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We break the middle matzah spiriting away a part of the tribes of Israel to be lost until found at the end of proceedings.  What does this feel like, to rip at a part of our Jewish souls to leave them in hiding? 

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The seder plate holds the main symbols of a traditional Passover seder-- the shank bone, egg, karpas, charoset, and maror. The Kabbalists of the Middle Ages added hazeret, another kind of bitter lettuce. And in recent years feminists have added an orange on the seder plate to symbolize women's leadership roles and full empowerment in Jewish life. The artichoke however is a new development. What is an artichoke? Surely a work of God's imagination! Many petals, with thistle and a heart....

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The Paschal Lamb reminds us that the Holy One, praised be God, passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt. The Matzah is to remind us that before the dough our ancestors prepared for bread had time to rise, God revealed the might, power and presence of God unto them and redeemed them. The Bitter Herbs are to remind us that the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors in Egypt. In gratitude for the miracles which God has performed...

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מִפִּי אֵל, מִפִּי אֵל, יִבוֹרַךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל. מִפִּי אֵל, מִפִּי אֵל, יִבוֹרַךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל. Mipi El, Mipi El, Y'vorach Yisrael. Mipi El, Mipi El, Y'vorach Yisrael. אֵין אַדִּיר כַּה', וְאֵין בָּרוּךְ כְּבֶן עַמְרָם.  אֵין גְדוֹלָה כַּתּוֹרָה, וְאֵין דּוֹרְשָׁהּ כְּיִשְׂרָאֵל.  Ein Adir ka'Adonai, V'ein Baruch k'ven Amram.  Ein G'dolah ka'Torah, V'ein Dorsha k'Yisrael. מִפִּי אֵל, מִפִּי אֵל, יִבוֹרַךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל.  מִפִּי אֵל, מִפִּי אֵל, יִבוֹרַךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל. Mipi El, Mipi El, Y'vorach Yisrael. Mipi El, Mipi El, Y'vorach Yisrael. אֵין הָדוּר כַּה', וְאֵין וָתִיק כְּבֶן עַמְרָם. ...

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The Well of Tradition and Miriam's Well One of our people's greatest strengths is using our tradition as a wellspring to renew our heritage as we pass it down from generation to generation. As Jews we have a living relationship with our past. Jewish history, Jewish traditions, and Jewish memories are not placed in museums and libraries for scholars to research. They are part of our people's daily lives. When we study our sacred texts, retell our stories, celebrate our successes...

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Back to basics, get rid of what is bloated and inflated“Letting go means just what it says. It’s an invitation to cease clinging to anything- whether it be an idea, a thing, an event, a particular time, or view, or desire. It is a conscious decision to release with full acceptance into the stream of present moments as they are unfolding. To let go means to give up coercing, resisting or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which...

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Dayeinu It would have been too much if only Columbine had been the single scar on the flesh of our country. Dayeinu! It would have been too much if only the lecture halls at Virginia Tech had transformed into morgues. Dayeinu! It would have been too much if only the innocence of Newtown’s young children had been savaged. Dayeinu! It would have been too much if only Orlando’s nightclub had been drenched with the blood of innocent women and men. Dayeinu!...

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“American society is living now at the moment when an abused wife walks out of the household. It is the moment of greatest possibility for freedom, and the moment of greatest danger that the abusive husband will try to kill her. Freedom depends on her having a community to protect and nurture her. “Right now, many abused communities are walking out of their abusive households. Almost certainly, there will be attempts by those in power to choke these energies to death....

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The Voice of a Sexual Assault Survivor What I do remember is waking up the next morning in a strange room, alone, cold, mostly naked and confused. In a panic I got my clothes together. My heart sank into my stomach as I looked down at the blood-stained sheets. I was so frightened I didn’t know what to do. I was hurriedly “pushed” out the door by the guy who lived in the room. Not much was said. The Voice of...

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The MaNishtana traditionally asks us, “What is unique or different about tonight?” and, “Why do we eat Matzah, why do we dip and eat Bitter Herbs not just once, but twiceand why do we recline?” These elements are symbolic themes that mirror the reflection our ancestor’s liberation from slavery, the hardships they experienced and theoppression that infringed on their freedoms. Tonight at our GLBT Passover Seder we incorporate a fifth question and answer. “What is unique or different about tonight’s seder,...

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by Mark Silverman     My early years immersed me in a Judaism of male dominance in life and at the seder table, inevitably enticing me to gulp my glasses of real wine as a way of dulling the scene, blurring the edges, until the final songs sent me off to bed in a not unpleasant stupor. Dayenu! Later, still a child but more aware, I saw the family kowtow to my father, a Yeshiva boy who went secular except for a few...