Pesach Sermon by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater

{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "pesach-sermon-rabbi-joshua-levine-grater", "title": "Pesach Sermon by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "It is very sad that we have an expert on modern-day slavery in our world, but E. Benjamin Skinner is that person. He has...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "It is very sad that we have an expert on modern-day slavery in our world, but E. Benjamin Skinner is that person. He has been writing and studying slavery since 2001 and I begin with a chilling excerpt from a March 23, 2008 op-ed that he wrote in the LA Times:\n\n<blockquote>\nLet me be clear: By \"slaves\" I mean, very simply, those who are forced to work, un- der threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence. That is the nice, neat, horrible defi- nition I have used since I began studying the subject in 2001. In the United States today, we tend to use the word \"slave\" loosely. Merriam-Webster offers as its first definition of the word, \"drudgery; toil.\"\n\nBut that's not what slavery is, as Rambho Kumar can attest. Kumar was born into wilting poverty in a village in Bihar, the poorest state in India, the country with more slaves than any other, according to U.N. estimates. In 2001, desperate to keep him and his five brothers from starving, his mother accepted 700 rupees ($15) as an advance from a local trafficker, who prom- ised more money once 9-year-old Rambho started working many miles away in India's carpet belt.\n\nAfter he received Rambho from the trafficker, the loom owner treated his new acquisition like any other low-value industrial tool. He never allowed Rambho and the other slaves to leave the loom, forcing them to work for 19 hours a day, starting at 4 in the morning. The work itself tore into Rambho's small hands, and when he whimpered in pain, the owner's brother stuck his finger in boiling oil to cauterize the wound -- and then told him to get back to work. When other boys attempted escape or made a mistake in the intricate de- signs of the rugs, which were destined for Western markets, the owner beat them sav- agely.\n\nOn July 12, 2005, local police, in coordination with activists supported by Free the Slaves, an organization based in Washington, liberated Rambho and nine other emaci- ated boys.\n\nI've met and talked with slaves and former slaves like Rambho in a dozen countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Romania, India, Sudan and Haiti. The International Labor Organization of the United Nations estimates that in Asia alone, there are about 10 million slaves.\n</blockquote>\n\nWhile Passover is mostly associated with the wonderful foods and flow of the Seder, fam ily and friends coming together, finding the Afikomen and not eating chametz, the deepest and most profound issue at the heart of this holiday is slavery, past and present. Over and over again, more than any other matter in the Torah, we are reminded that we were once slaves in the land of Egypt and so we must take care not to treat others as slaves, or allow slavery to exist in our world, for we know what it was like to be those slaves. And yet, for all of the amazing free- doms and liberties that we have gained, especially here in the United States, we will sit down to our sederim this year with the knowledge that over 27 million human beings today, 2010, are slaves. I would imagine that the majority of us would find this horrifying and unbelievable, so the question for our sederim this year is: are we are aware and what can we do about it?\n\nThe Mishnah in Pesachim 10:5 gives us one of the more challenging tasks of the seder, dare I say of the whole Pesach experience: “In every generation, we are obligated to see our- selves as if we personally went out from Egypt.” We read this in the haggadah, but do we embody it? I know that I often ask people to think about the things in our lives that we are “enslaved to,” such as time, technology, bad habits, fear, etc. For us moderns, this is as close as many of us can come to feeling like a slave. And while this is an important exercise to engage in, perhaps we can take it further this year and spend more time talking about the fact that we live with slaves in our midst. In fact, low-end Justice Department estimates speculate that there are at least 60,000 people in America living as hidden slaves. Commenting on the above mishnah, Maimonides teaches us, “Remember you were a slave means, 'it is as though you personally were a slave and went to freedom and were redeemed.'” While we might not be actual slaves ourselves, we live in a world that accepts slavery, if not outright then tacitly, and Rabbi Heschel implores us to remember, “In a free society, some are guilty but all are responsible.” We should all be talking about this issue of modern day slavery at our sedarim this year.\n\nHow could this have happened? How could we arrive at the 21st century and have more slaves today than ever before in history? Just sixty years after the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, article 4 proclaimed, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,” we wake up to find ourselves not living in a world of our dreams and hopes, but rather we find ourselves in a world of our greatest nightmare and fears. Passover is a time to shake ourselves free from the doldrums of habit, passive acceptance of evils and ills that we choose to pretend don‟t exist, and wake up not only to the rights of being a free people, but to the responsibilities of being free people. Our right to be free cannot manifest itself by enslaving others, but that is sadly what has happened in our world. When we talk about these issues, push ourselves to face the ugliness that exists, we bet-ter ourselves and have the chance to better our world. Action begins with awareness.\n\nTo that end, I would like to close by returning to the expert, E. Benjamin Skinner, and a more recent article he wrote for Time magazine, highlighting the sex-slave trade that exists in South Africa. In a January 18, 2010 piece, Skinner writes, “While most [slaves] are held in debt bondage in the poorest regions of South Asia, some are trafficked in the midst of thriving development. Such is the case here in Africa's wealthiest country [South Africa], the host of this year's World Cup. While South Africa invests billions to prepare its infrastructure for the half-million visi- tors expected to attend, tens of thousands of children have become ensnared in sexual slavery, and those who profit from their abuse are also preparing for the tournament. During a three-week investigation into human-trafficking syndicates operating near two stadiums, I found a lucrative trade in child sex. The children, sold for as little as $45, can earn more than $600 per night for their captors. \"I‟m really looking forward to doing more business during the World Cup,\" said a trafficker. We were speaking at his base overlooking Port Elizabeth's new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Already, he had done brisk business among the stadium's construction workers.”\n\nAs the world has done before, we are going to send millions of people, billions of dollars and invite the world to watch an international sporting event right in the heart of a city and country that is enslaving its children, participating in one of the uglier sides of our global underbelly. “In every generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as if we went forth from Mitzrayim.” This year, we owe it to the more than 27 million human beings, including millions of children, to truly acknowledge that slavery exists, take responsibility and then take action. I would urge you to have cards at your seder with the name of President Obama's Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, Luis CdeBaca, and ask them to contact him and express deep concern about the World Cup being held in a country where slavery is so prevalent. (http:// <a href=\"http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/124083.htm\">www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/124083.htm</a>) Let us not avert our eyes for the sake of entertainment and business; let us see the world with the eyes of God this Passover and speak out against in- justice and slavery.\n\nThe Haggadah is the ultimate storybook of our people and within it we tell our own stories. We tell the stories of our families, the hopes and fears, dreams and realities; all are welcome at the seder. We stay up late into the night because our stories are so rich, so meaningful, so important to tell. We tell our children the stories so they know where they came from, how they made it to this moment in life, a story that begins with us being freed from Egypt and going forth into a relationship with God and humanity. We all like stories with happy endings, yet that is not always the reality in our world.\n\nThis Passover, please tell the story of Rambho Kumar, who I began with, because nobody will know about him if we don‟t tell his story. E. Benjamin Skinner cannot be the only one telling these stories. As Jews, we found freedom from slavery and were commanded to work to free others. There is much work to be done. May this Passover inspire us to work harder, speak louder and act bolder. Chag Sameach!\n\nTo read the entire Skinner article: <a href=\"http://tinyurl.com/ykfzer7\">http://tinyurl.com/ykfzer7</a> \nTo read more about slavery and how you can help, visit <a href=\"http://www.iAbolish.org\">www.iAbolish.org</a>\n\nFor more texts and resources on slavery in Jewish thought, visit <a href=\"http://www.rhr-na.org\">www.truah.org</a>\n\nRabbi Joshua Levine Grater is the senior rabbi of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena, CA. Read more of his writings at <a href=\"http://www.pjtc.net.\">www.pjtc.net. </a>\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 186, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Pesach Sermon by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/pesach-sermon-rabbi-joshua-levine-grater", "og:title": "Pesach Sermon by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "total_books": 1, "total_clips": 36, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "power-passover-call-action-jewish-perspective", "title": "The Power of Passover: A Call to Action from the Jewish Perspective", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer Celebrating the new year of the trees in wintry Philadelphia always seemed counter intuitiv...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer\n\nCelebrating the new year of the trees in wintry Philadelphia always seemed counter intuitive to me. When our children were small we aspired to mark the occasion by planting parsley in paper cups. Some years we did not get organized in time to buy the seeds, and some years we forgot about the plants and they went missing, but more often than we had any right to expect, the seeds germinated and by Pesach we had a small, improbable harvest of curly, green vegetables to put on the Seder plate.\n\nThe table is so laden with symbols that night, one wonders if it is possible to squeeze in yet another metaphor. But tasting that parsley was always one of my favorite moments. A child, some dirt, a few seeds in a Dixie cup... a living, edible plant! Each year, someone at the table would ask, “Why do we eat potatoes while pointing to the green parsley?” And someone else would say, “Because where our grandparents came from in Russia, the only “greens” that were available in April were potatoes. It was the best they could do; now it is a tradition.” Then we would eat wet, salty potatoes flecked with home-grown parsley and think about hardship and tears and about our ancestors who made their exodus out of Europe so that we could have children who farmed in paper cups—just for the wonder of it.\n\nWe wanted our children to grow up knowing that they were once slaves in Egypt (and poor enough to eat potatoes till summer), that it was upon them to remember that legacy, so they would know the heart of the slave, the immigrant, the prisoner, the hungry. Now our children are young adults, joining their efforts to redeem our sorry world. Is it too much to imagine that all those Seders gave them not only obligation but also a promise? Perhaps, during long winter slogs in the struggle for justice, they remember the taste of freshly picked parsley that sprouted against the odds, the taste of hope.\n\n Reflecting on the experience of her own family, Fuchs-Kreimer’s focus is on the inspiration and hope that the celebration of Passover offers us. How does the Passover story or the memories of your family seders inspire you to repair the world? \n\nNancy Fuchs-Kreimer is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah Passover Supplement", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 299, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Power of Passover: A Call to Action from the Jewish Perspective | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/power-passover-call-action-jewish-perspective", "og:title": "The Power of Passover: A Call to Action from the Jewish Perspective | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-and-human-rights-meditation-christian-perspective", "title": "Passover and Human Rights: A Meditation from a Christian Perspective", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "by Professor David Gushee The Passover story communicates the fearsome commitment of God to the human rights of sufferin...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "by Professor David Gushee\n\nThe Passover story communicates the fearsome commitment of God to the human rights of suffering people. Because Pharaoh would not let God’s people go, God finally inflicted that grievous last recompense on Pharaoh’s people, while passing over the households of the Jews whose liberation had been so long in coming.