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All night long we have been reliving the story of the Exodus, striving to awaken our present consciousness to redemption. Moments ago the wave of the past finally broke over us, sweeping away the boundary between then and now as we burst into the praises of Hallel. Redemption was transformed from a story about our ancestors into the here and now and given life through our song. But in the midst of our excitement, a question arises. The past is gone...

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Passover is a time for us to reflect on our own freedom and an opportunity to connect our lives with the struggles of others. At AVODAH, we support emerging Jewish leaders as they work to address some of the most pressing issues in the fight against poverty. We study the complex (and often overlapping) systemic issues that impact people in our country, and explore how Jewish tradition calls on us to respond. This year, we’ve collected stories and insights from members...

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We are going to conclude our dinner tonight with a celebratory toast - a l’chaim. Rather than filling our own cup tonight, though, and focusing on us as individuals, let’s fill someone else’s cup and recognize that, as a family and group of friends, we have the resources to help each other and those in our community if we are willing to share our resources and collaborate – whether those resources are time, money, skills, or any of the other gifts...

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Each year, Jews across the world join with family, friends, neighbors, and strangers to celebrate the holiday of Passover. But why? What is behind this tradition? Seder means “order.” The ordered rituals and symbols of the Passover seder help us to tell the story of the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. (Leader holds up the Seder Plate and briefly explains the ritual items and what they symbolize.) For today’s seder we choose to recognize that while the Jewish people...

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By Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder www.alternadox.netWe all know that we cannot rely on the holiness of our desires all the time.  Tonight is special, different. Tonight it is safe to let go.  But in a week or a month, who knows?  By breaking the middle matzah , we acknowledge that we are still split.  We still cannot ultimately trust that our desires and our necessities, our concerns and our impulses, our inner child and our responsible adult, have become one. There is...

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We break the middle matzah spiriting away a part of the tribes of Israel to be lost until found at the end of proceedings.  What does this feel like, to rip at a part of our Jewish souls to leave them in hiding? 

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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...

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Use this piece in tandem with the telling of the Exodus story. Think about the connection between the Jewish story of Exodus from Egypt to more contemporary examples of persecution and forced migration. How did the formation of the territory now known as the United States depend upon the forced migration of people already residing on the land? The Hebrews’ Exodus from Egypt is a climactic moment in the Passover story. After suffering for generations as slaves in Egypt, the Hebrews...

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I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world.  A fairer world.  A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves.  And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently.  We must also raise our sons differently. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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The Fifth Cup: The Cup of Elijah, the Cup of Activism to Create the Beloved Community “On the Shabbat just before Passover, we read the last passage of the last of the Prophets, Malachi, who proclaims on behalf of the Breath of Life: “Before the coming of the great and awesome day when the Breath of Life may become a Hurricane of Change, I will send the Prophet Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the...

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English What makes this night different from all [other] nights? 1) On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice? 2) On all nights we eat chametz or matzah, and on this night only matzah? 3) On all nights we eat any kind of vegetables, and on this night maror? 4) On all nights we eat sitting upright or reclining, and on this night we all recline? Hebrew Mah nishtanah halyla hazeh mikol halaylot...

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Opening Song (Sung to the tune of "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel") Oh, welcome everybody.Time to gather round.We will tell the story.We'll smile and then we'll frown.  Oh Pesach, Pesach, PesachWe were slaves but now we're free.Oh Pesach, Pesach, PesachLet's tell our history!

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