground is very damp. They bury their eggs in the sand about 4-6 inches. After record amount of hail the ground would be very wet allowing the locusts to form. 

9th Plague. Darkness. Ash in the air. After am eruption in 1815 there was darkness for 600 kilometers. After Krakatoa it was dark for even farther for days. 

10th Plague. Death of First born. In Egypt the first born was king. They would be the one to lead the family after the father died. When food was scarce the first born ate first and some times was the only one to eat. After locusts ate every thing there was only grain locked in vaults. The hail got it wet, locust feces, it made it moldy. And so when only the first born ate, they were the only ones killed by moldy grain. 

The holiday of Passover has a complex set of rules regarding what may be eaten. Since one is obliged to eat matzah on Passover, it is no surprise that much has been written about matzah, not only when to eat, it but how much must be eaten and who must fulfill this obligation. This article looks at a number of texts dealing with the intricacies of consuming matzah on Passover.

When Is One Obligated to Eat Matzah?

The command to eat matzah appears ten times in the Torah. Nine times the command is for seven days, "Seven days shall you eat matzah" (Exodus 12:15). The tenth time, however, says, "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread" (Deuteronomy 16:8).

A simple and obvious statement of the law (which did not, however, become the accepted practice) is stated by the tanna (rabbi of the Mishnaic era) R. Shimon, originally in the Sifre Deuteronomy (a Tannaitic Midrash):

"Has it not already been said, 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread'? Then why does the Torah say 'You shall eat no leavened bread ( hametz ) with it'? When one is obligated to eat matzah, there is also a prohibition against hametz; when there is no obligation to eat matzah, there is no prohibition against hametz" (Bavli Pesachim 28b, cf. Sifre Deuteronomy 130).

The obligation to eat matzah and the prohibition against hametz are co-extensive. Since the prohibition against hametz is clearly for seven days, the obligation to eat matzah, according to Rabbi Shimon, also lasts seven days. This is also the approach of the apocryphal book of Jubilees, and is also the custom of the Karaites and the Samaritans, groups that broke off from the main body of the people of Israel. The most common rabbinic interpretation of the verse from Deuteronomy that prescribes six days rejects this early understanding:

"One verse says, 'Seven days you shall eat matzah,' and one verse says, 'Six days you shall eat matzah.' How can both of these verses be maintained? The seventh day was included (in the first verse) but then excluded (from the second verse). That which is excluded from a more inclusive statement is meant to teach us about the whole statement. So, just as on the seventh day it is optional ( r'shut ), so all the other days, it is optional. Does this mean that it is optional on the first night too? The verse 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day in the evening, you shall eat matzah' (Exodus 12:18) fixes it as an obligation ( hovah ) to eat matzah on the first night" (Mekhilta, Pischa 8).

According to this midrash, Deuteronomy refers to the first six days, and accordingly, the seventh day of the holiday has no obligation to eat matzah. But since there is no essential difference between the seventh day and any of the other days, the rabbis argue, what is true of the seventh day must be true of all of the days. Therefore, there is no general obligation to eat matzah throughout the holiday. On the other hand, the explicit verse from Exodus 12:18 does create a requirement to eat matzah on the first night. Outside of the land of Israel, Jews who observe two days of the holiday are rabbinically obligated to eat matzah at each of the seders, but not on the other days of the festival.

How Much Matzah is One Supposed to Eat?

During the seder, one makes two different blessings over the matzah. The first blessing is hamotzi ("…who brings forth bread from the earth"), which is recited whenever one eats bread, and which is obligatory at any festival meal. The second blessing recalls the particular obligation to eat matzah ("…who has sanctified us with the commandments and commanded us concerning the eating of matzah"). In general, when one is obligated to eat something, the standard amount is a volume equivalent to that of an olive, a k'zayit.

How should one fulfill this obligation to eat matzah? Hamotzi on other festivals is usually said on a whole loaf of challah, so on Passover should one eat the olive's-bulk of matzah from the top of the three matzot on the seder plate, which is still whole and is therefore analogous to a loaf? Or should one eat from the middle, broken matzah for the fulfillment of the obligation to eat matzah?