\n\nThis story reveals God as one who not only hears the cries of the oppressed, but delivers them from bondage into freedom. It shows a God who confronts injustice, including leaders who believe themselves to be so powerful as to be beyond critique or correction. It suggests that a nation that commits injustice and violates human rights (or passively allows its leaders to do so) ultimately will pay a price for it, even if for a long time it seems that such wickedness will last forever. That is true even if its injustices are inflicted in the name of national security, as were Pharaoh’s evil deeds; as are so many of our world’s greatest human rights violations.\n\nIn the Passover story, Egypt’s firstborn end up paying the price for Pharaoh’s sins. In the New Testament narrative, God takes the accumulated weight of injustice and human sin onto his own shoulders at the Cross. The community formed in response is then responsible for serving as a force for justice and healing so that there need be no more victims either of injustice or as collateral damage of the confrontation with injustice.\n\nTogether we await the healing of the world. Together we do our part to contribute to such a world.\n\n As a Christian, Gushee understands Passover as a form of imitatio dei, imitating God’s demand for freedom from oppression. He connects Pharaoh’s actions, done in the name of protecting Egyptian security, to similar justifications for human rights violations in our own country. \n\n Whom do we allow to be enslaved to protect our own interest and safety as Americans or as Jews? \n\n Gushee writes: “a nation that commits injustice and violates human rights (or passively allows its leaders to do so) ultimately will pay a price for it, even if for a long time it seems that such wickedness will last forever.” In what ways is this true in our own country? In the world? \n\nDavid P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, and President of Evangelicals for Human Rights. He is the author or editor of 11 books on Christian ethics.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah Passover Supplement", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 309, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover and Human Rights: A Meditation from a Christian Perspective | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-and-human-rights-meditation-christian-perspective", "og:title": "Passover and Human Rights: A Meditation from a Christian Perspective | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "liberation-gods-image-progressive-islam-islamic-humanism", "title": "Liberation in God's Image. Progressive Islam as an Islamic Humanism", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "At the heart of a progressive Muslim interpretation is a simple yet radical idea: every human individual, female or male...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "At the heart of a progressive Muslim interpretation is a simple yet radical idea: every human individual, female or male, Muslim or non-Muslim, rich or poor, of the “developed” North or “underdeveloped” South, has exactly the same intrinsic worth. The essential value of human life is God-given, and is in no way connected to culture, race, ethnicity, gender, geography, or privilege. A progressive Muslim is one who is committed to the strangely controversial idea that the true measure of a human being’s worth is a person’s character and not the oil under their soil or their particular flag. A progressive Muslim agenda is concerned with the ramifications of the premise that all members of the human race have this same intrinsic worth because each of us has the breath of God breathed into our being: /wa nafakhtu fihi min ruhi/. (Qur’an 15:29 and 38:72). This identification with the full humanity of all human beings amounts to nothing short of an Islamic Humanism, one that strives for affirming of dignity and sanctity of all human life through—and not outside—a religious context.\n\nA goal of Passover is the simultaneous remembrance of our bondage in Egypt and God’s liberation of the Hebrews. While progressive Muslims honor the spiritual readings of bondage and liberation, they also insist that for billions around the planet, the bondage of Egypt is real in forms of poverty, occupation, exile, and humiliation. All of us deserve to worship a God who is committed to liberating all of God’s children. All of us deserve to enjoy this liberation, by the simple virtue of being human and being made in God’s image. An increasing number of those who advocate such a humanistic framework within the context of Islam have self-identified as progressive Muslims. ‘Progressive’ refers to a relentless striving towards a universal notion of justice in which no single community’s prosperity, righteousness, and dignity comes at the expense of another’s. Adherents of progressive Islam conceive of a way of being Muslim that engages and affirms the humanity of all human beings, that actively holds all of us responsible for a fair and just distribution of our God-given natural resources, and that seeks to live in harmony with the natural world. Safi introduces the idea of a humanistic framework allowing one to embrace the intrinsic worth of every individual. Such a progressive framework is seen as an inherent expression of an authentic Muslim identity. He concretizes the Passover story into the lived experience of the enslaved today. Professor Safi reminds us that for billions around the planet, the bondage of Egypt is real in forms of poverty, occupation, exile and humilliation. How do you remember those around the world who are \"still in Egypt\" during Passover? How does your religious identity compel you to embrace notions of universality?\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah Passover Supplement", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 529, "tags": [ { "tag": "Justice", "slug": "justice" }, { "tag": "Interfaith", "slug": "interfaith" } ], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Liberation in God's Image. Progressive Islam as an Islamic Humanism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/liberation-gods-image-progressive-islam-islamic-humanism", "og:title": "Liberation in God's Image. Progressive Islam as an Islamic Humanism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "pesach-and-slavery-then-and-now", "title": "Pesach and Slavery, Then and Now", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "by Rabbi Gilah Langner The Exodus story is fundamental to Judaism. The liberation from Egypt defines us as a people. As...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "by Rabbi Gilah Langner\n\nThe Exodus story is fundamental to Judaism. The liberation from Egypt defines us as a people. As a touchstone for Jewish identity, it was our essential passage as we prepared for revelation. We do not reenact the Exodus story only once a year during Pesach. Our liturgy has us sing the great Song of the Sea every morning, to signal our daily redemption from slavery. Redeeming those who remain captive and preventing future enslavement must be our moral imperative every day.\n\n Hoshech : The Plague of Not Seeing. The ninth plague – hoshech, or darkness, that covered the Egyptians’ habitations must have been terrifying indeed. The Egyptians couldn’t see; our tradition describes this darkness as so thick that you could touch it, feel it. And yet, long before the plague itself descended, the Egyptians had trouble seeing what was going on around them. They refused to see the humanity of the slaves who were building the legacy of Egypt with backbreaking unpaid labor; they ignored the institution of slavery that made possible the amassing of wealth in their society. A willful blindness had spread through the land even before the plague of darkness was unleashed.\n\nWe too, in our own days, often choose darkness when we do not want to see. We ignore the exploitation of domestic workers in our midst. We don’t look past the cheap consumer goods we eagerly scoop up to pause and ask about how they are made, and by whom. We close our eyes to the fact that 27 million people live in conditions of slavery in our world today.\n\nAs we recount the plagues at our Seder tables this year, let us open our own eyes to the slavery that we too often fail to see.\n\nEnvironmental Destruction and Slavery. For centuries, commentators on the Bible have tried to explain the plagues recounted in the Book of Exodus. Some modern scholars have theorized that a volcano on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century B.C.E. might have precipitated a chain reaction, complete with lightning and hailstorms, and an ash cloud that could have blotted out the light of the sun. Even if geology and archaeology were to yield “explanations” for the plagues, their meaning for us transcends such explanations. Perhaps with the recounting of the plagues, the Torah is pointing out a profound connection between slavery and environmental turmoil. The dramatic upheaval in the natural world that the plagues represented – an apparent reversal of the laws of nature – was needed to “wake the Egyptians up” to the abomination of slavery.\n\nPresent-day slavery also promotes the violation of the natural world. Greed and the drive for power fuel both the human slave trade and a profound disregard for the quality of our environment. As stewards of the earth, we must fight against slavery as well as the environmental destruction that is a by-product of throwaway human labor.\n\nMoses. If you search the traditional Haggadah, you won’t find the name of the man who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses is strangely absent, written out of the annual ritual of reenactment. The Torah tells us that Moses was the most humble of men, but surely this is taking humility too far! The message in Moses’s silence, though, is clear: we cannot wait for a Moses before tackling the problem of modern slavery. We are not free to defer action until a prominent leader, celebrity or powerful politician leads the way. The fight against modern slavery and trafficking is in our hands.\n\n B’farech. The Torah uses a curious word to refer to the enslavement of the Israelites: Va-ya’avidu Mitzrayim et Bnei Yisrael b’farech. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites with hard labor. An alternative reading of the term b’farech is b’feh rakh – “with soft words.” That is, the Egyptians deceived the Israelites about their intentions, using false promises and deceptions. By the time the truth was revealed, it was too late; we were already enslaved.\n\nHow often we see this today when modern slave owners speak with “soft words”. They might promise parents they will look after their children, but reduce those children to hideous servitude and prostitution. Slave owners in dozens of countries lure people into service by offering a loan to “help them out” in an emergency. The needy are then paid a pittance and charged high interest rates on the “loan”. These victims can never repay the loan, and may enslave their children as well as themselves on account of those “soft words”. B’farech. \n\nHardening of Pharaoh’s Heart. For years I have been troubled by God’s “hardening of the heart” of Pharaoh. Why did God continue to harden Pharaoh’s heart, especially if God knew the eventual outcome of Israel’s pleas for freedom? Did Pharaoh have any hope of changing his mind and embarking on a path of repentance? It seemed to me as though God was, as it were, bullying Pharaoh, or at least propping him up each time in order to land another punch.\n\nBut perhaps we are meant to understand by this phrase something about the true nature of slave ownership. Perhaps it requires a permanently hardened heart to perpetuate the monstrous institution of slavery. Look at slave owners around the world today for examples of the hardening of the human heart.\n\nCore of Slavery. Our rabbis tell us that Israel underwent three critical experiences related to slavery: first, we were strangers in strange land ( gerut) ; second, we were enslaved and forced to work ( avdut ); and third, we were afflicted ( inui ), which means subjected to harsh conditions and a loss of human dignity.\n\nAlthough millennia have passed, these experiences are still at the core of modern slavery. Across the continents of Asia, Africa, and elsewhere, people are transported from their homes by the threat or use of violence, deception, or coercion, and turned into gerim, strangers in foreign lands. The loss of one’s home and freedom of movement allows for enslavement ( avdut) at the hands of ruthless slave owners, and results in a lifetime of poverty, hard labor, and forced servitude. Finally, the humiliation and loss of personal dignity that is inui is a daily experience for millions, particularly women and young girls.\n\nToday it is we who must become the redeemers. Our freedom comes with the responsibility for liberating others who remain enslaved now, at Passover, and throughout the year, until every human being can enjoy the dignity of freedom.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Rabbi Gilah Langner, T'ruah", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 239, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Pesach and Slavery, Then and Now | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/pesach-and-slavery-then-and-now", "og:title": "Pesach and Slavery, Then and Now | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "four-children-four-attitudes", "title": "Four Children, Four Attitudes ", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Our tradition speaks of four children or four attitudes: the wise child, the wicked child, the simple child, and the one...