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"Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and to ruin the pyramids of callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods. The liturgical movement must become a revolutionary movement, seeking to overthrow the forces that continue to destroy the promise, the hope, the vision." —Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1970

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(Adapted from Alida Liberman) Pour the third cup of wine The prophet Isaiah said: They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again know war. But they shall sit every one under their vines and fig trees, and none shall make them afraid. The swords have not yet been put aside, and the time of the plowshare and the pruning hooks is still to come....

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won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.

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Ufros Aleinu Sukkat, Sukkat Sh'lomecha Ufros Aleinu Sukkat, Sukkat Sh'lomecha Spirit of the Universe, spread over us your canopy of Peace.

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Well it looks like it might be a hard road, but I’m gonna walk it with you And I know you might have a heavy load, but I can carry some too I will lift you up when they push you down, I will raise my voice and stand my ground Well it looks like it might be a hard road, but I’m gonna walk it with you Well it looks like it might be a long night, but I ain’t...

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When we bless the green parsley and dip it in the salty water, we remember the spring, and we remember the long, sad years of our slavery.When we left Egypt,we bloomed and sprouted,and songs dripped from our tongueslike shimmering threads of nectar.All green with life we grew,who had been buried,under toil and sorrow,dense as bricks.All green in the desert we grew,casting seeds at a promise.All green we grew. 

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Isaac Luria taught that, when the world was made, God’s infinity was too great to be contained, and creation shattered. The world that we know consists of broken vessels, with sparks of God trapped inside. We bless this cup to remind us of our obligation to find the holy sparks in our broken world, and to fix what must be mended. 

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Prepare sandwich of matza, maror, and charoset. While we may understand that maturity means accepting that life is the integration of the bitter and the sweet, the sandwich also reminds us that we are live our lives "in-between". We hang in the balance, alive, but not immortal, sandwiched between a fragile, limited, animal self and our eternal Divine image.

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The following alternative kiddush was written by Marcia Falk, a prominent Jewish feminist liturgist. Her blessings avoid the problem of God’s gender because they do not reference God as a person-like being. In addition, they locate the power of blessing with the people ("Let us bless" rather than with God’s inherent blessedness ("Blessed are you") N’vareykh et Eyn Hahayim matzmihat p’ri hagefen. Let us bless the Source of Life that ripens the fruit on the vine.