The Four Cups | Make Your Own Passover Haggadah

We will drink the first of four cups of wine

And give up control

To the wine, to the story, to God.

We are in Mitzrayim, the narrow place, And God says to us:

I Shall Take You Out,

I Shall Rescue You,

I Shall Redeem You,

I Shall Take You to Me.

Sanctify the day with the First Cup.

I Shall Take You Out, sez God,

From the burdens of Egypt.

That's nice. But what about

The burdens of now?

War, sex slavery, exploitation, inequality,

Not much changes.

We better get out from under,

Resist the oppressor

And make our own places free.

So drink from the Cup of Sanctification.The fruit of our hopes and prayers.

Tell the Story of a People's Creation with the Second Cup.

I Shall Rescue You, sez God,

From someone else's definition

Of you are, of what you can be.

Inspired by God, we free ourselves.

Moses or Abraham Lincoln or Betty Friedan

Freedom is not something we can be given

Freedom is something we must create.

So drink from the Cup of Deliverance

The fruit of our arduous journey.

Thank the chain of work that created the Seder meal with the Third Cup.

I Shall Redeem You, sez God

With an outstretched arm

Scattering the seeds

To the earth to the vineyard to the farmworker to the winemaker to the bottle to the grocer,

All for this glass of wine.

Redemption is hard work,

Forgivenss requires self awareness,

Teshuvah ain't for babies.

So drink from the Cup of Redemption

The fruit of our many labors.

Praise God's Awesome Glory with the Fourth Cup.

I Shall Take You to Me, sez God

For a people

And be your GodIn eternal covenant.

Gosh, can I get a job description first?

Commitment to obligation

Requires freedom to choose

And freedom to disobey.

So drink from the Cup of Restoration

The fruit of our Holy Connection

God says to us:

I Shall Take You Out.

I Shall Rescue You.

I Shall Redeem You.

I Shall Take You to Me.Drink.

Amen

haggadah Section: Kadesh

Source: http://triganza.blogspot.com/

Featured clips

Urchatz

El lavado de manos

by Mati Rapoport

Ahora es el turno de lavarse las manos "baruj ata adonai eloheinu melej aholam, asher quitchanu ve mitisvotahv, be tzivanu al netilat iadaim" Hace muchos años, Alugnos pueblos no judios, creían que, a los judíos no les llegaban las epidemias por su simple condición de judíos. Pero, en realidad, era porque ellos se "lavavan las manos" antes de que esté científicamente comprobado que era beneficial para la salud.

Introduction

Opening Meditation

by Alan Scher

We come together from our separate lives, each of us bringing our concerns, our preoccupations, our hopes, and our dreams. We are not yet fully present: The traffic, the last-minute cooking, the final details still cling to us. Our bodies hold the rush of the past few hours.It is now time to let go of these pressures and really arrive at this seder. We do this by meditating together. Make yourself comfortable, you can close your eyes if you wish. Now...

-- Ten Plagues

The Ten Plagues

by JewBelong

Karpas

by HIAS

Nirtzah

by Uri L'Tzedek

By: Rabbi Ari Weiss At the close of the Haggadah, after moving from past humiliations to future hopes, a surprise! A piyut, or liturgical poem, first quoted in Sefer Rokeach (1160-1238), that returns to the Haggadic theme of retribution but on a deeper, more fundamental register. Nature is a "war of all against all."[1] The cat that attacks is attacked just as the Egyptians who oppressed are oppressed. "Nature red in tooth and claw."[2] And so it goes. Violence always escalating,...

-- Exodus Story

Min Hametzar - Calling Out from the Narrow Place

by Annie Matan

1. God, have You forgotten me? I have forgotten how to breathe. The air here is tight around me Each day presses in and tomorrow feels impossibly far away I long to feel Your wide, wide love To feel hard earth beneath my cracked feet, shade on my bent back, cool mist on my sun-scorched skin I long to hear sweet words For respite from the sting that forces me into this pit and keeps me here Day after day God,...

Introduction

Four Cups of Wine

by Alan Scher

Tonight we drink four cups of wine. Why four? Some say the cups represent our matriarchs—Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah—whose virtue caused God to liberate us from slavery. Another interpretation is that the cups represent the Four Worlds: physicality, emotions, thought, and essence. Still a third interpretation is that the cups represent the four promises of liberation God makes in the Torah: I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you, I will take you to be...