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Our tradition speaks of four children or four attitudes: the wise child, the wicked child, the simple child, and the one who does not know how to ask. Each child has a different reaction to hearing about slavery. . .\n\nWhat does the wise child say? “What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the laws that apply to this situation? How are we to discern what God demands of us?” You are to answer this child: “God brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage that we may understand the heart of those suffering in slavery, and use all our powers to redeem them.”\n\nWhat does the wicked child say? “What does all this work have to do with you?” Notice: “you,” not him or her. The wicked child stays far removed from suffering, and thus has lost the essence of our teachings. You might ask this child: “If you had been in Egypt, would you have been redeemed? And if you do not lift a finger now, who will redeem those who languish in slavery?”\n\nThe simple child asks: “What’s this all about?” You should teach this child: God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, out of the affliction of slavery. So we must use our strength to abolish slavery around the world. We cannot stop our work until there are no longer any slaves, anywhere.\n\nThe child who does not know to ask, you must open his or her eyes to what is going on. For today, there are 27 million people living in slavery, and over 8 million of them are children. Surely this is one reason God took our people out of Egypt long ago – so that we might understand what slavery is like, and help free all those who remain enslaved.\n\nAnd Egyptians made the Hebrews lives bitter with hard bondage, \nin mortar, and in brick... Exodus 1:14\n\nBrick Making in Pakistan: A Vignette\n\nSince the 1960s, an estimated 750,000 landless Muslim peasants have hand molded hundreds of millions of mud bricks each year in Pakistan. The bricks are fired in some 7,000 vast but primitive kilns spread throughout the country.\n\nWith no other hope for sustenance, desperate families drift to kilns where they borrow money to buy food and tools from the owners. On a good day, a family will mold about fourteen hundred bricks for which they are paid two dollars. But their debts keep growing because kiln owners undercount the number of bricks produced, inflate the debt, and charge exorbitant prices for food and clothing.\n\nImpoverished families, including young children, work as a unit. Without putting their children to work, these families would sink even deeper in debt. Even so, most families incur debts they will never earn enough to repay. If kiln owners suspect that a family may be planning to run away, they take a child to another location as a hostage.\n\nAccording to one former kiln owner, \"to intimidate brick makers, the owner just comes along and smashes all the freshly made raw bricks, a whole day's work, for no reason. If a young worker lifts his head or causes trouble, they will put his leg in the kiln oven for a second to burn it. This is common and brick makers are forced to watch.\" When a parent dies, the children inherit their mother's or father's debts, assuring another generation of bonded brick makers.\n\nDavid Arnow, PhD \nAuthor of Creating Lively Passover Seders <a href=\"http://www.livelyseders.com\">www.livelyseders.com</a>\n\nCo-editor My People's Passover Haggadah both published by and available from <a href=\"http://www.jewishlights.com\">www.jewishlights.com</a>\n\nThis material was originally published by the New Israel Fund <a href=\"http://www.nif.org\">www.nif.org</a> in its 2002 Passover Haggadah Supplement.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Rabbi Gilah Langner, T'ruah", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Children", "slug": "four-children" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 356, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Four Children, Four Attitudes | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/four-children-four-attitudes", "og:title": "Four Children, Four Attitudes | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "sanctifying-our-gathering", "title": "Sanctifying Our Gathering", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "OPENING SONG: Hinay ma tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad. How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and siste...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "OPENING SONG:\n\n Hinay ma tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad. \n\nHow good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. (Psalm 133) \n\nKADESH: SANCTIFYING OUR GATHERING\n\nA central symbol of the Passover seder—literally an “order”— is four cups of wine or grape juice, representing different stages of the seder. We move from gathering to hearing other people’s stories, then to sharing our own exodus narratives, and finally to song. Let us fill the first cup, the cup of gathering, and consider why we are here.\n\nRefugees are people who escape war, violence, or persecution in their home countries and seek protection in other countries.\n\nTheir persecution may be based on race, religion, nationality, or political opinion. Nearly all Jews have ancestors who have been refugees. The Passover story tells of Jewish refugees who escaped slavery and threats against their lives in Egypt and sought protection in the land of Israel.\n\nSince 2007, Israeli activists, progressive Jewish organizations, and African refugee and asylum seeker communities have united to hold a communal “Refugee Seder” in Israel each year. The participants celebrate a renewed commitment to working together for freedom. At this seder here today, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel who pursue freedom.\n\nWe say the blessing and drink the cup of gathering.\n\nBlessed is the creator of the fruit of the vine.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Kadesh", "slug": "kadesh" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 257, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Sanctifying Our Gathering | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/sanctifying-our-gathering", "og:title": "Sanctifying Our Gathering | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "yachatz-182", "title": "Yachatz", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Matzah, unleavened bread, reminds us both the bread of poverty that the ancient Israelites ate in Egypt and the bread of...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Matzah, unleavened bread, reminds us both the bread of poverty that the ancient Israelites ate in Egypt and the bread of freedom that they ate in their rushed escape to freedom. Three matzot sit on a plate at the center of the table. At this point of the seder, we break the middle matzah in two, wrap one portion in a napkin, and set it aside, hidden from sight. \n\nThis division reminds us of the forced separation of communities and families, parents from children, spouses and siblings from each other. The visible half becomes our bread of affliction, representing the suffering of those who do not know where their loved ones are. The hidden half, called the afikoman, represents the horrors hidden from our sight. At the end of the seder, we look for the afikoman, and similarly commit to seeking redemption. Until families and communities become one whole again, our seder cannot truly end.\n\n I am 38 years old, married and a father of two children. I was born in Niala, South Darfur. My father was murdered during an attack on our village in 2003. We had to run away and seek refuge in the “Kalma” refugee camp. My mother, wife and children still live there until today. I miss them very much and I don’t know what their situation is. I came to Israel to seek protection but I was imprisoned. I have been in prison for almost two years. I don’t want to be in prison any more. –Testimony of A.A.M.S., 1/18/14 1 \n\nWe pour a second cup, the cup of storytelling, and over it we begin to tell tales of Exodus old and new. \n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 251, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Yachatz | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/yachatz-182", "og:title": "Yachatz | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "maggid-telling-stories", "title": "Maggid: Telling the Stories", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt… The reason people are leaving Eritrea is not hunger; it’s a dictatorship that i...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt…\n\n The reason people are leaving Eritrea is not hunger; it’s a dictatorship that imprisons and tortures citizens at will. If he could live in Eritrea with freedom and safety, W told me there was no place he would rather live; it was home. As we drove out of Holot [Detention Facility in the Negev], W said, “it looks exactly like the military camp in Eritrea” (where men do constant, mandatory service until they’re 55, making it impossible for them to have any other life). “Exactly the same! The only difference is that in Eritrea, the fence is wood,” he said, looking out at the high, thick metal topped with barbed wire. –Testimony of W, a refugee from Eritrea, recorded by journalist Ayla Peggy Adler, 2/12/14 \n\nThe Egyptians treated us badly and they made us suffer, and they put hard work upon us…\n\n I was born and raised in Eritrea, where I was fortunate to be well educated…I taught high school math…On January 10, 2012, I fled my homeland to escape persecution… Smugglers offered to take me to a refugee camp, but instead they transported me to someplace in the Sudanese desert and held me and others as slaves. We worked in our captors’ houses and fields all day, without a break. I tried to escape, but they caught me; as punishment, they isolated me and held me, blindfolded, in solitary confinement for a month…We suffered greatly. We saw our friends die…I didn’t think I would survive… \n\n On July 7, 2012, my captors took me, and others, to the Israeli border. Israeli soldiers spotted us but refused us entry. We turned back, and eventually we found a different route to cross into Israel. Security forces immediately picked us up and transferred us to the Saharonim prison.—Testimony published anonymously, 1/28/14 \n\n“It is because of what the ETERNAL did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.”\n\n Kamal (“Kimo”), 26, was born in a village in Darfur. He was 15 when the Janjaweed attacked his village. 800 of his villagers fled to the Nuba Mountains, where they made a temporary camp. Three weeks later, the UN found them , said it was unsafe, and helped them get to Kakuma camp in Kenya, but there were no opportunities for a real future or education there. With his best friend Ibrahim, he decided to leave. He left his family and went to South Sudan where he worked for a year to earn the money for the Bedouins to cross the Sinai. After climbing the fence to Israel, Ibrahim and Kimo walked for ten hours with no food or water. They finally saw the Israeli border patrol and they were given food and water and put into a detention facility. After six months there, he was brought to Levinsky Park in South Tel Aviv, where he stayed for three months outside, while working to get his visa. He has worked in hotels for the last four years. In his free time, he studied computers, psychology, and English and volunteered with ASSAF’s (Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers) Youth Program. He received a summons to report to Holot Detention Facility on April 2, 2014. --Testimony reported during a series of writing workshops developed and run by Madelyn Kent with Jeremy Elster and Right Now: Advocates for African Refugees in Israel. These stories are part of a larger storytelling/video project with African refugees, “Desert Stories.” \n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Maggid - Beginning", "slug": "maggid-beginning" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 284, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Maggid: Telling the Stories | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/maggid-telling-stories", "og:title": "Maggid: Telling the Stories | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "maggid-rabban-gamliel-0", "title": "Maggid: Rabban Gamliel", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Rabban Gamliel says that anyone who has not discussed three central symbols has not fulfilled the obligation of the sede...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Rabban Gamliel says that anyone who has not discussed three central symbols has not fulfilled the obligation of the seder. These are the Passover lamb, Pesach in Hebrew, representing freedom; matzah, representing poverty; and bitter herbs, maror in Hebrew, representing suffering.\n\nPesach—Freedom\n\n I have been out of jail [in Israel] for a few weeks now. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate my freedom after what I have been through. I take nothing for granted…My only wish is to remain free. Please, just leave me my freedom and let me live my life in peace.—Testimony of an anonymous refugee from Eritrea \n\nMatzah—Poverty\n\n When we reached Sinai, our traffickers raised the bounty, demanding that our families pay $30,000 each… I now work in a big house and do whatever is asked of me…I work 10 hours a day, six days a week, earning $71 per day…What is most important to me now is paying off my debt. My family borrowed money from so many people to secure my freedom from the torture camp in Sinai, money that needs to be repaid.