Joseph Karo writing in the standard code of Jewish law, the Shulhan Arukh, predictably requires a bulk of matzah equivalent to two olives:

"One washes one's hands and makes the blessing and takes the matzot... in hand and makes the blessings 'hamotzi' and 'on eating matzah.' Then one breaks from the top, complete matzah and the broken middle piece, both together... One eats an olive's bulk from each of them while reclining. If one cannot eat matzah equivalent to the bulk of two olives together, eat the one for hamotzi first and then the one [for the blessing] on eating matzah. Then one takes an olive's bulk of bitter herbs... and makes the blessing on eating bitter herbs and eats it without reclining. Then one takes the third matzah and breaks a piece from it to wrap with the bitter herbs" (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 475:1).

Modern authorities have debated whether the air pockets in matzah count toward measuring an olive's bulk, and most say that they do not. They also have debated about whether an olive's bulk is really the size of a modern olive, or whether it is actually the bulk of an egg. That makes a single "olive's bulk" equivalent to approximately two-thirds of a standard, machine-made matzah or the area equivalent to an average adult hand of hand-made matzah. In addition, modern authorities also define a time limit within which one should, ideally, consume the matzah.

Is All Matzah the Same?

In order for dough to become matzah, it must at least have the potential to leaven. According to the rabbis, leavening ( himutz ) only occurs when flour from the five grains (wheat, oats, barley, rye, or spelt) is moistened with water (by their definition). Flour that is moistened with wine, oil, honey, eggs, or fruit juice does not leaven; the fermentation that occurs is called sirchon (rotting). Despite the negative category name, sirchon is different leavening, which is the category with which the Passover prohibitions are concerned.

Therefore, the matzah-like product made with flour and apple juice that is called "egg matzah" or matzah ashirah (rich matzah) is not subject to leavening, just "rotting," and is theoretically acceptable for Passover use. Widespread custom, however, rejected its use. The Ashkenazic (East European) authority, R. Moses Isserles (known as the Rema), however, is wary of this permission and gives the custom legal force:

"Eggs and other liquids are all considered like fruit juice (which lead to rotting, not leavening). Rema: But in our communities, we do not knead (matzah) dough with fruit juice... And one should not change from this unless in a time of emergency for the sake of a sick or old person who needs this" (Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 462:4).

The Ashkenazic restrictions on use of "egg matzah" are usually printed on the box. Even according to Sephardic (Mediterranean) practice, however, one cannot fulfill the obligation to eat matzah at seder with "egg matzah." First, the obligation must be fulfilled with real matzah, and real matzah must have the potential to leaven, which egg matzah does not. Second, the command is to eat "matzah, the bread of poverty" (Deuteronomy 16:3) and not egg matzah, which is also known as rich matzah.

An additional concern comes from the Torah's command, "You shall watch the matzot" (Exodus 12:17). This is understood by the midrash as "watch it so that it does not become unfit" (Mekhilta Pischa 9), that is, it should not be allowed to leaven. When one begins to watch the dough is a matter of some controversy. The earliest sources assume that the watching begins with the kneading of the dough. The common practice today is to watch the flour from time it is ground. Most commercial matzah is watched from the time of grinding.

The most strict approach, however, is to watch the grain itself from the time it is harvested.

"[Rava] said to those who were turning over the sheaves of wheat (during the harvest): 'When you flip them over, do so for the sake of the mitzvah.' From this we can reason that watching is required initially from the beginning to the end" (Bavli Pesachim 40a).

Matzah made from flour ground from grain which has been watched since harvest is called shemurah matzah (watched matzah). Many Jews choose to use shemurah matzah, especially hand-made shemurah matzah, for fulfillment of the obligation to eat matzah at the seder.

Who is Obligated to Eat Matzah?

