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A word about God: everyone has his or her own understanding of what God is. For some people, there is no God, while for others, God is an integral part of their lives. While we may not agree on a singular concept of God, we share a common desire for goodness to prevail in the world. And this is the meaning of tonight:  freedom winning out over slavery, good prevailing over evil. Please consider the source of benevolence in your life,...

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The Hebrew word “Kiddush” means sanctification. But it is not the wine we sanctify. Instead, the wine is a symbol of the sanctity, the preciousness, and the sweetness of this moment. Held together by sacred bonds of family, friendship, peoplehood, we share this table tonight with one another and with all the generations who have come before us. Let us rise, and sanctify this singular moment. Baruch ata Adonai, Elohaynoo melech ha-olam, boray pree ha-gafen. Baruch atah Adonai, Elohynoo melech ha-...

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Read and Discuss The Three Levels of Oppression: Ilan Gur Ze'ev The First level: In our opinion, the first level of oppression, primitive oppression, is expressed by inflicting aggressive force (physical violence) in order to force someone to act against their will and interest. Uprising against this kind of oppression is possible with different levels of success. It is possible to diminish its influence and there is hope for liberation from this level of oppression. In this type of oppression the...

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By Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder  alternadox.netLater on we will do ' rachtzah '─the washing over the matzah . Now we are doing ' urchatz ', which amounts to washing before eating a vegetable.  This is not something we do every day.To explain, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first chief Rabbi of the State of Israel, writes of dividing life into two categories: the goal, and everything else.  We set goals for ourselves and set out to reach them.  Everything we do that helps...

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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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When we bless the green parsley and dip it in the salty water, we remember the spring, and we remember the long, sad years of our slavery.When we left Egypt,we bloomed and sprouted,and songs dripped from our tongueslike shimmering threads of nectar.All green with life we grew,who had been buried,under toil and sorrow,dense as bricks.All green in the desert we grew,casting seeds at a promise.All green we grew. 

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Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front By Wendell Berry Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want...

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Salt Water Salt is unique in that it is bitter on its own, yet sweetens and brings out the taste of that which it is added to. For this reason, salt is the staple of suffering. There are two perspectives of suffering – Purposeless Suffering and Purposeful Suffering. Purposeless Suffering is suffering without reason, value, or an end-goal, and is therefore completely bitter. It is based on a keyhole view of life: “What is right in front of my eyes is...

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A WAY IN Jewish Mindfulness ProgramHaggadah SupplementMATZAHBread of Affliction, Bread of Hope and Possibility Ha lachma anya— This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. As we go through the seder, the matzah will be transformed. It will cease to be the bread of affliction and it will become the bread of hope, courage, faith and possibility.And it begins with a breaking.YACHATZ: Breaking the MatzahReader: Each person is invited to hold a piece of matzah,...

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Reader 40: In recent history, we have added an additional piece of matza in our Seder. This matza is set aside as a symbol of hope for the Jews of the World. It reminds us of the links that exist amongst us. While we observe this festival of freedom, we know that there are some areas in the world where discrimination towards Jews still exist. ALL: We hope that all Jews and all people can enjoy freedom.

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As we eat the karpas, which means "green vegetable," we are confronted with the growthand enslavement we've had as a people. The parsley represents the Israelites and how they initially flourished in Egypt under the influence of Joseph at the end of Genesis. The saltwater we dip it into represents the tears the Israelites wept bitterly as they cried out to God when a new Pharaoh enslaved and subjugated them. Eating them together, we pause and thank God that we are...

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Wine is a drink of luxury, and drinking it is an example of our freedom. We drink 4 glasses tonight, each symbolizing a promise God gave the Israelites in Exodus 6:6-8: 1. I will bring you out from the yoke of the Egyptians. (The cup of Sanctification) 2. I will rescue you, and set you free from slavery to them. (The cup of Deliverance) 3. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgement. (The cup of...

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Deuteronomy 6: 20-23 says, "And it shall come to pass that your child will ask you, “What do you mean by this service?” And you shall tell him: “With a mighty hand, God took us out of Egypt...” We are now ready to retell the story of our great redemption from slavery in Egypt. We cannot eat our Seder meal until the story of how we obtained our freedom is retold to our children with joy and gratitude.