—Testimony of an anonymous refugee from Eritrea. \n\n The Israeli government has imposed restrictions making it difficult for asylum seekers to work, so paying back these debts while paying for food and shelter is an extraordinary challenge. \n\nMaror—Suffering\n\n Many among us were tortured…in Sinai. When we reached this democratic State of Israel, we didn’t expect such harsh punishment in prison...We lost all hope and became frustrated by this situation, so that we ask you to either provide us with a solution or send us to our country, no matter what will happen to us, even if we have to endure [the] death penalty by the Eritrean regime.—Testimony of an anonymous refugee from Eritrea \n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu", "slug": "cup-2-amp-dayenu" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 241, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Maggid: Rabban Gamliel | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/maggid-rabban-gamliel-0", "og:title": "Maggid: Rabban Gamliel | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "maggid-dayeinu", "title": "Maggid: Dayeinu", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "The song “Dayeinu,” which literally means “it would have been enough for us,” thanks God for all the miracles performed...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "The song “Dayeinu,” which literally means “it would have been enough for us,” thanks God for all the miracles performed for the Jewish people: from the Exodus out of Egypt, to their journey through the desert, until they entered the land of Israel where they built a national home. In reality, no one of these alone would indeed have been enough. But we celebrate each step toward freedom before moving to the next step. If we dismiss small victories, we will never achieve the whole liberation.\n\nCHORUS: Dai-dai-yenu, dai-dai-yenu, dai-dai-yenu, dayeinu dayeinu (x2) \n\nSpoken: If the ETERNAL had taken the Jews out of Egypt and not brought them safely to Israel, dayeinu !\n\nCHORUS\n\nSpoken: If the ETERNAL had brought the Jews to Israel and not empowered them to build a sovereign state, dayeinu !\n\nCHORUS\n\nSpoken: If the ETERNAL had empowered the Jews to build a sovereign state and not inspired them to make it a democracy, dayeinu !\n\nCHORUS\n\nSpoken: If the ETERNAL had inspired the Jews to make Israel a democracy and not given them great power, dayeinu !\n\nCHORUS\n\nSpoken: If the ETERNAL had given the Jews great power\n\nand not ennobled them to wield it with compassion, dayeinu !\n\nCHORUS\n\nBut the ETERNAL has ennobled us to wield power with compassion. In every generation a person must see him/herself as if s/he had personally gone out of Egypt. In past generations, Jews fled from oppression and persecution. Now we all draw courage from our pasts to extend a hand of aid and friendship to those in need.\n\nWe say the blessing and drink the cup of storytelling.\n\nBlessed is the creator of the fruit of the vine.\n\nWe fill the third cup, the cup of conversation, and turn to small groups to share our stories.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu", "slug": "cup-2-amp-dayenu" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 274, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Maggid: Dayeinu | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/maggid-dayeinu", "og:title": "Maggid: Dayeinu | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "shulchan-orech-conversation-around-table", "title": "Shulchan Orech: Conversation Around the Table", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "How is this night different from all other nights? Tonight we come together, as members of different communities, to lea...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "How is this night different from all other nights? Tonight we come together, as members of different communities, to learn from each other, to bring attention to the plight of asylum seekers in Israel, and to strengthen our resolve to advocate for their rights. Tonight’s Four Questions are a starting point for small group conversation.\n\n1. What is your family’s exodus story?\n\n2. How does your exodus story shape your worldview? Your sense of responsibility for the Other?\n\n3. How would you describe your relationship with Israel?\n\n4. What does justice look like for you?\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Shulchan Oreich", "slug": "shulchan-oreich" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 263, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Shulchan Orech: Conversation Around the Table | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/shulchan-orech-conversation-around-table", "og:title": "Shulchan Orech: Conversation Around the Table | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "afikoman-coming-back-big-group", "title": "The Afikoman: Coming Back to the Big Group", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Just as we search for the afikoman, we seek out the injustice in our societies, the hidden as well as the revealed, and...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Just as we search for the afikoman, we seek out the injustice in our societies, the hidden as well as the revealed, and organize to transform these dark places into ones filled with light. We seek within ourselves for the places where we are complicit in injustice and pledge to do better. And we search out the places where we are hurt or angry and wash these away, so we may proceed with calm and renewed determination.\n\nWe say the blessing and drink the cup of conversation.\n\nBlessed is the creator of the fruit of the vine.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Tzafun", "slug": "tzafun" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 272, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Afikoman: Coming Back to the Big Group | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/afikoman-coming-back-big-group", "og:title": "The Afikoman: Coming Back to the Big Group | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "hallel-songs-praise-1", "title": "Hallel: Songs of Praise", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "We fill the fourth cup, the cup of song, and join in singing songs of celebration, struggle, and solidarity. We shall ov...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "We fill the fourth cup, the cup of song, and join in singing songs of celebration, struggle, and solidarity.\n\nWe shall overcome.\n\nWe shall overcome.\n\nWe shall overcome some day!\n\nDeep in my heart, I do believe,\n\nWe shall overcome some day. \n\nMichael row the boat ashore, halleluyah…\n\nSister help to set the sails, halleluyah…\n\nSinai desert is hot and wide, halleluyah, \n\nI’ve got a home on the other side, halleluyah…\n\nPrison walls are thick and tall, halleluyah...\n\nHold the body but not the soul… halleluyah...\n\nWhen Israel was in Egypt land—Let my people go!\n\nOppressed so hard they could not stand—Let my people go!\n\nGo down, Moses, way down in Egypt land.\n\nTell old Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”\n\nWhen refugees crossed Sinai’s sand—Let my people go!\n\nSought safety in the Promised Land—Let my people go !\n\nGo down, Moses, way down in Israel land.\n\nTell the Knesset, “Let my people go!” \n\n Yesh lanu koach, halleluyah… \n\n[We have strength!]\n\nAfter singing these or other songs, we say the blessing and drink the cup of song:\n\nBlessed is the creator of the fruit of the vine.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Hallel", "slug": "hallel" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 268, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Hallel: Songs of Praise | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/hallel-songs-praise-1", "og:title": "Hallel: Songs of Praise | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "nirtzah-concluding", "title": "Nirtzah: Concluding", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "At the end of the seder, we pour—but do not drink—a fifth cup for Elijah the prophet, who symbolizes the coming of salva...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "At the end of the seder, we pour—but do not drink—a fifth cup for Elijah the prophet, who symbolizes the coming of salvation.\n\nJointly we can bring salvation; change is coming, but it is not yet here. We come together at Passover to connect our separate stories into the story of new freedom. We must cross the wilderness of change before we can enter a promised land of greater justice, greater freedom, greater peace, and deeper healing.\n\nNext year in a Jerusalem rebuilt with justice!\n\n Leshanah haba’a biYerushalayim hab’nuyah! \n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "T'ruah's Refugee Seder", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Nirtzah", "slug": "nirtzah" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 241, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Nirtzah: Concluding | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/nirtzah-concluding", "og:title": "Nirtzah: Concluding | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "urchatz-empowering-silent", "title": "Urchatz: Empowering the Silent", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "The beauty of Urchatz was revealed to me during a women's seder. Each participant washed the hands of another with care...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "The beauty of Urchatz was revealed to me during a women's seder. Each participant washed the hands of another with care and kavanah (intentionality)—and without words. The sisterhood created in the sacred silence elevates communal consciousness. How will we utilize this state of purity? V'ahavtah l're'echa kamochah - to love the other as ourself.\n\nHow will this ancient wisdom propel us forward to empower the silent? How will we elevate the hands of all those still in Mitzrayim?\n\n--Jessica K. Shimberg, Spiritual Leader, The Little Minyan Kehilla, Columbus, OH; ALEPH Rabbinical Program Class of 2018\n\nThe first time I heard a trafficking survivor speak many years ago, she told the story of her parents trafficking her for sex from the time she was a young girl until she was an adult. I sat in horror, listening to her calm recollection of how both her mother and father trafficked her, sometimes leaving her for days at a time in a makeshift brothel when she was barely old enough to read and write.\n\nHer story was my T’ruah – a decibel defying call to action to open doors, pull back curtains, and shout from the rooftops the pain and suffering of trafficked individuals in our midst.\n\nThe call guides my work at the National Council of Jewish Women, alongside incredible and passionate advocates around the country, to raise awareness about trafficking in the United States where children are bought and sold in every state, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And the call informs my work to create lasting social change through legislative advocacy – working with lawmakers to address the systemic issues that allow trafficking to exist, including lack of education and opportunities, and passing legislation to reform the child welfare system which effectively serves as a supply chain to traffickers.\n\nThe sound of the shofar on Passover reminds me not only of one woman’s unspeakable journey, but of my greater responsibility to ensure my call becomes a collective call to action for all of us in the Jewish community.\n\n-- Jody Rabhan, Director of Washington Operations, National Council of Jewish Women", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the Sea: T'ruah's Haggadah on Fighting Modern Slavery", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Secular Haggadah", "slug": "secular-haggadah-8", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Urchatz", "slug": "urchatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 337, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Urchatz: Empowering the Silent | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/urchatz-empowering-silent", "og:title": "Urchatz: Empowering the Silent | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "rachtzah-deeper-washing", "title": "Rachtzah: A Deeper Washing", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Our hands were touched by this water earlier during tonight's seder, but this time is different. This is a deeper step t...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Our hands were touched by this water earlier during tonight's seder, but this time is different. This is a deeper step than that. This act of washing our hands is accompanied by a blessing, for in this moment we feel our People's story more viscerally, having just retold it during Maggid. Now, having re-experienced the majesty of the Jewish journey from degradation to dignity, we raise our hands in holiness, remembering once again that our liberation is bound up in everyone else's. Each step we take together with others towards liberation is blessing, and so we recite: \n\n --Rabbi Menachem Creditor, Congregation Netivot Shalom, Berkeley, CA\n\n Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, asher kidshanu bemitvotav vetzivanu al netilat yadayim. \n\nבָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל נְטִילַת יָדָיִּם.\n\nBlessed are You ETERNAL our God, Master of time and space, who has sanctified us with commandments and instructed us regarding lifting up our hands.