Poetry - Reading The Haggadah Backwards | Make Your Own Passover Haggadah

I read the haggadah backwards this year

The sea opens, the ancient Israelites slide back to

Egypt like Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk

Freedom to slavery

That’s the real story

One minute you’re dancing hallelujah with the prophetess

the next you’re knee deep in brown in the basement of some minor pyramid

The angel of death comes back to life

two zuzim are refunded.

When armies emerge from the sea like a returning scuba expedition

the Pharoah calls out for fresh towels.

The bread has plenty of time to rise.

I read the hagaddah backwards this year,

left a future Jerusalem,

scrubbed off the bloody doorposts,

wandered back to Aram.

- Daniel Brenner

haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings

Source: Daniel Brenner

Featured clips

Introduction

by HIAS

As we celebrate the Jewish people’s biblical exodus from Egypt, we remember that there are 60 million displaced people around the world, people fleeing violence and persecution in search of a safe place to call home. We are currently in the midst of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. HIAS, the world’s oldest, and only Jewish, refugee resettlement organization, helps refugees find ways to live in safety and with dignity as we also mobilize the Jewish community’s response to...

Nirtzah

I Change Myself, I Change the World

by Eileen Levinson

Commentary / Readings

Bringing It Home

by Eli Allen

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

-- Exodus Story

The Exodus

by M Simons

Once upon a time, during a famine our ancestor Jacob and his family fled to Egypt where food was plentiful. His son Joseph had risen to high position in Pharaoh’s court, and our people were well-respected and well-regarded, secure in the power structure of the time. Generations passed and our people remained in Egypt. In time, a new Pharaoh ascended to the throne. He found our difference threatening, and ordered our people enslaved. In fear of rebellion, Pharaoh decreed that all...

Hallel

To Say Nothing But Thank You

by TAMAR FOX

by JEANNE LOHMANN All day I try to say nothing but thank you, breathe the syllables in and out with every step I take through the rooms of my house and outside into a profusion of shaggy-headed dandelions in the garden where the tulips’ black stamens shake in their crimson cups. I am saying thank you, yes, to this burgeoning spring and to the cold wind of its changes. Gratitude comes easy after a hot shower, when my loosened muscles work, ...

-- Ten Plagues

Seda' Club

by Jewish Robot

Commentary / Readings

Gender

by Zoe Kaplan

This piece was written by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, the first out transgender rabbi. He was ordained in 2006 at HUC-JIR’s Los Angeles campus, and now works as a chaplain at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. A few years ago at Kol Nidre I delivered a sermon on the power of diversity to my congregation in Toronto. Afterwards, in the swirling crowd I felt someone tug at my jacket. I turned around to find a nine-year-old by in lavender shiny “Powerpuffs”...

-- Cup #2 & Dayenu

Home by Warsan Shire

by Lisa Gitelson

no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well. no one would leave home unless home chased you, fire under feet, hot blood in your belly. it's not something you ever thought about doing, and so when you did - you carried the anthem under your breath, waiting until the airport toilet to tear up the passport and swallow, each mouthful of paper...

-- Exodus Story

What is meant by Pesach?

by Ari Moss

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state--it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions. ― Abraham Joshua Heschel This is what every Seder is about. Celebration of freedom, expressing reverence, appreciation,...

Rachtzah

Traditional Seder Plate Symbols

by JQ International

The Paschal Lamb reminds us that the Holy One, praised be God, passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt. The Matzah is to remind us that before the dough our ancestors prepared for bread had time to rise, God revealed the might, power and presence of God unto them and redeemed them. The Bitter Herbs are to remind us that the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors in Egypt. In gratitude for the miracles which God has performed...

Karpas

by Becca Goldstein

Conclusion

Closing Prayer

by Bob Frankle

In a moment, our Seder will be complete. However, we remember that working against oppression in the world is our never-ending responsibility. We recommit ourselves to the vision of a world filled with peace and justice for all. We work for a world where "nation shall not lift-up sword against nation nor study war anymore." We work for a world where people are not treated differently because of their race, their religion, their gender, their age, their marital status, their skin...

Maggid - Beginning

Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue

by Haggadot

Bareich

Bareich -bordsbönen

by Sara Beardsall

Alla fyller på nytt sina vinglas. Ledaren säger: Vi läser Ps 126. "En vallfartssång. När Herren vände Sions öde, då var allt som om vi drömde: vi skrattade, vi sjöng av glädje, och jublet steg från våra läppar. En av gästerna fortsätter: Då sade man bland folken: Herren har gjort stora ting med dem! Ja, Herren gjorde stora ting med oss, och därför var vi glada. Herre, vänd vårt öde, liksom du ger liv åt bäckarna i Negev. Nästa gäst fortsätter:...

Karpas

Ha'Adamah

by Haggadot

More clips from Rabbi Daniel Brenner

-- Exodus Story

Egg-Sodus

by Rabbi Daniel Brenner

-- Exodus Story

Passover Play - a ten minute script for all ages

by Rabbi Daniel Brenner

Here is a kid and adult friendly alternative to for the Maggid section (the Passover story section) of the Haggadah. This short play is in the style of "sedra scenes" -- a contemporary take which makes the story current but stays true to the Exodus narrative. I've written it for large crowds -- so there are 13 parts, but if you have a smaller gathering you can easily double up. For more Passover resources, check out www.rabbidanielbrenner.com LET MY PEOPLE GO!...

Maggid - Beginning

A Midrash for Teens

by Rabbi Daniel Brenner

We Won't Get Fooled Again: Helping Teens Identify Pharaoh A boy is tricked into being part of a game with other boys only to find out that he is the target of mockery and abuse. A girl is happy to be included as a "friend" at a lunch table until she finds it was only a ploy to get back at another girl. A boy is "hit on" as part of a practical joke. A girl is lured into an unwelcomed...