The eating of matzah is a positive commandment (as opposed to not eating hametz, which is a negative commandment) that takes place at a specific time. There is a general rule in talmudic literature that women are exempt from positive commandments that take place at a specific time (Mishnah Kiddushin 1:7). Indeed, women are exempt from reciting the shema, wearing tefillin (both in Mishnah Berakhot 3:3), sitting in the sukkah (Mishnah Sukkah 2:8), shaking the lulav, blowing the shofar, and wearing tzitzit (all three in Bavli Kiddushin 33b).

On the other hand, women are obligated to observe other positive, time-specified commandments such as fasting on Yom Kippur (Bavli Sukkah 28a), lighting Hanukkah candles (Bavli Shabbat 23a), reciting the megillah on Purim (Bavli Megillah 4a), and eating three meals on Shabbat (Rabbenu Nissim on Shabbat 44a). Based on the association of not eating hametz with the positive command of eating matzah (akin to the midrash of Rabbi Shimon, above), women are also obligated to eat matzah at the seders (Bavli Pesachim 43b). For that matter, women are also obligated to drink the four cups of wine (Bavli Pesachim 108a-b), to recite the Haggadah, and to chant the Hallel (psalms of praise) at the seder (Mishnah Berurah 472:14).

Miriam's Cup Ritual in the Family Seder (http://www.miriamscup.com/RitualPrint.htm)  

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.”  

Pass Miriam's cup around the table(s); explain the significance of filling Miriam's cup with water: A Midrash teaches us that a miraculous well accompanied the Hebrews throughout their journey in the desert, providing them with water. This well was given by G-d to Miriam, the prophetess, to honor her bravery and devotion to the Jewish people. Both Miriam and her well were spiritual oases in the desert, sources of sustenance and healing. Her words of comfort gave the Hebrews the faith and confidence to overcome the hardships of the Exodus.

We fill Miriam's cup with water to honor her role in ensuring the survival of the Jewish people. Like Miriam, Jewish women in all generations have been essential for the continuity of our people. As keepers of traditions in the home, women passed down songs and stories, rituals and recipes, from mother to daughter, from generation to generation. Let us each fill the cup of Miriam with water from our own glasses, so that our daughters may continue to draw from the strength and wisdom of our heritage.  

When Miriam's cup is filled, raise the goblet and say: We place Miriam's cup on our seder table to honor the important role of Jewish women in our tradition and history, whose stories have been too sparingly told.  

Continue by reciting this prayer: "You abound in blessings, G-d, creator of the universe, Who sustains us with living water. May we, like the children of Israel leaving Egypt, be guarded and nurtured and kept alive in the wilderness, and may You give us wisdom to understand that the journey itself holds the promise of redemption. AMEN." (from Susan Schnur)   Next, tell the story of a Jewish woman you admire. Begin by saying:  Each Passover, we dedicate Miriam's cup to a Jewish woman who has made important contributions in achieving equality and freedom for others. This year, we honor….  

Dancing in honor of the prophetess Miriam follows the rituals for the prophet Elijah after the meal. Lift Miriam's cup and say: Miriam's life is a contrast to the life of Elijah, and both teach us important lessons. Elijah was a hermit, who spent part of his life alone in the desert. He was a visionary and prophet, often very critical of the Jewish people, and focused on the messianic era. On the other hand, Miriam lived among her people in the desert, following the path of hesed, or loving-kindness. She constantly comforted the Israelites throughout their long journey, encouraging them when they lost faith. Therefore, Elijah's cup is a symbol of future messianic redemption, while Miriam's cup is a symbol of hope and renewal in the present life. We must achieve balance in our own lives, not only preparing our souls for redemption, but rejuvenating our souls in the present. Thus, we need both Elijah's cup and Miriam's cup at our seder table.  

Sing and dance with tambourines. First hold up a tambourine and say (from Exodus 15:20-21):  "And Miriam the prophetess, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam sang unto them, Sing ye to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." As Miriam once led the women of Israel in song and dance to praise G-d for the miracle of splitting the Red Sea, so we now rejoice and celebrate the freedom of the Jewish people today. 

Here is a kid and adult friendly alternative to for the Maggid section (the Passover story section) of the Haggadah. This short play/skit is in the style of "sedra scenes" -- a contemporary take which makes the story current but stays true to the Exodus narrative. I've written it for large crowds -- so there are 13 parts, but if you have a smaller gathering you can easily double up.