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the Sea: T'ruah's Haggadah on Fighting Modern Slavery", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Rachtzah", "slug": "rachtzah" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 379, "tags": [ { "tag": "Justice", "slug": "justice" } ], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Rachtzah: A Deeper Washing | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/rachtzah-deeper-washing", "og:title": "Rachtzah: A Deeper Washing | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "motzi-matzah-many-hands", "title": "Motzi Matzah: Many Hands", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Hamotzi thanks God for bringing bread from the earth. This bread results from a partnership between God and humanity: G...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Hamotzi thanks God for bringing bread from the earth. This bread results from a partnership between God and humanity: God provides the raw materials and people harvest, grind, and bake. So too must we remember that combating human trafficking requires partnerships: among survivors, allies, lawyers, social workers, law enforcement, diplomats, people of faith…the circles of involvement are ever-expanding.\n\n Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz. \n\nבָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ.\n\nBlessed are You ETERNAL our God, Master of time and space, who brings forth bread from the earth.\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the Sea: T'ruah's Haggadah on Fighting Modern Slavery", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Motzi-Matzah", "slug": "motzi-matzah" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 280, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Motzi Matzah: Many Hands | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/motzi-matzah-many-hands", "og:title": "Motzi Matzah: Many Hands | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "introduction-forced-labor-racism-and-immigration", "title": "Introduction: Forced Labor, Racism, and Immigration", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "This Haggadot.com version shares some of our favorite parts of this haggadah. To download the full text in PDF, or to or...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " This Haggadot.com version shares some of our favorite parts of this haggadah. To download the full text in PDF, or to order hardcopies, visit www.truah.org/haggadah. \n\nSince 2009, T’ruah has been a leader in the Jewish community in the effort to end human trafficking — also known as forced labor and modern-day slavery. The first edition of this haggadah, published in 2015, helped to increase awareness and inspire reflection and action by the Jewish community on this crucial issue.\n\n2020 and beyond calls for all that and more.\n\nHuman trafficking, at its core, is a crime of exploitation and control. Therefore, it can offer a lens — or perhaps a mirror — for viewing the other pressing issues of our day: immigration, racism, class struggle, and more. It is crucial for me to note that human trafficking does not require any movement across a border. American citizens — including white, middle-class men and women — can be and regularly are trafficked in their very hometowns. We cannot lose sight of that or fall into the assumption that trafficking only concerns immigrants and poor people of color. That being said, the people most vulnerable to trafficking are often immigrants and are often people of color. This haggadah focuses on their story and how it is part of our larger American story; thus, to the original title The Other Side of the Sea we have added The Other Side of the River. The expanded edition pays increased attention to immigration, particularly as it touches labor rights and worker exploitation.\n\nThis issue remains with us despite the inauguration of the Biden-Harris Administration. It will remain with us until we achieve a wholesale re-vision of our economy into one that treats human beings not as disposable cogs but as uniquely precious images of God.\n\n--Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Deputy Director, T'ruah", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 227, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Introduction: Forced Labor, Racism, and Immigration | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/introduction-forced-labor-racism-and-immigration", "og:title": "Introduction: Forced Labor, Racism, and Immigration | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "water-bitter-and-sweet", "title": "Water, Bitter and Sweet", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Picture drawn by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city, Tornillo, Texas, December 2018, shortly before t...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Picture drawn by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city, Tornillo, Texas, December 2018, shortly before the facility was closed. The quetzal is significant in Central American culture and mythology, including as a sign of spring and symbol of freedom. Photograph by Justin Hamel. \n\nAs the Four Questions will soon point out, we dip twice in our seder. The two dippings are opposites. The first time, as we prepare to enter a world of slavery, we dip a green vegetable into saltwater, marring its life-giving freshness with the taste of tears and death. The second time, as we move towards redemption, we moderate the bitterness of maror with the sweetness of charoset. Any time we find ourselves immersed in sadness and suffering, may we always have the courage to know that blessing is coming.\n\nThe dipping of karpas also recalls the Israelites’ first stop after crossing the Red Sea, which was called Marah. After a three-day journey, they found water there, but it was bitter, undrinkable. God showed Moses a piece of wood to throw (dip) into the water, which made it potable. (Exodus 15:22-27)\n\nEven after a major initial victory, our elation can collapse swiftly under the weight of the next steps we have to take. Karpas reminds us that the journey to freedom — like the seder — is long, and we have to pace ourselves.\n\nThis episode is also the source-text for the rabbis’ instituting reading Torah on Mondays and Thursdays, so we never go more than three days without water/Torah. Karpas reminds us that on the long road to redemption, we have to make sure we stop and nourish ourselves wherever we can.", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295921/quetzal_resized.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295921/conversions/quetzal_resized-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Karpas", "slug": "karpas" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 261, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Water, Bitter and Sweet | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/water-bitter-and-sweet", "og:title": "Water, Bitter and Sweet | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295921/conversions/quetzal_resized-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-thesis-statement-of-the-haggadah", "title": "The Thesis Statement of the Haggadah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "We might think the most basic encapsulation of the haggadah is in the simple song that children learn in Jewish preschoo...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "We might think the most basic encapsulation of the haggadah is in the simple song that children learn in Jewish preschool, which comes right after the Four Questions:\n\n<blockquote>\n Avadim hayinu, hayinu / We were slaves\n\n Atah b'nai horin, b'nai horin / Now we are free\n</blockquote>\n\nBut as adults, we know that “now we are free” is an oversimplification. We are trapped in so many overlapping oppressive systems. Indeed, at the end of the avadim hayinu paragraph, the haggadah offers us an alternative thesis statement, inviting us to go beyond the basics:\n\n<blockquote>\nוְכָל הַמַרְבֶה לְסַפֵר בִיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻבָח\n\nThe more we expand the telling of the Exodus, \nthe more praiseworthy.\n</blockquote>\n\nThe more we expand our perspective to include diverse liberation struggles and the action needed to bring them to fruition, the better. In the service of that expansion, this haggadah makes the following arguments: \n1. The United States was founded on fundamentally racist principles and has yet to fully grapple with that legacy. \n2. America’s appetite for cheap goods and labor can only survive through exploitative labor practices and immigration, and our immigration policies expose people to further abuse. \n3. Forced labor does not happen in a vacuum but in the context of powerful systems that treat some people as less valuable or worthy than others. \n4. If we want to reconstruct our country so it fulfills its stated values, we will have to follow the solutions and leadership of thus-far marginalized communities: women, people of color, low-wage workers, and immigrants.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Maggid - Beginning", "slug": "maggid-beginning" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 253, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Thesis Statement of the Haggadah | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-thesis-statement-of-the-haggadah", "og:title": "The Thesis Statement of the Haggadah | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "after-pittsburgh", "title": "After Pittsburgh", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "In October 2018, the Tree of Life Synagogue building, less than a mile from the synagogue I serve, was attacked by a gun...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "In October 2018, the Tree of Life Synagogue building, less than a mile from the synagogue I serve, was attacked by a gunman. Our \ncommunity is so interconnected that, in truth, the entire Pittsburgh Jewish community was attacked because we stood up for refugees and immigrants. The gunman’s fear of the other reflects Pharaoh’s fear: that strangers are dangerous. Just as Pharaoh’s fear was unfounded, so too the fear of immigrants and refugees is unfounded.\n\nIn the aftermath, as we picked up the pieces of our new lives, healing from our tragedy, we became like those wandering in the desert. We had to rely on one another. Not just a group of individuals but a community. We made it, spiritually, to the other side of the Red Sea, and we can see clearer now than ever. We learned that we are in this struggle side by side. That each of us plays an important role and that, together, we are stronger.\n\n-- Rabbi Jeremy Markiz, Congregation Beth Shalom, Pittsburgh, Pa.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 265, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "After Pittsburgh | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/after-pittsburgh", "og:title": "After Pittsburgh | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "slavery-and-racism", "title": "Slavery and Racism", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "“Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.” - Hon. Dr. Eric Williams, historian, fi...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "“Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.” \n- Hon. Dr. Eric Williams, historian, first prime minister of independent Trinidad and Tobago (1944) (Qtd. in Ron and Norwood, below)\n\nModern American racism was intentionally crafted in the American colonies as a form of social control — not just of Africans and Native Americans but also over poor white people. “[Slavery] made whiteness the mark of freedom, ensuring that ‘ordinary’ English settlers identified with their social betters instead of making common cause with the new [African] arrivals.“ (ibid) This intentional construction can be seen in the evolving legal definitions of whiteness over the years, from requiring three white grandparents to the “one drop rule.” Slavery, originally an economic choice, gave rise to an entire racial system for organizing society — which has been reinforced, in subsequent years, by bringing other people of color to this country as migrant workers.\n\n(Drawn from \"<a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/american-immigration-service-slavery/555824/\">America Cannot Bear to Bring Back Indentured Servitude</a>,\" by Ariel Ron and Dael Norwood, The Atlantic, 3/28/18)\n\nWhite Supremacy vs. White Nationalism \nAccording to Eric Ward, Executive Director of the Western States Center and an expert on fighting white nationalism, these two ideologies differ in important ways, despite starting from a shared belief that white people and culture are superior to people of color.\n\nWhite Supremacy:\n\nGoal: Exploit the bodies of people of color for economic and other gain, including sexual assault.\n\nHistory: Foundational system that pervades all aspects of American life.\n\nImpact on Jews: Ashkenazi and other white-appearing Jews benefit from many of the same privileges as other white people.\n\nWhite Nationalism:\n\nGoal: Expel people of color to create a “pure” white-only ethno-state.\n\nHistory: Particular political ideology arising in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement.\n\nImpact on Jews: Views all Jews as non-white and the root cause of white America’s ills.\n\nFor discussion: \n1. Which is a better analogy for Egypt in the Exodus story, white supremacy or white nationalism? \n2. How is white supremacy a root cause of forced labor and trafficking today? \n3. How do these play out in our immigration system? \n ", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 264, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Slavery and Racism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/slavery-and-racism", "og:title": "Slavery and Racism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-statue-of-liberty-reimagines", "title": "The Statue of Liberty Reimagined", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "This 12-foot tall statue was built by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and carried 235 miles across Florida in March 2...