Pesach, Matzah, and Marror

We know what those symbols are for:

Remember the sacrifice,

Hold sacred the flight,

Taste the bitterness without any delight.

Each year at our seder on the table we add,

Items, in addition to those used traditionally.

We do this to encourage ourselves to ask and seek,

“What makes this night different?”

and “What is our task?”

We hope the sunflower will spark such a query,

So we can explain to all the weary,

So that we reflect on ourselves and around us.

That our sisters and brothers, both Jewish and other,

Want to live freely in peace with each other.

So why the sunflower this year on our table?

To hope for those who might not be able,

To celebrate Pesach this year as free Jews.

To remember all those people, who cannot, 

Through acts of tyranny, celebrate life as free people.

When all they want is the basic freedom,

To live in Ukraine however they choose.

We hope in this symbol that we will learn

That’s it’s peace we all want, it’s freedom we yearn.

On this seder night we hope and we act,

That the world will bring peace to Ukraine today.

So tonight as this sunflower graces our table,

Let us pledge to raise funds, to send food if we’re able.

So the freedom we celebrate and the story we hear,

Will inspire us to help others make this a better year.

לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה יִהְיֶה שָׁלוֹם

For next year, 

Let there be peace.

This is not only the bread of our affliction, but also the lechem oni, the bread of those in dire need.  It's called that because of its purposeful lack of ingredients — only unleavened flour and water, nothing to make it rise, and it must be baked in haste — the food of those with nothing, those who've left everything, in desperate need of a miracle.
It is the bread we took with us when we rushed out of Egypt to pursue our destiny and our peoplehood — to pursue life. Our Jewish family in Ukraine and those who are fleeing the country share in a single concern — life. A life of safety, of freedom, and of opportunity for better days. 

As we hold them close to our hearts tonight, and remember them here at our seder tables, let us do all we can to support and comfort them — in cities under bombardment and at the borders swelling with their numbers — and to build a future whose course we shape with every act of kindness.  We do this because all Jews are responsible for one another, embodying the mighty hand and outstretched arm that has delivered our people throughout time.