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Who knows one? At some seders, people go around the table reading a question and the answers in one breath. Thirteen is hard! Who knows one? I know one. One is our God in Heaven and Earth Who knows two? I know two. Two are the tablets of the covenant One is our God in Heaven and Earth Who knows two? I know two. Three are the patriarchs Two are the tablets of the covenant One is our God in Heaven...

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1.Once upon a time our people went into galut, exile, in the land of Egypt. During a famine, our ancestor Jacob and his family fled to Egypt where food was plentiful. Through a complicated set of plot twists, his son Joseph had risen to high position in Pharaoh's court, and our people were well-respected and well-regarded, secure in the power structure of the time.2.Generations passed and our people remained in Egypt. As rulers came and went, a new Pharaoh ascended to...

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וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבֵרַכְתָּ  V’achalta, V'savata, Oo-vay-rach-ta  We ate when we were hungry  And now we’re satisfied  We thank the Source of Blessing  for all that She provides  Hunger is a yearning  In body and soul  Earth Air Fire Water  And Spirit makes us whole.  Giving and receiving  We open up our hands  From Seedtime through Harvest  We’re partners with the land  We all share a vision  Of wholeness and release  Where every child is nourished  And we all live in peace...

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Queen’s Attitude as It Bears Upon the Matter: The Three of Cups (excerpt) Marge Piercy Taste what is in your mouth, if it is water, still taste it. Wash out the cups of your fingers, clean your eyes with new tears for your sister. We are not worse revolutionaries if we remember that the universe itself pulses like a heart; that the blood dances within us; that joy is a power treading with hoofs and talons on our flimsy bodies; that...

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To think of time as both queer and Jewish, existing in cycles that rise, fall, fold over and under themselves, means acknowledging that there always has been and will be a place for us. The work of seder, the work of reliving time in tangible and real ways means connecting with an inherently queer sense of time. We can see past propaganda that tells us there was no room in the traditions we came from, and that the only hope for...

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The blessing over the meal and matzah | motzi matzah | מוֹצִיא מַצָּה The familiar hamotzi blessing marks the formal start of the meal. Because we are using matzah instead of bread, we add a blessing celebrating this mitzvah. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא לֶֽחֶם מִן הָאָֽרֶץ Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz. We praise God, Ruler of Everything, who brings bread from the land. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתַָיו וְצִוָּֽנוּ...

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The seder officially begins with a physical act: lighting the candles.  In Jewish tradition, lighting candles and saying a blessing over them marks a time of transition, from the day that is ending to the one that is beginning, from ordinary time to sacred time.  Lighting the candles is an important part of our Passover celebration because their flickering light reminds us of the importance of keeping the fragile flame of freedom alive in the world. Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech...

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בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ, כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרָֽיִם B’chol dor vador chayav adam lirot et-atzmo, k’ilu hu yatzav mimitzrayim. In every generation, everyone is obligated to see themselves as though they personally left Egypt. With each generation LGBTQIA+ Jews continue to struggle for the world to recognize our stories and the reality of our lives. With each generation queer people continue to struggle against the tides of transmisogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and misogyny that seek to keep us on...

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May Our Anger Be Holy Oppression breeds anger to which we must attend. Once, we recited this text out of powerlessness. We asked God to pour forth wrath because we were unable to express our own. But in today's world, where we enjoy agency to an unprecedented degree, we must resist the temptations of perennial victimhood and yearning for revenge. And yet we know that rage, unexpressed, will fester. Let us therefore acknowledge our communal pain. Let us recognize the intersecting...

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Water is refreshing, cleansing, and clear, so it’s easy to understand why so many cultures and religions use water for symbolic purification. We will wash our hands twice during our seder: now, with no blessing, to get us ready for the rituals to come; and then again later, we’ll wash again with a blessing, preparing us for the meal, which Judaism thinks of as a ritual in itself. (The Jewish obsession with food is older than you thought!) To wash your...

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Seder Plate Symbols Maror – The bitter herb reminds us of the bitterness inside of all of us. Living in a racially discriminatory society means that racism infects our thoughts and actions, even if we don’t want it to. We must call attention to the prejudiced ideas we all carry inside us in order to actively resist and uproot them. Egg – The egg in its shell reminds us that we can choose how we identify ourselves, but we can’t always...

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בריך רחמנא  מלכא דעלמא  מריה דהאי פיתא  Brikh raḥamana  Malka d'alma  Ma'arey d'hi (oh!) pita    Thank you (x3) For this beautiful food  May it nourish us  To build a world that's whole

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Why do we eat maror? Tradition says that this bitter herb is to remind us of the bitterness of our slavery. We force ourselves to taste pain so that we may more readily value pleasure. How big a piece of maror do I have to eat to fulfill my obligation? And what if I"ve known enough pain this year already? And what if I eat the whole root and my tongue catches on fire and my ears burn? Then will I...

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Singing songs that praise God | hallel | הַלֵּל This is the time set aside for singing. Some of us might sing traditional prayers from the Book of Psalms. Others take this moment for favorites like Chad Gadya & Who Knows One, which you can find in the appendix. To celebrate the theme of freedom, we might sing songs from the civil rights movement. Or perhaps your crazy Uncle Frank has some parody lyrics about Passover to the tunes from a...

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When Israel was in Egypt’s land, Let My people go! Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let My people go! Refrain: Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt’s land; Tell old Pharaoh To let My people go! No more shall they in bondage toil, Let My people go! Let them come out with Egypt’s spoil, Let My people go! You need not always weep and mourn, Let My people go! And wear these slav’ry chains forlorn, Let My people go!...

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[Open the door as a sign of hospitality; lift up matzah for all to see.] Are all who are hungry truly able to eat anywhere, let alone with us? How many of us would really invite a hungry stranger into our house today? How can we correct the systemic problems that create hunger, poverty, and oppression? (Rabbah Emily Aviv Kapor). The Bread of Affliction This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all...

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A Story about StoriesRheingold Family HaggadahWhen the great founder of the modern Hasidim, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished, and the misfortune or trouble averted. Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Rabbi Maggid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he...

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The Four Queer/Trans Jews Adapted from “the Four Daughters” by Tamara Cohen, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell and Ronnie Horn. Adapted and used with loving gratitude. The queer/trans Jew is in search of a meaningful, holy past through our texts, traditions, and people. Ma heh omereh? What do they say? “Why didn’t the Torah count, or acknowledge women and trans people among the ‘600,000 men on foot, aside from children,’ who came out of Egypt? And why did Moses say at Sinai,...

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“Remember you are water. Of course you leave salt trails. Of course you are crying. Flow. P.S. If there happens to be a multitude of griefs upon you, individual and collective, or fast and slow, or small and large, add equal parts of these considerations: that the broken heart can cover more territory. that perhaps love can only be as large as grief demands. that grief is the growing up of the heart that bursts boundaries like an old skin or...