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "This 12-foot tall statue was built by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and carried 235 miles across Florida in March 2000, at the very beginning of the Campaign for Fair Food. In June 2017, it was installed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., as part of a permanent exhibit, “The Nation We Build Together.” This exhibit explores the question of what it means to be an American and how that has changed over time.\n\n1. How do you think this statue is answering that question? \n2. If you were curating this exhibit, what is one Jewish artifact you would include? One non-Jewish artifact? \n3. How might you read Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” not only as a commentary on immigration but as a midrash on Miriam, Yocheved, Pharaoh’s daughter, and the other women of the Exodus?\n\n“The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus \nNot like the brazen giant of Greek fame, \nWith conquering limbs astride from land to land; \nHere at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand \nA mighty woman with a torch, whose flame \nIs the imprisoned lightning, and her name \nMother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand \nGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command \nThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. \n“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she \nWith silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, \nYour huddled masses yearning to breathe free, \nThe wretched refuse of your teeming shore. \nSend these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, \nI lift my lamp beside the golden door!”", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295922/smithsonian3-statue-liberty-tomatoes.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295922/conversions/smithsonian3-statue-liberty-tomatoes-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 311, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Statue of Liberty Reimagined | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-statue-of-liberty-reimagines", "og:title": "The Statue of Liberty Reimagined | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295922/conversions/smithsonian3-statue-liberty-tomatoes-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "refugees-then-and-now", "title": "Refugees, Then and Now", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Picture drawn by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city, Tornillo, Tex., January 2019, shortly before the...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Picture drawn by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city, Tornillo, Tex., January 2019, shortly before the facility was closed. Photograph by Justin Hamel. \n\nHearts beating like drums. Hands grasping at precious objects in the dark. My ancestors fled their oppressors under the cover of night. They packed light, bringing only sustenance for the journey ahead, unrisen cakes of dough. What could not be tied to their backs was etched across their hearts and on their souls: joy and pain, hope and trauma, uncertainty and faith. Bite by bite, they trusted that the bread of their affliction would become the bread of their liberation.\n\nAt the Passover seder, I step back into that experience. I eat the bread of affliction to remember their journey, memories etched across my own heart and soul like the generations before me. And yet, the journey to liberation is far from over.\n\nToday, more than 70 million souls still wander the earth fleeing violence and persecution. From Syria, South Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia – from every corner of the earth – today’s refugees make perilous journeys almost as dangerous as the conflicts they flee. In the name of our ancestors, let us raise the Jewish community’s voice in saying that we want the doors of our country to remain open to refugees and asylum seekers. We will bear witness as they write the next chapter of their stories in safety and with dignity.\n\n- Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer, Rabbi-in-Residence, HIAS", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295969/night-landscape_resized.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295969/conversions/night-landscape_resized-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 250, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Refugees, Then and Now | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/refugees-then-and-now", "og:title": "Refugees, Then and Now | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295969/conversions/night-landscape_resized-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "jewish-diversity-great-mighty-and-multitudinous", "title": "Jewish Diversity: Great, Mighty, and Multitudinous", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "“No people have had a more inadequate preparation, educational and economic, for American citizenship.” This quote comes...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "“No people have had a more inadequate preparation, educational and economic, for American citizenship.”\n\nThis quote comes not from today’s rightwing media but from McClure’s Magazine in 1907, referring to Russian Jews. Jews have been targets of the same rhetoric hurled at today’s immigrants. As HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield likes to say, “We used to help refugees because they were Jewish; now we help refugees because we are Jewish.” The history of Eastern European Jews immigrating to the U.S. through Ellis Island looms large in the American Jewish psyche. But we must also remember and honor the diversity of Jewish experiences: \n• The first wave of Jews to arrive in America were Sephardim, who established synagogues and Jewish communities, some of which continue to operate today. \n• Native American Jews are not immigrants. \n• African-American Jews likely have ancestors who were brought here violently and against their will. \n• Converts may come from families that have been here for hundreds of years. \n• Many Jews are themselves immigrants; for them, the story is not one of long ago but of here and now.\n\nOur shared sacred story is one of migration, seeking the promised land and being exiled from it in cycles, but each individual also has their personal stories.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2021", "slug": "favorites-2021-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 276, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Jewish Diversity: Great, Mighty, and Multitudinous | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/jewish-diversity-great-mighty-and-multitudinous", "og:title": "Jewish Diversity: Great, Mighty, and Multitudinous | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "embodying-antiracism-at-the-seder", "title": "Embodying Anti-Racism at the Seder", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Racism is implicitly and explicitly embedded in American society’s structure and culture. It is a pervasive virus that s...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Racism is implicitly and explicitly embedded in American society’s structure and culture. It is a pervasive virus that seeps into all aspects of our lives, including our Jewish community. It’s what motivated a mob of Chasidic Jews to harass me in front of my home for carrying a Torah scroll because it was too far fetched for a black man carrying a Torah to be a fellow Jew. It’s what continues to marginalize Jewish people of color, making even holy Jewish spaces like synagogues intolerable for many.\n\nEvery year we recall the Israelite experience of oppression, redemption and the recurring commandment to care for those in society that remain oppressed, such as the stranger, the orphan and the widow. These memories and values are key to embodying anti-racism through concrete acts of care and shifting access to power, which is critical to actualizing our true multi-racial community in its fullest glory.\n\n-- Yehudah Webster, Community Organizer, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Yehudah Webster, Community Organizer, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 286, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Embodying Anti-Racism at the Seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/embodying-antiracism-at-the-seder", "og:title": "Embodying Anti-Racism at the Seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "excerpts-from-maror-and-maggid-clearing-my-throat", "title": "Excerpts from \"Maror and Maggid: Clearing My Throat\"", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Excerpts from “Maror and Maggid: Clearing My Throat” by Rabbi Mira Rivera, Romemu, NYC They have reason to worry because...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Excerpts from “Maror and Maggid: Clearing My Throat” \nby Rabbi Mira Rivera, Romemu, NYC\n\n \nThey have reason to worry \nbecause multiply we have \nmultiplied and we are the Other \nAfrican Latinx Asian and in-between \nby way of Shanghai Bnei Anusim Cochin Jew Abayudaya \nJewish by way of mother by way of father you challenge \nObservant by way of secular parents who may be practicing \nBaal Baalat Teshuvah Jew \nJewish by Sefarad to the letter \nby way of Yosef Caro \nBy way of the Rema \nStrictly Halachic Jew \nNeither Sefardi neither Mizrachi \nneither Ashkenazi neither Israeli \nStill a Diaspora Jew\n\nI eat with my fingers \nI dine with fine crystal \nI have cheeks burning \nPeach ruddy roasted warm coffee \nDesert mocha midnight blue black Jew... \nJew in the pew Pew Report Jew \nForever an immigrant forever Yisrael \nForever wrestling honestly \nStill proud to be a Jew\n\nAnd yes, you’re very welcome \nI’m a Person of Color \nyou can look at me \nYou can see me \nI’m a Jew of Color \nAnd I claim my space \nBut I do get it \nGotta justify presence \nin almost every Jewish space \nSo where were we again? \nYes, I am Jewish \nThis is my name \nI am not intermarried \nAnd I did not take his name \nYes, I am a convert \nYes, I am a Rabbi \nI am here just like you \nAnd yes I am a Jew \nSo where were we again? \nNow you tell me all about you", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2021", "slug": "favorites-2021-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 271, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Excerpts from \"Maror and Maggid: Clearing My Throat\" | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/excerpts-from-maror-and-maggid-clearing-my-throat", "og:title": "Excerpts from \"Maror and Maggid: Clearing My Throat\" | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "we-cried-out-class-and-labor-activism", "title": "We Cried Out: Class and Labor Activism", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "The Passover story of workers collectively rising up against their oppressors repeats itself throughout our history. In...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "The Passover story of workers collectively rising up against their oppressors repeats itself throughout our history. In the early \n20th century, we saw this theme reflected in the more than two million Eastern European Jewish immigrants fighting for union rights, protections, and solidarity. These workers, who risked so much to emigrate to their “Promised Land,” quickly found themselves working in sweatshops with low pay, excessive hours, and dangerous worksites. They used their European tradition of labor activism as a tool to organize thousands, many of them immigrant women, offering them the opportunity to change their world through the union movement. In 1909, Jewish women workers, including labor organizers Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman, sparked the Uprising of 20,000 – a strike led and won by women garment workers who walked off their jobs and eventually gained thousands of union jobs. This movement ultimately achieved five-day workweeks, the recognition of the rights of women workers, and workplace safety regulations that still exist today. Today we commit to continue our tradition of labor activism and join in campaigns to make today’s United States a “Promised Land” for workers and immigrants.\n\n-- Ann Toback, Executive Director, The Workers’ Circle\n\n***\n\nAmerican Jewish communities today are of mixed socioeconomic class, as they have always been, and include poor and working-class Jews. A <a href=\"https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/income-distribution/\">2014 Pew Research Center study</a> found that 16 percent of Jewish adults had a household income of below $30,000, and another 15 percent earned below $50,000. When the Jewish community mobilizes its resources to effect change in the world, we should remember to count among those resources the lived experience and changemaking energy of poor and working-class Jews. It is not just that many of us were poor a century ago; many of us still are today. \n ", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 269, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "We Cried Out: Class and Labor Activism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/we-cried-out-class-and-labor-activism", "og:title": "We Cried Out: Class and Labor Activism | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "they-put-hard-work-upon-us-border-security", "title": "They Put Hard Work Upon Us: Border Security", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Art project by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city Tornillo, Texas, December 2018, shortly before the...