LET MY PEOPLE GO!
A short play for the seder

CAST: NARRATOR, JOSEPH, BENJAMIN, PHAROAH, ADVISOR, HEBREW 1, HEBREW 2, HEBREW 3, BOSS, BAT PHAROAH, MOSES, GOD, AARON (13 parts)

NARRATOR: Our story begins in the land of Egypt where Joseph, once a prisoner, is now the Pharaoh’s chief advisor.

JOSEPH: So how are things back in Israel?

BENJAMIN: Oy! Terrible. Our gardens and crops are dying. There is no rain this year. That is why we had to come down to Egypt!

JOSEPH: Well, don’t worry..life in Egypt is fantastic. Playstation 3 in every house, High Definition Television, Lincoln Navigators in the driveway, This is the most powerful nation on the planet!

BENJAMIN: Did you have rain this year? Are the gardens and crops doing well?

JOSEPH: We don’t have to worry about that. I’ve stored away tons of food in giant warehouses. The Pharaoh will be able to feed the people for three years at least, even if we get no rain.

BENJAMIN: What does the Pharaoh think of us Hebrews?

JOSEPH: He loves me. He welcomes the Hebrews into his land. Bring the entire family, we’ll make a great life here.

Narrator: The Hebrews all moved to Egypt and had many children and lived a successful life. But after many years, after Joseph and his brothers had died, a new Pharaoh rose to power.

PHAROAH: Advisor, bring me the latest census report. I want to know all the people who I rule over!

ADVISOR: Yes, you’re Royal Highness. I have the numbers here.

PHAROAH: Let’s see..Nubians, Midians, yes, very good. Are there really that many Hebrews?

ADVISOR: Oh yes, your highness. They are growing in number. They are very strong workers.

PHAROAH: Do you think that might be a danger? Perhaps they will challenge my rule – make demands. You know how these workers are always complaining about the size of the rocks for the new Pyramids. I am worried that they will use their strength in numbers to rise up against me!

ADVISOR: Yes, you are right, we must do something to break their spirits.

PHAROAH: First, let us begin with something small. We’ll get them to make more bricks each day. If that doesn’t work, we’ll eliminate the fifteen-minute breaks. If that doesn’t break them, then maybe we’ll turn to harsher measures.

Narrator: The Hebrew workers struggled to keep up with Pharaoh’s demands.

HEBREW 1: My hands are killing me. And my back, oy! I can’t take this pace.

HEBREW 2: We can make a thousand bricks a day—but two thousand? No team can work that hard! We’ll fall over!

HEBREW 3: Get back to work, the boss is coming!

BOSS: Efficiency, people! We have got to make 900 more bricks by sundown! Come on, let’s work faster!

HEBREW 1: We are working as fast as we can, boss.

BOSS: Listen, smart aleck, I’ve got a lot of pressure on my shoulders. If Pharaoh doesn’t get his bricks, I’m out of a job. I got a family to feed, too, you know. So get back down in the pit and start working!

HEBREW 2: We haven’t had a break all day!

BOSS: And you are not going to get one! Work!

HEBREW 3: You know what, boss; you have become a real pain in the backside!

BOSS: What’d you say?

HEBREW 3: You heard me.

[The BOSS walks over and pushes Hebrew 3 to the ground]

BOSS: Now get back to work before I get really angry!

Narrator: Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted a young Hebrew child. The child, Moses, was raised with the finest Egypt had to offer.

BAT PHAROAH: Here, sweetheart, eat your honey cakes before your flute lesson.

MOSES: I’m so excited about the party this evening.

BAT PHAROAH: Your new robe looks lovely, dear. I just hope that the Pyramid is finished. Your grandfather has the workers working double time just to get the place finished before the great assembly.

MOSES: I heard that the Hebrews were complaining.

