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KIDDUSH Before the blessing over the first cup of wine, say: We are gathered here tonight to affirm our continuity with the generations of Jews who kept alive the vision of freedom in the Passover story. For thousands of years, Jews have affirmed that by participating in the Passover Seder, we not only remember the Exodus, but actually relive it, bringing its transformative power into our own lives. The Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, means “narrow straits.” Traditionally, Mitzrayim has been...

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Praising as a spiritual practice How is this Hallel on seder night different from all other Hallels? What are we aiming to accomplish in this Hallel of seder night? Unlike every other holiday Hallel, the Hallel of the seder (and in synagogue) is sung at night. Unlike other Hallels, it is sung without an introductory blessing, and it is recited sitting down. Unlike every other Hallel, this Hallel is divided into two parts by eating!  Why is Hallel sung at night?...

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The most devastating effect of slavery, ultimately, is that the slave internalizes the master's values and accepts the condition of slavery as his proper status. People who live in chronic conditions of poverty, hunger, and sickness tend to show similar patterns of acceptance and passivity. As with slaves,their deprivation deprives from their political and economic status and then becomes moral and psychological reality. It is this reality that was overthrown in the Exodus.—Irving Greenberg We got used to standing in line...

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“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving." -James Baldwin

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The formal telling of the story of Passover is framed as a discussion with lots of questions and answers. The tradition that the youngest person asks the questions reflects the centrality of involving everyone in the seder. The rabbis who created the set format for the seder gave us the Four Questions to help break the ice in case no one had their own questions. Asking questions is a core tradition in Jewish life. If everyone at your seder is around...

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Thank you for joining us for tonight’s exploration of the racism and other issues within our criminal justice system. Now it is your time to act. One of the easiest and most important things you can do is to decrease the stigmatism against those with criminal records. We encourage you to use your personal seders as an opportunity to share what you have learned and help your family and friends to feel equally invested in this critical social justice issue. Here...

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Dom, Dom, This Plague is Red (sung to the sung of Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead) (by Gary Teblum) Dom, Dom, this plague is red Which bad plague The bloody plague Dom, Dom, the plague of blood is red Pharoah – hear what I said Let them go, or you’ll be dead. Pharoah, the plague of blood is red. The Nile will turn to blood Oh no, that’s worse than flood Yo-ho, yo ho, yo ho Don’t cling, just let...

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The Fifth Question: What can we do to help alleviate poverty? There are numerous charities which aim to get donations to end poverty. It is important to make food and money to these various charities to help others. We must remember that we were once "strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exodus 23:9). This quote appears numerous times in the Torah and explains to us to have sympathy for others because we were once abused and manipulated so we should consider...

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In our Jewish Mexican family, we honor more than just the struggle of our ancestors journey from mitsrayim to liberdad but also the gifts they gave us and the tools to survive any conditions and to always make it delicious. We have a Chile on our seder plate to honor the abuelas, the bisabuelas, the chignonas, the curandras, and other femme Moshes, Miriams, Tziporahs and Aarons in our lives who taught us who we are, how to be, integridad (integrity) and...

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The Partisan Song (or Partizaner Lid) is the name of a Yiddish song considered one of the chief anthems of Shoah survivors. The lyrics of the song were written in 1943 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inmate of the Vilna Ghetto. The title means "Never Say", and derives from the first line of the song, "Never say that you have reached the final road." During World War II, "Zog Nit Keynmol" was adopted by a number of Jewish partisan groups...

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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...

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When we talk about God we are talking about the spiritual energy of the universe which makes it possible to transcend the tendency of human beings to pass on to others the hurt and pain that has been done to us, the force that permeates every ounce of Being and unites all in one transcendent and imminent reality. God is the Force in the universe that makes possible the transformation from “that which is” to “that which can and ought to...

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The opportunities and the need to create a less violent, less oppressive world are enormous. But cruelty and apathy are still with us — across the ocean, across the border, across the street. It is up to each of us, each day, in small but profound ways to move our world one step closer to its potential.(Lift matzah)This is the bread of affliction,the bread which our ancestors ate in Egypt.All who are hungry — come and eat.All who are needy —...

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INTRODUCTIONThe long history of our people is one of contrasts — freedom and slavery, joy and pain, power and helplessness. Passover reflects these contrasts. Tonight as we celebrate our freedom, we remember the slavery of our ancestors and realize that many people are not yet free.Each generation changes — our ideas, our needs, our dreams, even our celebrations. So has Passover changed over many centuries into our presentholiday. Our nomadic ancestors gathered for a spring celebration when the sheep gave birth...