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Art project by an immigrant child detained at the Tornillo tent city Tornillo, Texas, December 2018, shortly before the facility was closed. Photograph by Justin Hamel. \n\nWhy did Pharaoh hate and fear the Israelites so much?\n\nA clue may be found in what the Israelites were forced to build in Egypt: not pyramids, or sacred tombs for the Pharaohs, but arei miskenot (Exodus 1:11), understood as either “garrison-cities” or “granary-cities.” The latter interpretation (following II Chronicles 32:28) echoes an earlier story, in Genesis, about how Joseph saved Egypt from a devastating famine by stockpiling and then rationing food.\n\nThe Torah says that a new Pharaoh arose who “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). According to the medieval commentator Rashi, it was not that he actually had never heard of Joseph. Rather, he was a xenophobe who could not stand the knowledge that mighty Egypt could have been brought to its knees by famine and then saved by a foreigner. So he decreed a massive building project, to protect Egypt from ever being vulnerable again, and he carried it out on the backs of Joseph’s descendants — pretending that he didn’t know that their ancestor had saved all of Egypt.\n\nA similar building project has been carried out by both American political parties — the construction of fencing and walls on the U.S. Mexico border — to the devastation of border communities and immigrants throughout the U.S. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, from 2007-2018 the U.S. spent <a href=\"https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-much-has-already-been-spent-on-border-barriers-2018-12-12\">$9.7 billion</a> on border barriers, almost exclusively on the Mexican border. The fear that immigration threatens America — its economy, security, and very identity — has been used to justify these draconian and wasteful policies.\n\nHere’s what we know about border security and immigration:\n\n1. “Constructing a border wall has not been empirically shown to deter undocumented migration; instead, it displaces crossing methods and increases the use and cost of smugglers. This is dangerous because smugglers have been known to physically and sexually abuse undocumented migrants and even engage in human trafficking.” \n- Anti-trafficking expert <a href=\"https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/425514-border-wall-wont-stop-migrants-but-will-increase-use-of-smugglers\">Dr. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco</a>\n\n2. Many people coming to the U.S. “illegally” are actually following the rules for seeking asylum, which is a legal process meant to offer protection to those escaping persecution or threats to their lives. New policies enacted since 2017 have made it increasingly difficult to request asylum, prompting journalist and historian <a href=\"https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/episodes/louis-cks-return-stage\">Jelani Cobb</a> to note, “The era of America as a country of asylum is over.”\n\n3. In July 2017, the <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/04/gops-pernicious-link-between-terrorism-border-wall/\">State Department said</a> there was “no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.”\n\n4. Most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. did not cross the border between official ports of entry; rather, they entered the country with a visa and then overstayed.\n\nPharaoh’s fear remains with our country today. \n• What past moment(s) of vulnerability do you think the US is grappling with when rhetoric around “securing our borders” ramps up? \n• Whom do you think is blamed?", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295970/030119_fronterastudio_4_resized.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295970/conversions/030119_fronterastudio_4_resized-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 271, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "They Put Hard Work Upon Us: Border Security | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/they-put-hard-work-upon-us-border-security", "og:title": "They Put Hard Work Upon Us: Border Security | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/295970/conversions/030119_fronterastudio_4_resized-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "god-saw-our-suffering-a-new-midrash", "title": "God saw our suffering: A new midrash", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Me’am Loez on Exodus 1:22; commentary of Rabbi Yaakov Culi (17th-18th c. Turkey), translated from the original Ladino b...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Me’am Loez on Exodus 1:22; commentary of Rabbi Yaakov Culi (17th-18th c. Turkey), translated from the original Ladino by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan:\n\n<blockquote>\n“Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile.” Throughout all this, the Israelites did not know that this was a plan devised against them by Pharaoh. They were led to believe that such ghastly acts were being done by individual Egyptians on their own initiative. Many Israelites even complained to the authorities, and were told that if proper witnesses would be brought, the perpetrators would be punished. Eventually, of course, the Israelites discovered the truth.”\n</blockquote>\n\nA new midrash:\n\n“God saw our suffering, our toil, and our oppression.” (Deuteronomy 26:7)\n\n“Our suffering” — This represents the interpersonal realm, how we treat others. We may ourselves treat workers fairly and refrain from racist comments, but that is the barest beginning.\n\n“Our toil” — This represents the ideational realm, both in our own heads and in the society at large. We absorb racist, exploitative ideas from the moment we are born.\n\n“Our oppression” — This represents institutional racism, where the very structures of our society — economics, politics, alleged meritocracy — hem us in by the color of our skin.\n\nWe cannot wait for God to take us out of this Egypt. We are working together on ending Egypt for all of us.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 270, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "God saw our suffering: A new midrash | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/god-saw-our-suffering-a-new-midrash", "og:title": "God saw our suffering: A new midrash | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "dayeinu-the-long-process-of-redemption", "title": "Dayeinu: The Long Process of Redemption", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Dayeinu is a symmetrical song, in which we sing the one-word chorus 14 times. The first seven describe the Exodus, culmi...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "Dayeinu is a symmetrical song, in which we sing the one-word chorus 14 times. The first seven describe the Exodus, culminating with drowning the Egyptians in the sea. The second seven describe the building of a just and self-sustaining society, culminating with the building of the Temple. Only when the system is stable can we really say “dayeinu.”\n\nIn the same way, the work of fighting forced labor does not end the moment a trafficked person is freed. It continues for years into the future as we support their recovery from trauma. We benefit from the society that enables their abuse; therefore we must shoulder the responsibility to build social and economic systems that no longer rely on or allow exploitation.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu", "slug": "cup-2-amp-dayenu" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 251, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Dayeinu: The Long Process of Redemption | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/dayeinu-the-long-process-of-redemption", "og:title": "Dayeinu: The Long Process of Redemption | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "in-every-generation-the-fulcrum-of-the-seder", "title": "In every generation: The fulcrum of the seder", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "“In every generation a person must see themselves as if they came out of Egypt…Therefore we are obligated…” This is the...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "“In every generation a person must see themselves as if they came out of Egypt…Therefore we are obligated…”\n\nThis is the seder’s fulcrum, the turning point that leverages our collective memories of slavery and turns them into collective obligation. This is the moment when we return to Ha lachma anya and say:\n\n<blockquote>\nHashta avdei / Now, slaves; \nLeshanah haba’a / Next year \nb’nei chorin! / Free people!\n</blockquote>\n\n***\n\n“Seeing ourselves” — Who are you?\n\n<a href=\"https://truah.org/resources/who-are-you-in-the-passover-story/\">In a 2017 d’var Torah for T’ruah</a>, Rabbi Katie Mizrahi of Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco wrote: “The story of the Exodus is in us, and we are in that story. But where exactly? Every year the seder asks us to imagine our answers. Are you a midwife, commanded by an evil authority to commit an immoral act, finding a way to resist? Are you young Moses lashing out at injustice, going too far, knocking down a pawn without impacting structural evil? Are you the kind daughter of Pharaoh, drawing a miracle child out of the waters, using your privilege to protect the vulnerable? Are you standing on holy ground marveling at a burning bush, hearing a call to be more than you have been? Where are YOU in the story?”\n\nWe should be open to the likelihood that, in this world of globalized capitalism, in addition to these liberatory roles, we in North America are also on Team Pharaoh. We always play multiple roles simultaneously: oppressor, victim, enabler, freedom fighter, bystander, and more. When we come to own that responsibility, we can face the cognitive dissonance our multiple identities create; instead of going with the flow, we begin to direct our energies deliberately.", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu", "slug": "cup-2-amp-dayenu" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 293, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "In every generation: The fulcrum of the seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/in-every-generation-the-fulcrum-of-the-seder", "og:title": "In every generation: The fulcrum of the seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "deportation-and-the-red-sea", "title": "The Organizing Principle for the Second Half of the Seder", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "Tzafun, which literally means “hidden,” is the part of the seder where we seek what is not obvious, when we look for so...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": " Tzafun, which literally means “hidden,” is the part of the seder where we seek what is not obvious, when we look for something other than what is in front of our faces. It is also when we return to that which was broken earlier in the evening and try to make it whole again. In this way, Tzafun serves as the organizing principle of the second half of our seder, where we ask ourselves what world we want to see. Then we commit ourselves to making it real.\n\nBy moving one little dot, Tzafun becomes Tzafon, North. What North Star will guide your work to bring about the world you want to see?\n\nצָפוּן > צָפוֹן", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Tzafun", "slug": "tzafun" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 290, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Organizing Principle for the Second Half of the Seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/deportation-and-the-red-sea", "og:title": "The Organizing Principle for the Second Half of the Seder | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "counting-the-omer-towards-redemption", "title": "Counting the Omer Towards Redemption", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "author_handle": "rabbis-human-rights", "author_initials": "TT", "covertext": "The seven weeks of the Omer, between Pesach and Shavuot, are traditionally (though somewhat mysteriously) a time of part...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/conversions/truah-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/104235/truah.jpg", "body": "The seven weeks of the Omer, between Pesach and Shavuot, are traditionally (though somewhat mysteriously) a time of partial mourning. Rabbi Shai Held offers this explanation:\n\nThe Exodus may be a paradigm for how Jewish history is supposed (indeed, destined) to look, but for now — tragically, inexplicably — history makes a mockery of this paradigm. Rome is triumphant; a renewed Exodus remains but a dim hope.\n\nAnd so we mourn. We mourn because our experience falls so unbearably short of the redemption we have been promised and assured will come. There is a stunning degree of audacity — and honesty — in starting to grieve as Pesach begins, because, in fundamental respects, Pesach resides in the future rather than the present. And yet grief does not have the final — or even the loudest — word, because we affirm that the God who redeemed us will, despite all evidence to the contrary, redeem us “a second time.” (In The Heart of Torah, Volume 2, p. 75)", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea, by T'ruah", "slug": "the-other-side-of-the-river-the-other-side-of-the-sea-by-t-ruah", "author": "Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Nirtzah", "slug": "nirtzah" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 304, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Counting the Omer Towards Redemption | Passover haggadah by Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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Haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings

