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I will take you to be my people... ... When we rise up from our Seder tables, let us commit ourselves to stamping out xenophobia and hatred in every place that it persists. Echoing God’s words when God said, “I take you to be my people,” let us say to those who seek safety in our midst, “we take you to be our people.” May we see past difference and dividing lines and remember, instead, that we were all created b’tzelem...

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We begin our Seder by calling to mind the efforts of those everywhere who celebrate the Passover by searching for its meaning in their lives. In our house, we're marrying multiple traditions, genetic lines, and ways of being. It's through rituals like this that we hope to form the strands of our life into a family that's woven together for all the time we can know. We're ecstatic you can join us for Octavio Moses's first Passover, and hope we can...

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Around our tables sit four daughters.Wise DaughterThe Wise daughter understands that not everything is as it appears.She is the one who speaks up, confident that her opinion counts. She is the one who can take the tradition and ritual that is placed before her, turn it over and over, and find personal meaning in it. She is the one who can find the secrets in the empty spaces between the letters of the Torah.She is the one who claims a place...

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As we sit here as free men and women, it is so easy for us to forget the hardships that our ancestors had to overcome for our freedom. The exodus from servile Egypt to liberated Israel is viewed as the most pivotal event in Jewish history. So why do we lean on Pesach? It was the custom of ancient royalty to recline on the left for two reasons: a) Food is normally held in the right hand. Leaning toward the left...

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As we tell the story, we think about it from all angles. Our tradition speaks of four different types of children who might react differently to the Passover seder. It is our job to make our story accessible to all the members of our community, so we think about how we might best reach each type of child: What does the wise child say? The wise child asks, What are the testimonies and laws which God commanded you? You must teach...

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The answers to the first three questions are drawn from Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). Excerpts are cited with “NJC” and the page number. Question #1 Why does America have the highest incarceration rate of any developed nation in the world? Many factors have increased the incarceration rate, including the War on Drugs, the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing, and privatization of prisons, which creates financial incentives for keeping people...

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The Pesach story begins in a broken world, amidst slavery and oppression. The sound of the breaking of the matza sends us into that fractured existence, only to become whole again when we find the broken half, the afikoman, at the end of the Seder. This brokenness is not just a physical or political situation: It reminds us of all those hard, damaged places within ourselves. All those narrow places from which we want to break to free. In Hebrew, Egypt...

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“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions. ― Abraham Joshua Heschel This is what every Seder is about. Celebration of freedom, expressing reverence, appreciation,...

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The world’s refugee camps are some of the most desolate backdrops against which people fleeing violence and persecution rebuild their lives. The Akre Refugee Camp in Iraq, which houses hundreds of Syrian families, was built out of the remains of a former Saddam Hussein prison. The Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan, one of the world’s most populous refugee camps, consists of endless rows of beige tents and caravans with almost no plant or animal life. Dust storms, heat, and blindingly bright...

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Take turns reading the 10 quotes below, followed by a 2 minute moment of silence. Each quote is taken from a news article from the alst year.  “I can barely buy a piece of stale bread, that’s why my children are dying before my eyes.” [Yemen] “The Rakhine burned their houses down,” she said, referring to civilians from the Buddhist ethnic group that gives Rakhine State its name. “My friend is gone forever.” [Myanmar] "I don't have my son with me....

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Leader: Rabbi Benjamin Adler teaches us about Maror: What is a Bitter Herb?  When most of us think of bitter herbs, that  maror, we think of  khreyn  (Yiddish for horseradish). But when you think about it, horseradish is not really bitter. It is pungent or spicy. According to the Talmud, the correct vegetable to use is lettuce, probably a variety of Romaine lettuce. Indeed, this is what many Sephardi Jews use for  maror. Of course, Romaine lettuce is not really bitter...

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YACHATZ Is matzo poor man's bread or the food of free men? Can it be both? If we regard it as the Bread of Affliction why did we carry dough on our backs out of Egypt, to let it bake in the hot sun without leavening and rising? Can one Matzo be both a symbol of wretchedness and deliverance? Matzo is a paradox. Not only is it so, but in breaking the middle matzo we also break with symmetry. There is...

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[Resume taking turns reading. Each person is invited to read a grouped set of lines - or to pass.] Passover is the celebration of life. The story of the Jewish people is truly a triumph of life. Against the odds of history, the Jewish people have done more than survive - we have adapted creatively to each new time, each new place, from the birth of our people to the present day. Even though death has pursued us relentlessly, time and...

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Leader: We have drunk the wine and tasted the special foods of the Passover celebration. They symbolize our attachment to the traditions of our culture, to freedom, and to life. To remind us of these values as we go back out into the world, at the end of our festival meal, we shall return to have a final taste of matsah - our symbol of suffering and liberation, of renewal in nature and humanity. I am breaking this matsah into two...

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Leader: [Announces the name of the child or children who found the `aphiqoman.] Let us continue our seder by eating one last little piece of matsah to leave us with the taste of freedom's struggles. [Everyone eat a last piece of matsah.] Now, let us conclude our seder. Everyone: We have recalled struggles against slavery and injustice. We have sung of freedom and peace. We revisited times of persecution and times of fulfillment. Only half a century ago, Nazis committed the...