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By Maya Kasowky What follows are short descriptions of Seder customs from around the world. For this lesson each custom can be printed out on a separate card or strip. Circling the seder plate over the heads of each participant, while saying “In Haste we left Egypt”.  The response is “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt” Where it fits in the seder: The very beginning Where it is from: Morocco and Tunisia Putting the shank bone, charoset, maror, karpas, egg,...

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It is one of life's joys that each year Jews celebrate the holiday of Pesach - its message of freedom - its response to suffering - its hope for renewed life. United with family and dear friends, Jews celebrate the holiday of Pesach - with gratitude for blessings - for love - for freedom.

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A Meditation on the Four Children by Rabbi Brant Rosen As Jews, how do we respond when we hear the tragic news regularly coming out of Israel/Palestine? How do we respond to reports of checkpoints and walls, of home demolitions and evictions, of blockades and military incursions? It might well be said that there are four very different children deep inside each of us, each reacting in his or her own characteristic way. The Fearful Child is marked by the trauma...

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THE MATZAH OF HOPE and PEACE Neal Borovitz Avadim Hayinu:  Not only were we slaves to the Pharaoh of Egypt, we have also been enslaved and persecuted by other Pharaohs.  Among these Pharaohs of every age were the Kings of Babylonia, the Emperors of Greece and Rome, the Churchmen and Nobles of Medieval Spain, Hitler and his Nazi followers, the Pharaohs of Moscow, and the dictators, potentates and terrorists of the contemporary Arab world.  The Babylonian exile was followed by a...

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When we break the Matzah in half, we are symbolizing the split of the red sea. When we break the Matzah, we symbolize the hope that we can eat. When the red sea split, it symbolized the permission; yes you may pass, after hearing the word NO NO NO. During the Seder we get bored and we ask “When can we eat” and until this breaking of the Matzah, we get told NO NO NO. It is hope that there is...

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“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving." -James Baldwin

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Leader: With the third cup of wine we remember God’s promise to redeem the Israelites with an outstretched arm. With this cup we turn our thoughts to those not being offered a helping hand. Scant resources are allocated within the criminal justice system to provide alternatives to incarceration and prepare incarcerated individuals for successfully reentering society. The criminal justice system has become the primary strategy by which we address many of the challenges facing members of low income and minority communities,...

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Tonight, we have joined in an unbroken chain with our ancestors and our ancestors’ ancestors (and our ancestors’ ancestors’ ancestors!) in commemorating this sacred day, remembering that we were once in bondage and now are liberated. We will be grateful. We will remember those who came before us and we will lovingly envision those who will come after. We will stand against the enslavement of any living beings and we will uplift all of our brothers and sisters and we will...

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On the First Seder Night AND THUS IT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT Of old, most of the wonders You did perform at night. At the head of the watches is this very night. Full victory came to Abraham, When he divided his company that night. IT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT ! You judged the king of Gerar in a dream at ngiht; You frightened Laban in the midst of the night; And Israel wrestled with God and prevailed at night. IT HAPPENED AT...

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Long ago, Pharaoh ruled the land of Egypt. He enslaved the Jewish people and made them work very hard building his cities.   song: Bang bang bang Phaoraoh was especially cruel to Jewish children. One mother hid her baby, Moses, in a basket in the river. Pharoah's daughter found him and took him home to live in the palace. Moses grew up. He saw the slaves working so hard. He had a fight about it and ran away to be a shepherd....

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Leader: When Israel came forth out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Company: Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His dominion. Leader: The sea saw it, and fled; The Jordan turned backward. Company: The mountains skipped like rams, The hills like young sheep, Leader: What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest? Thou Jordan, that thou turnest backward? Company: Ye mountains that ye skip like rams; Ye hills, like young sheep? Leader: Tremble, thou earth,...

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דָם וָאֵש וְתִימְרוֹת עָשָן. דָבָר אַחֵר: בְיָד חֲזָקָה - שְתַיִם, ובִזְרעַֹ נְטויָה - שְתַיִם, ובְמרָֹא גָדלֹ - שְתַיִם, ובְאתֹוֹת - שְתַיִם, ובְמפְֹתִים - שְתַיִם. אֵלו עֶשֶר מַכוֹת שֶהֵבִיא הַקָדוֹש בָרוךְ הוא עַל הַמִצְרִים בְמִצְרַים , וְאֵלו הֵן: דםָ צפְרֵדְעֵ כִנִים עָרוֹב דבֶרֶ שְחִין בָרד אַרְבֶה חשֶךְ מַכַת בְכוֹרוֹת רַבִי יְהודָה הָיָה נוֹתֵן בָהֶם סִמָנִים: דְצַ"ךְ עַדַ"ש בְאַחַ"ב.

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How much more so do we have to be thankful for the manifold and unbounded blessings of God: He brought us out of Egypt, and executed judgments against the Egyptians, and executed judgments against their gods, and put to death their firstborn, and  gave us their riches, and split the sea for us, and led us through it on dry land, and sunk our foes in it, and satisfied our needs in the desert for forty years, and fed us the...