It is very sad that we have an expert on modern-day slavery in our world, but E. Benjamin Skinner is that person. He has been writing and studying slavery since 2001 and I begin with a chilling excerpt from a March 23, 2008 op-ed that he wrote in the LA Times:

Let me be clear: By "slaves" I mean, very simply, those who are forced to work, un- der threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence. That is the nice, neat, horrible defi- nition I have used since I began studying the subject in 2001. In the United States today, we tend to use the word "slave" loosely. Merriam-Webster offers as its first definition of the word, "drudgery; toil."

But that's not what slavery is, as Rambho Kumar can attest. Kumar was born into wilting poverty in a village in Bihar, the poorest state in India, the country with more slaves than any other, according to U.N. estimates. In 2001, desperate to keep him and his five brothers from starving, his mother accepted 700 rupees ($15) as an advance from a local trafficker, who prom- ised more money once 9-year-old Rambho started working many miles away in India's carpet belt.

After he received Rambho from the trafficker, the loom owner treated his new acquisition like any other low-value industrial tool. He never allowed Rambho and the other slaves to leave the loom, forcing them to work for 19 hours a day, starting at 4 in the morning. The work itself tore into Rambho's small hands, and when he whimpered in pain, the owner's brother stuck his finger in boiling oil to cauterize the wound -- and then told him to get back to work. When other boys attempted escape or made a mistake in the intricate de- signs of the rugs, which were destined for Western markets, the owner beat them sav- agely.

On July 12, 2005, local police, in coordination with activists supported by Free the Slaves, an organization based in Washington, liberated Rambho and nine other emaci- ated boys.

I've met and talked with slaves and former slaves like Rambho in a dozen countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Romania, India, Sudan and Haiti. The International Labor Organization of the United Nations estimates that in Asia alone, there are about 10 million slaves.

While Passover is mostly associated with the wonderful foods and flow of the Seder, fam ily and friends coming together, finding the Afikomen and not eating chametz, the deepest and most profound issue at the heart of this holiday is slavery, past and present. Over and over again, more than any other matter in the Torah, we are reminded that we were once slaves in the land of Egypt and so we must take care not to treat others as slaves, or allow slavery to exist in our world, for we know what it was like to be those slaves. And yet, for all of the amazing free- doms and liberties that we have gained, especially here in the United States, we will sit down to our sederim this year with the knowledge that over 27 million human beings today, 2010, are slaves. I would imagine that the majority of us would find this horrifying and unbelievable, so the question for our sederim this year is: are we are aware and what can we do about it?

The Mishnah in Pesachim 10:5 gives us one of the more challenging tasks of the seder, dare I say of the whole Pesach experience: “In every generation, we are obligated to see our- selves as if we personally went out from Egypt.” We read this in the haggadah, but do we embody it? I know that I often ask people to think about the things in our lives that we are “enslaved to,” such as time, technology, bad habits, fear, etc. For us moderns, this is as close as many of us can come to feeling like a slave. And while this is an important exercise to engage in, perhaps we can take it further this year and spend more time talking about the fact that we live with slaves in our midst. In fact, low-end Justice Department estimates speculate that there are at least 60,000 people in America living as hidden slaves. Commenting on the above mishnah, Maimonides teaches us, “Remember you were a slave means, 'it is as though you personally were a slave and went to freedom and were redeemed.'” While we might not be actual slaves ourselves, we live in a world that accepts slavery, if not outright then tacitly, and Rabbi Heschel implores us to remember, “In a free society, some are guilty but all are responsible.” We should all be talking about this issue of modern day slavery at our sedarim this year.

How could this have happened? How could we arrive at the 21st century and have more slaves today than ever before in history? Just sixty years after the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, article 4 proclaimed, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,” we wake up to find ourselves not living in a world of our dreams and hopes, but rather we find ourselves in a world of our greatest nightmare and fears. Passover is a time to shake ourselves free from the doldrums of habit, passive acceptance of evils and ills that we choose to pretend don‟t exist, and wake up not only to the rights of being a free people, but to the responsibilities of being free people. Our right to be free cannot manifest itself by enslaving others, but that is sadly what has happened in our world. When we talk about these issues, push ourselves to face the ugliness that exists, we bet-ter ourselves and have the chance to better our world. Action begins with awareness.

To that end, I would like to close by returning to the expert, E. Benjamin Skinner, and a more recent article he wrote for Time magazine, highlighting the sex-slave trade that exists in South Africa. In a January 18, 2010 piece, Skinner writes, “While most [slaves] are held in debt bondage in the poorest regions of South Asia, some are trafficked in the midst of thriving development. Such is the case here in Africa's wealthiest country [South Africa], the host of this year's World Cup. While South Africa invests billions to prepare its infrastructure for the half-million visi- tors expected to attend, tens of thousands of children have become ensnared in sexual slavery, and those who profit from their abuse are also preparing for the tournament. During a three-week investigation into human-trafficking syndicates operating near two stadiums, I found a lucrative trade in child sex. The children, sold for as little as $45, can earn more than $600 per night for their captors. "I‟m really looking forward to doing more business during the World Cup," said a trafficker. We were speaking at his base overlooking Port Elizabeth's new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. Already, he had done brisk business among the stadium's construction workers.”

As the world has done before, we are going to send millions of people, billions of dollars and invite the world to watch an international sporting event right in the heart of a city and country that is enslaving its children, participating in one of the uglier sides of our global underbelly. “In every generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as if we went forth from Mitzrayim.” This year, we owe it to the more than 27 million human beings, including millions of children, to truly acknowledge that slavery exists, take responsibility and then take action. I would urge you to have cards at your seder with the name of President Obama's Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, Luis CdeBaca, and ask them to contact him and express deep concern about the World Cup being held in a country where slavery is so prevalent. (http:// www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/124083.htm) Let us not avert our eyes for the sake of entertainment and business; let us see the world with the eyes of God this Passover and speak out against in- justice and slavery.

The Haggadah is the ultimate storybook of our people and within it we tell our own stories. We tell the stories of our families, the hopes and fears, dreams and realities; all are welcome at the seder. We stay up late into the night because our stories are so rich, so meaningful, so important to tell. We tell our children the stories so they know where they came from, how they made it to this moment in life, a story that begins with us being freed from Egypt and going forth into a relationship with God and humanity. We all like stories with happy endings, yet that is not always the reality in our world.

This Passover, please tell the story of Rambho Kumar, who I began with, because nobody will know about him if we don‟t tell his story. E. Benjamin Skinner cannot be the only one telling these stories. As Jews, we found freedom from slavery and were commanded to work to free others. There is much work to be done. May this Passover inspire us to work harder, speak louder and act bolder. Chag Sameach!

To read the entire Skinner article: http://tinyurl.com/ykfzer7
To read more about slavery and how you can help, visit www.iAbolish.org

For more texts and resources on slavery in Jewish thought, visit www.truah.org

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater is the senior rabbi of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena, CA. Read more of his writings at www.pjtc.net.

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