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As we pass Miriam's cup around the table, we will fill her cup with water from each of our water glasses. As you give the gift of your water, please share (if you are comfortable) the gift from your grandmother that you hold close today. ~~~ This is the Cup of Miriam, the cup of living waters. Let us remember the Exodus from Egypt. These are the living waters, God's gift to Miriam, which gave new life to Israel as we...

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Sometimes we are Bat Pharaoh, sometimes we are Moses, sometimes we are Miriam, and sometimes we are Tzipporah. We dedicate the third cup of wine tonight to each part of ourselves. In honor of the third cup: Who are YOU tonight? ~~~ בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. Drink the third glass...

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This is the way to experience bitterness: take a big chunk of raw horseradish, let the burning turn your face all red. This is the way to experience bitterness: dig back to a time of raw wounds, remember how it felt before the healing began, years or months or days ago. This is the way to experience bitterness: hold the hand of a friend in pain, listen to her story, remember Naomi who renamed herself Mara, bitterness, because she "went away...

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We'll introduce ourselves to each other by tracing our matriarchal lineage using the following formulation: ~~~ for those who identify as female: I am __________ bat (daughter of) __________ bat __________ bat ___________ for those who identify as male: I am __________ ben (son of) _______________ ben __________ ben ___________ ~~~ Use your English, Hebrew, Yiddish and/or Ladino names. Go back as many generations as you can. You may choose to invoke the names of women who have been like mothers...

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We spill 10 drops of our wine tonight to remember that freedom for the Israelites was marked by the devastation of another people. We will spill another 10 drops of our wine tonight to remember the many women who are not free to sit safely around a table of family and friends remembering, debating, and telling their stories. In honor of them we recite the traditional 10 plagues as well as the 10+ plagues facing women in our world today. Blood...

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On Passover, Jews are commanded to tell the story of the Exodus and to see ourselves as having lived through that story, so that we may better learn how to live our lives today. The stories we tell our children shape what they believe to be possible—which is why at Passover, we must tell the stories of the women who played a crucial role in the Exodus narrative. The Book of Exodus, much like the Book of Genesis, opens in pervasive...

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I learned the Four Questions in the kitchen. My mother handed me a towel and said: "I'll wash, you dry. I'll sing a few words, and you repeat." And so we sang, from the night after Purim, every night until I'd learned it all. I taught the Four Questions at bath time to two little ones, lithe and slippery as seals. "I'll sing a few words, and then you sing," I said. They loved to dip and splash for " sh'tei...

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The beginning of the  seder seems strange. We start with  kiddush as we normally would when we begin any festive meal. Then we wash, but without a blessing, and break bread without eating it. What’s going on here? It seems that the beginning of the seder is kind of a false start. We act as if we are going to begin the meal but then we realize that we can’t – we can’t really eat this meal until we understand it,...

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Standing I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me Recalling generations past, imagining those yet to be. We weave our lives into our traditions. We save what we value --- what it takes to survive. We pass on the faith that lives in our deepest heart. We weave our rituals with the threads of our lives. ~~~ Each cup of wine tonight will take us through the generations of women in our own families. We are all...

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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...

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Standing I’m standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me Recalling generations past, imagining those yet to be. We weave our lives into our traditions. We save what we value --- what it takes to survive. We pass on the faith that lives in our deepest heart. We weave our rituals with the threads of our lives. ~~~ Each cup of wine tonight will take us through the generations of women in our own families. We are all...

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The beginning of the  seder seems strange. We start with  kiddush as we normally would when we begin any festive meal. Then we wash, but without a blessing, and break bread without eating it. What’s going on here? It seems that the beginning of the seder is kind of a false start. We act as if we are going to begin the meal but then we realize that we can’t – we can’t really eat this meal until we understand it,...