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By Avigayil Halpern Blood: Young girls tuck tampons quickly into backpacks, secret them in purses, hide them in Ugg boots. It’s not blue dye that the river is running with, and periods are more trouble than the pamphlet in that goody bag from middle-school health class would leave one to believe. “It’s beautiful to be female,” we’re told, but nobody accounts for cramps and cramps and cramps and bloodied sheets and cramps. We are under no obligation to love our bodies,...

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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...

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Elijah the profit it a symbol of the hope to come. It is told that when he comes he will bring peace and spread love throughout the world. Let's drink our last cup of wine to Elijah! Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha'olam, borei pri ha'gafen.

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WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THIS AS A JEW? The Jewish people has been a refugee people since biblical times. In the United States, we know the devastating consequences of turning away refugees. Less than a century ago, refugees fleeing the Holocaust were marked as security threats to the U.S., denied entry, and sent back to Europe to be brutally murdered. Furthermore, the value of welcoming, protecting, and loving the stranger appears in the Torah 36 times according to the Talmud...

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had you-i been given but seconds in this unreal reality, and the ten-thousand things not made themselves known to me-you, daiyenu, had the ten-thousand things made themselves known to me-you, and your-my blood not thudded circuitously, stubbornly, daiyenu, had your-my blood thudded circuitously, stubbornly, and these atoms not stayed gathered into matter as me-you, daiyenu, had these atoms stayed gathered into matter as me-you, and you-i not been born earthly entity, daiyenu, had you-i been born earthly entity, and these lungs...

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One at a time, pour water over each others’ hands. As water is poured over your hands, share with us what you would like to let go of right now, what you would like to have “washed away”. And after each person speaks, give them support by all saying “Kayn Yihee Ratzon”, or “So Be It.” 

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Pass a pitcher, basin, and towl around the table. Rinse and dry your hands, saying: Let our telling pour forth like water, strengthening spirits, refreshing souls.

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The Second Cup: We drink to ending Materialism and to celebrating Earth and Spirit through Empathy and Justice DAYENU: THE PATH OF MANY STEPS TOWARD FREEDOM What are the Ten Healings that can begin to make our world a Beloved Community? [For each of the Ten Healings, we drink some wine or grape-juice and then say L’Chaim!—To Life!] Create organic farms in countrysides and cities. Purchase home and company electric power from wind-based suppliers. Families buy hybrid or electric cars; convince...

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From Oppression to Liberation: For the Pursuit of Reproductive Justice in this Generation The four cups of wine we drink this evening are symbols of our freedom and God's presence in our lives. But, as the seder ritual reminds us, freedom is an ongoing journey. True freedom can only be enjoyed when all our sisters, brothers and others are freed of the many burdens that would delay or deny their inherent dignity. As women, we still know the shackles of oppression...

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The following Seder is for a weeknight. (On Shabbat we add the words in parentheses) רָיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי. וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכָל צְבָאַָם. וַיְכַל אֱלֹקִים בַּיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אוֹתוֹ כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר בֶָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת (Vay'hi erev vay'hi voker yom hashi-shi. Vay'chulu hashamayim v'ha-aretz v’choltzva’am. Vay’chal Elohim bayom hashvi’i, m'lachto asher asah, vayishbot bayom hashvi-i, mikol-mlachto asher asah. Vay'vareich Elohim,...

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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...

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The Passover Seder is one of the most recognized and widely practiced of Jewish rituals, yet had our ancestors visited one of these modern-day celebrations, they would be baffled. Not only does our modern Seder wildly diverge from the Passover of old: during antiquity itself the holiday underwent radical changes. As the centralized Israelite state took shape about 3,000 years ago, the religion of the people varied from place to place and took variegated forms, hints of which we can see...

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had you-i been given but seconds in this unreal reality, and the ten-thousand things not made themselves known to me-you, daiyenu, had the ten-thousand things made themselves known to me-you, and your-my blood not thudded circuitously, stubbornly, daiyenu, had your-my blood thudded circuitously, stubbornly, and these atoms not stayed gathered into matter as me-you, daiyenu, had these atoms stayed gathered into matter as me-you, and you-i not been born earthly entity, daiyenu, had you-i been born earthly entity, and these lungs...

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Traditionally, we Jews use wine to mark a time of celebration and enter into a space of joy. We lambs and lions drink traditional Ethiopian Honey Wine to honor two queens: The Queen of Sheba (and all our brothers and sisters from the sacred land of Ethiopia,) and The Queen Bee, to celebrate the sweet, abundant and rich gifts she brings. She is a matriarchal creature who communicates through dance to her deeply intertwined community. We bless this moment by saying:...

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We encourage you to ask four questions of your own... about anything... ask them of yourselves and of each other. Can we be humble enough to admit when we do not know something, rather than pretending to have the answer? Can we be gracious enough to answer another’s question without shaming them for not knowing? Can we be brave enough to inquire within, and ask ourselves our own hard questions? Can we open our hearts to the love that wants to...