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בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ, כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרָֽיִם B’chol dor vador chayav adam lirot et-atzmo, k’ilu hu yatzav mimitzrayim. In every generation, every human being must look upon himself, or herself, as though we personally left Egypt, as we go forth from slavery into freedom. May we continue to reach future holidays in peace and happiness. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen. We praise God, Ruler of...

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Jewish celebrations usually include wine as a symbol of joy. Wine sanctifies an occasion and makes it holy. During the Passover Seder we drink four cups of wine, why four? In the Book of Exodus, God convinced the Jews to leave Egypt using four statements: I shall take you out I shall rescue you I shall redeem you I shall bring you We toast each of these statements with a cup of wine. Pour and raise your first cup of wine/grape...

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While we’re enjoying in the sweetness of wine, we still show sympathy for those that suffered. The joys of just punishment and the need for restraint are vengeful feelings. For your own discussion later during the meal: The traditional Haggadah questions and debates the number of plagues in terms of impact. In this Seder, let's debate violence vs. nonviolence as a way of getting to freedom.  How can we exercise empathy in today’s political climate? How do we show mercy to...

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We have now told the story of Passover…but wait! We’re not quite done. There are still some symbols on our seder plate we haven’t talked about yet. Rabban Gamliel would say that whoever didn’t explain the shank bone, matzah, and marror (or bitter herbs) hasn’t done Passover justice. The shank bone represents the Pesach, the special lamb sacrifice made in the days of the Temple for the Passover holiday. It is called the pesach, from the Hebrew word meaning “to pass...

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"Israel (Jacob) descended to Egypt, resided there in small numbers, and became a great nation—great and powerful and numerous." "They persecuted us... They imposed hard labor on us." How does a minority preserve its identity? What of our identities are shaped by our hardships?

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Nirtzah  marks the conclusion of the seder. Our bellies are full, we have had several glasses of wine, we have told stories and sung songs, and now it is time for the evening to come to a close. At the end of the seder, we honor the tradition of declaring, “Next year in Jerusalem!” For some people, the recitation of this phrase expresses the anticipation of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem and the return of the Messiah. For others, it is...

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Eating the meal! | shulchan oreich | שֻׁלְחָן עוֹרֵךְ Enjoy! But don’t forget when you’re done we’ve got a little more seder to go, including the final two cups of wine!

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When drinking the four cups and eating the matzah, we lean on our left side to accentuate the fact that we are free people. In ancient times only free people had the luxury of reclining while eating. We ask that this year you consider what it means to recline when so many are not yet free from oppression. This is not a simple question, and so there is no simple answer. In solidarity, you may choose not to recline. Or perhaps...

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Rabbi Joachim Prinz recalls that in Nazi Germany, Jewish holidays assumed a new importance: No longer were they perfunctory observances of the day. They became part of the context of danger, fear, death and hope in which we lived. Passover was now the great day of hope for delivery from our own Egypt. The whips which beat the naked bodies of Jewish slaves in Egypt were the very same that struck our bodies. Slavery was no longer an abstract term, foreign...

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As we now transition from the formal telling of the Passover story to the celebratory meal, we once again wash our hands to prepare ourselves. In Judaism, a good meal together with friends and family is itself a sacred act, so we prepare for it just as we prepared for our holiday ritual, recalling the way ancient priests once prepared for service in the Temple. Some people distinguish between washing to prepare for prayer and washing to prepare for food by...

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"God has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land." — Dr. Martin Luther King, April 3,1968, the night before his death.

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We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Passover, like many of our holidays, combines the celebration of an event from our Jewish memory with a recognition of the cycles of nature. As we remember the liberation from Egypt, we also recognize the stirrings of spring and rebirth happening in the world around us. The symbols on our table bring together elements of both kinds of celebration. We now take a vegetable, representing our joy at the dawning of spring after our long, cold winter. Most families use a...

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We raise our cups and recite together: This promise has sustained our ancestors and us. For not only one enemy has risen against us to annihilate us, but in every generation there are those who rise against us. Yet we continue to persevere. וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְלָֽנוּ V’hi she-amda l’avoteinu v’lanu. This promise has sustained our ancestors and us. We put our cups down.

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This symbolic washing of the hands recalls the story of Miriam's Well. Legend tells us that this well followed Miriam, sister of Moses, through the desert, sustaining the Jews in their wanderings. Filled with mayim chayim, waters of life, the well was a source of strength and renewal to all who drew from it. One drink from its waters was said to alert the heart, mind and soul, and make the meaning of Torah become alive. In Hebrew, urchatz means “washing”...

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As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human beings made in the image of God. Dip a finger into your wine glass and pour out a drop of wine for each plague as we recite them. These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians: Blood | dam | דָּם Frogs | tzfardeiya | צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ Lice | kinim | כִּנִּים...

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Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home.  Pour out your wrath on them; may your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens. Pour out your love on the nations who have known you and the kingdoms who call upon your name. For For they show loving-kindness to the seed of...

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"Israel (Jacob) descended to Egypt, resided there in small numbers, and became a great nation—great and powerful and numerous." "They persecuted us... They imposed hard labor on us." How does a minority preserve its identity? What of our identities are shaped by our hardships?