4 Questions

Haggadah Section: -- Four Questions

Mah nishtanah ha-lailah ha-zeh mi-kol ha-lailot?

Why is this night different from all other nights?

We know the traditional answers to this question: On this night, we eat matzah and bitter herbs, we dip and we recline. But this is not all, or even most, of what Passover is about.  

On most other nights, we allow the news of tragedy in distant places to pass us by.  

We succumb to compassion fatigue – aware that we cannot possibly respond to every injustice that arises around the world.

On this night, we are reminded that our legacy as the descendants of slaves creates in us a different kind of responsibility – we are to protect the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Let us add a fifth question to this year’s seder.  Let us ask ourselves,

What must be done?

This year, this Passover, let us recommit to that sacred responsibility to protect the stranger, particularly those vulnerable strangers in faraway places whose suffering is so often ignored.

Let us infuse the rituals of the seder with action:

When tasting the matzah, the bread of poverty, let us find ways to help the poor and the hungry.

When eating the maror, let us commit to help those whose lives are embittered by disease.

When dipping to commemorate the blood that protected our ancestors against the Angel of Death, let us pursue protection for those whose lives are threatened by violence and conflict.

When reclining in celebration of our freedom, let us seek opportunities to help those who are oppressed. 

At this season of liberation, join us in working for the liberation of all people.  Help us respond to the seder’s questions with action and justice. 


Source:  
ajws.org
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A Haggadah for Justice
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Haggadot
Table of contents
    Introduction
  • Human Rights Quote
  • Introduction
  • Human Trafficking Today
  • Introduction
  • Freedom - by Emory Douglas
  • March on Washington, 1963
  • "Седер на Песах". авторка Зоя Черкаська-Ннаді
  • #MyKeshetSeder
  • WHO SITS WITH US AT OUR SEDER??
    • Commentary / Readings
  • Praise the Contrary and Its Defenders
  • Four Cups of Wine: Social Justice Readings for Your Seder
  • Then they came
  • Poetry - Reading The Haggadah Backwards
  • The Brutality of Corrective Rape
  • Liberation in God's Image. Progressive Islam as an Islamic Humanism
  • The Ten Plagues of Domestic Poverty
  • The Banana on the Seder Plate: A Ritual to Reflect the Refugee Crisis
  • Reflection Questions/Preguntas Para Reflexionar
    • Bareich
  • Social Justice Blessing
  • The Third Cup: Transformation
  • Pour Out Your Wrath
    • -- Ten Plagues
  • Heschel Quote
  • Ten Modern Plagues
  • Gentrification: "It's Not About Race...”
  • LGBT Stats
  • Ten Plagues Facing Refugees in the U.S. and Worldwide
    • Human Rights Prayer
      • Yachatz
    • Breaking the matzah - hunger
    • Let All Who are Hungry, Come and Eat—A Reading for The Passover Seder - A Supplement from AJWS
    • Matzah
      • Maggid - Beginning
    • Child Labor in the Cocoa Fields
    • Adding Fair Trade Chocolate to the Seder Plate
    • Rabbis Organizing Rabbis Immigration Seder Ritual
    • The Thesis Statement of the Haggadah
    • Tomato on the Seder Plate
      • -- Four Questions
    • 4 Questions
    • The 5th Question
    • Ask the Fifth Question
    • The Four Questions: What Questions Must We Ask Tonight?
    • Four Questions Through the Lens of Food Justice
    • Four Questions: Human Trafficking
    • Four Questions: Worker's Rights
      • -- Four Children
    • 5th Question
    • Four Children Through the Lens of Food Justice
    • The Four Children: A Racial Justice Haggadah Insert
    • An anti-racist passover resource
      • -- Exodus Story
    • Social Justice - Modern Slavery
    • Maggid & Persecution of Native Americans
    • Heschel on Selma
    • Stand With Refugees This Passover
    • Ruby Bridges
    • Justice For All
    • The Statue of Liberty Reimagined
    • Bread and Roses
      • -- Cup #2 & Dayenu
    • Dayenu intro
    • What Does 'Dayenu' Mean Today?
    • Miriam's Cup - Winona LaDuke, Native American Activist
    • Being LGBTQ and Enough: A Queer Dayeinu
    • Dayenu
      • Rachtzah
    • Rachtzah: A Deeper Washing
      • Motzi-Matzah
    • Dissatisfied...
      • Maror
    • Rights for All Workers
    • Maror
      • Hallel
    • Hallel Prayer for Children of Pilgrims, Slaves & Native American Peoples
      • Songs
    • L'Internationale
    • A Social Justice Commentary on Chad Gadya
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