BAT PHAROAH: Complaining? Don’t worry about that. We take care of the needs of all our workers, dear. They are fed, given homes, and we give them a new pair of shoes each year. We are very generous. The only problem is that there are simply too many Hebrews. For that reason, we are cutting down their number. I know that it is sad that we have to kill off their baby boys, but we are really doing it for their own good.

MOSES: I know so little about the world. Someday I’d like to go out of the palace and see how they live.

BAT PHAROAH: They are not clean like us, dear. Especially the Hebrews. They throw garbage on the streets, and the smells are truly horrible.

Narrator: One day Moses decides to sneak out of the palace, and see for himself the plight of the Hebrews.

HEBREW 1: I can’t work, today, I’m sick! And I hurt my arm yesterday lifting stones!

BOSS: I don’t want to hear excuses. This pyramid has got to be finished by Thursday! Today is Wednesday! So get moving!

HEBREW 1: I can’t work. Please, listen to me, have some compassion!

HEBREW 2: Give him a break, boss!

BOSS: Shut up!

HEBREW 3: Don’t get involved!

HEBREW 2: I’m tired of this, boss! My cousin there is hurt. He can’t work today. And he’s not working. So go tell Pharaoh that he’ll have to hire some more workers or this isn’t getting done!

BOSS: Shut up!

[Boss pushes Hebrew 2 to the ground.]

HEBREW 1: Stop it!

BOSS: I’m going to hurt you bad, you whiny Hebrew!

HEBREW 3: Stop! One of Pharaoh’s princes is coming!

MOSES: What is happening?

BOSS: I am going to give this man the beating he deserves, your honor! Watch this!

MOSES: No!

[Moses hits the Boss, who falls to the ground]

HEBREW 3: Oh no! What did you do to the boss? We’ll be blamed for this! We’ll be punished!

MOSES: What have I done? What have I done?

Narrator: Moses ran away, far off into the wilderness. Where he is taken in by Yitro, and marries one of Yitro’s daughter’s Zipporah. One day, as Moses is taking care of yitro’s sheep, he stumbles across a burning bush.

GOD: Moses, Moses!

MOSES: Who is that? What is going on? What is happening?

GOD: It is me, the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

MOSES: You must have the wrong number.

GOD: This is no time for jokes. You must go back to Egypt and stand up to Pharaoh! Then you will lead the people back to their homeland!

MOSES: How will I do that? The people do not know me! I have no power now that I have run away!

GOD: I will be with you. Go to your sister, Miriam, and brother, Aaron, and stand up to Pharaoh!

Narrator: Moses returns to Egypt, with his wife and son, Gershom. Aaron and Moses approach Pharaoh.

PHAROAH: What do you want?

AARON: Our people need a three-day vacation. We need to go outside of the city so that we can pray to God in our own way.

PHAROAH: Why can’t you wait for the festival of the pyramids? Then your people will have a chance to celebrate with everyone.

MOSES: We do not wish to pray to your gods. We have one God, who is mightier than all of your gods.

PHAROAH: You must be joking. The gods have made Egypt a great nation. What has your God done for you?

MOSES: You’ll see what our God can do! And then you’ll give in to our demands!

PHAROAH: Don’t count on it, Hebrew!

Narrator: Pharaoh was a stubborn man. Even after plagues of blood, frogs, lice, disease, hail, and darkness, he would not let the Hebrews take a day off. It wasn’t until a disease struck and killed the first born of every Egyptian, that the Pharaoh changed his mind.

PHAROAH: Don’t you understand what is happening?

ADVISOR: No, your highness, I don’t know why our gods are not protecting us.

PHAROAH: Everything we did to the Hebrews is now happening to us!!!

ADVISOR: Maybe their God is powerful!

PHAROAH: Tell the police that are surrounding their neighborhood to let them go.

Narrator: That night, Moses, spoke to the people.

MOSES: Put on your sandals, we will not have time to bake the bread for tomorrow! Tonight we will leave Egypt, and set out for a new land! Our children, and our children’s children will remember this night! They will tell the story of how we stood up to Pharaoh, and how God helped us to be free!

AARON: Let all who are hungry come and eat!

Narrator: And thus ends our little play.