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Almighty God,I have known fear and I have known comfortAnd here, in this momentMy eyes are wide open My heart is wide openWith each step, my heart poundsAnd I can feel my lips stretching into a smileThe sounds of the sea are all aroundAnd the sounds of childrenLaughingPlayingRunningYou are hereAnd everywhereBetween me and this miracleIn my heartIn the winged ones above usAnd in the spray of the sea that cools my faceThis journey has been so longI have been so tiredAnd...

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Super-kosher Manischewitz, Exodus and Moses (to the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious") Super-kosher Manischewitz, Exodus and Moses The story of the Passover our Seder meal discloses Reminds us that the life of slaves was not a bed of roses Super-kosher Manischewitz, Exodus and Moses Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ai Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ai The Jews were bound in Egypt and were feeling rather low So Moses went to Pharaoh and said “Let my people go.” Pharoah said “Be...

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Leader: With the fourth cup of wine we remember God’s promise to take the Israelites as God’s own people. Just as God took on the Israelite people, we pledge to look out for the different members of our community. As citizens of the United States we share certain rights of citizenship, such as a social safety net, equal access to employment, student aid, and jury service. However, these rights are denied to those who have felony convictions. As a united community...

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Let us all fill our cups with wine... Reader 1: Tonight we drink four cups of the fruit of the vine. There are many explanations for this custom. They represent, some have said, the four terms God to describe the redemption in Exodus: "I shall take you out...", "I shall rescue you...",  "I shall redeem you...", "I shall bring you..."  The four cups might also reprsent the four corners of the earth, for freedom must live everywhere; the four seasons of...

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At the end of the seder, it is traditional to say or sing " Next Year in Jerusalem". We sometimes think of this as a literal wish, though far fewer of us have actually found ourselves in Jerusalem for seder the following year -- congratulations if you have!But Jerusalem is more than a place, it is a feeling, it is a hope.  At this point in the seder, 1/2 or 1/4 sheets of paper should be passed around to each participant,...

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The Pesach story begins in a broken world, amidst slavery and oppression. The sound of the breaking of the matza sends us into that fractured existence, only to become whole again when we find the broken half, the afikoman, at the end of the Seder. This brokenness is not just a physical or political situation: It reminds us of all those hard, damaged places within ourselves. All those narrow places from which we want to break to free. In Hebrew, Egypt...

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I write this year’s Prologue as Israel is going to the polls to decide whether to replace its present right-wing prime minister with the Zionist Union, a center-left political alliance. Whatever the outcome, chances are that Israel’s recent history of fractured politics and short-lived coalitions will probably continue. But why am I writing about Israel? you might ask. Aren’t there enough issues here at home for us to deal with? Perhaps it is because of the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism in...

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Leader: Let us all refill our cups. Leader picks up cup for all to see. This is the cup of hope. The seder tradition involves pouring a cup for the Hebrew prophet Elijah. For millennia, Jews opened the door for him, inviting him join their seders, hoping that he would bring with him a messiah to save the world. Yet the tasks of saving the world - once ascribed to prophets, messiahs and gods - must be taken up by us...

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A word about God: everyone has his or her own understanding of what God is. For some people, there is no God, while for others, God is an integral part of their lives. While we may not agree on a singular concept of God, we share a common desire for goodness to prevail in the world. And this is the meaning of tonight:  freedom winning out over slavery, good prevailing over evil. Please consider the source of benevolence in your life,...

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The Passover seder serves many purposes. First and foremost it is a ritualized celebration of the Israelites’ dramatic journey from slavery to freedom. But even early on, the seder was never just about our history. As the format of the seder was finalized in Mishnaic and Talmudic times, rituals were included to make each participant feel as if they personally were experiencing the journey from slavery to freedom. This theme of the seder goes beyond the Jewish people’s flight from Egypt...

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We are together because we know that justice and freedom are indivisible. Yet we are living in the midst of a tragic paradox: no longer is there an underground network to guide slaves to freedom, but rather, there is an underground criminal network to entrap people and sell them into slavery. Until we unite to confront this grave violation of human rights, it will continue to plague the world and feed off vulnerable men, women, and children.- The Freedom Center They...

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The great sage Hillel provided us with the tradition of constructing the Hillel sandwich, combining the bitterness of the maror with the sweetness of the charoset between the fortitude of the two pieces of matzah--the symbol of freedom. Through this ritual, we think about mortar and brick. We think of the Israelites traveling through the desert with no homes, no place to land and build up their strong communities, and only the matzah as a reminder of their freedom. It is...

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Passover is rich in social justice themes. It is impossible to study the story of our redemption and not feel compelled to eradicate injustice in the world today. Among the primary social justice themes found in the Exodus story and in the Passover observance are hunger and homelessness and oppression and redemption. “This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all those who are hungry come and eat with us. Let all who...