-- Cup #2 & Dayenu

Learning to say Dayenu

by Alexandra Benjamin

Maimonides urged us to care for our bodies so that we would be free to concentrate our energies on God. In the modern world, one of the greatest threats to our physical health is mental stress. Stress causes insomnia, digestive problems, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, depression, memory impairment and countless other complications. As women, we are particularly vulnerable to the stress caused by multiple and exhausting commitments to our families, friends, jobs and communities. This year, let us learn how to...

Nirtzah

Next Year in Jerusalem

by JewBelong

-- Cup #2 & Dayenu

Dayenu (a Passover Song): A Jewish Kids' Sing Along

by BimBam

Introduction

avodah

by Jewish Womens Theatre

Urchatz

Wash Your Hands song

by Dvora Ferrell

I Want to Wash My Hands to the tune of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles Oh yeah, I’ll tell you something It’s one of God’s commands When you start the Seder You need to wash your hands You need to wash your hands You need to wash your hands Oh my what a feeling Before the paschal lamb And yes it’s appealing I want to wash my hands I want to wash my hands I want to...

Urchatz

Holy Water

by Derek Gormin

O ur hands are the primary tools to interact with our environment. They generally obey our emotions: Love, fear, compassion, the urge to win, to be appreciated, to express ourselves, to dominate. Our emotions, in turn, reflect our mental state. But, too often, each faculty of our psyche sits in its cell, exiled from one another. The mind sees one way, the heart feels another and our interface with the world ends up one messy tzimmes. Water represents the healing power...

Karpas

Karpas Meditation

by The Seder Creators

By Ronnie M. Horn Long before the struggle upward begins, there is tremor in the seed. Self-protection cracks, Roots reach down and grab hold. The seed swells, and tender shoots push up toward light. This is karpas: spring awakening growth. A force so tough it can break stone. And why do we dip karpas into salt water? To remember the sweat and tears of our ancestors in bondage. To taste the bitter tears of our earth, unable to fully renew itself...

Koreich

Mixing the Bitter and the Sweet

by Andrea Steinberger

Korech: Mixing the Bitter and the SweetOne of my favorite moments of the seder comes just before dinner is served. It is called Korech. It is also known as the Hillel sandwich. It is the moment when we eat maror (the bitter herbs) and the charoset (the sweet apple and nut mixture) on a piece of matzah. What a strange custom to eat something so bitter and something so sweet all in one bite. I can taste it now, just thinking...

More clips from Trisha Arlin

Bareich

After Such A Fine Story: Blessing After Eating the Seder Meal

by Trisha Arlin

רַבּוֹתַי נְבָרֵךְ All who sit around these tables, Friends and strangers, In peaceful conversation And pleasant disagreement, Those who remember and those who are remembered, On this Pesakh, We have shared this fine meal And such a fine story, We take this moment to acknowledge That we are blessed And, in our turn, We bless. בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּבָרוּך שְׁמוֹ Blessed be the Creator and the created, Blessed be the sustainers and the sustained. Blessed be the eaters and the eaten, Blessed...

Yachatz

The Afflicted Matza

by Trisha Arlin

The top MatzohAnd bottom Matzoh are,it is said,Pesach substitutesFor the two loaves of challah on Shabbat,Supposedly a reminderOf the two portions of mannaThey received in the dessertEvery Friday before Shabbat. But the middle matza?!Ah,That's for the seder.We break it in halfAnd call it the bread of affliction,Just like the unleavened breadWe ate as we fled slavery Matza Number Two,The afflicted matza, We break it in halfAnd separate ourselves from joySo we don't forget the painThat has been ours.We break it in...

-- Four Children

Why This Night: Four Children and Five Rabbis

by Trisha Arlin

So this is Maggid,The part of the seder where we tell the storyOf leaving Egypt.Actually,We spend more time talking about talking about the storyThen telling the actual story.Very meta is our haggadah,With many numbers,Lots of fours:Four questionsFour cups of wineFour children, Four ways of asking,Why is this night different from all other nights? The first child, Book smart.The wise childKnows all the rules.He's direct,No messin' around,This is what you do on Pesach:Tell the storyDip the herbsReclineDrink four cupsDon't eat leavened breadAsk...