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Together as we wash our hands, they move into the bowl of water, and back out of the water. Why do we do this? Are our hands really getting clean without soap? We won’t be eating for some time, why do we do this so early? The washing of our hands suggests that we are open to question. One question that is always asked is about hope. Rick Recht answers in his song: This is the hope that holds us together,...

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http://girlsintrouble.bandcamp.com/track/snow-scorpions-and-spidersA song about Miriam, but later in her life, from the book of Numbers Chapter 12, when she's exiled from the group for a while. 

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Leader: Let us all refill our cups. [Take turns reading. Each person is invited to read a grouped set of lines - or to pass.] Tonight we drink four cups of the fruit of the vine. There are many explanations for this custom. They may be seen as symbols of various things: the four corners of the earth, for freedom must live everywhere; the four seasons of the year, for freedom's cycle must last through all the seasons; or the four...

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In Morocco, Mimouna, a traditional North African Jewish celebration is celebrated the day after Passover. This celebration marks returning to eating chametz. They celebrate with baked foods and foods that symbolize luck because Mimouna is the Arabic word for luck. Such foods include dough with hand prints of silver coins. At the conclusion of this celebration, they enter the ocean and throw pebbles behind their backs to ward off evil spirits.

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There are three pieces of matzo bread on the table in front of us. We will now break the middle matzo into two pieces—the larger of which should be wrapped up and hidden. This is the afikomen.  We eat matzo, as opposed to leavened bread, on Passover, to remember that our ancestors did not have enough time to wait for bread to rise while waiting on Pharoah’s word regarding their freedom. Lift the three pieces of matzo into the air, and...

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The traditional haggadah speaks of Ten Plagues by which God accomplished our liberation from Egypt. Tonight, we enumerate plagues of psychiatric conditions, which hinder our sense of wholeness, health, and freedom. For each one, our cup of joy is diminished by one drop: ANXIETY EATING DISORDERS IMPULSIVITY MEDICATIONS STIGMA DEPRESSION FEAR OF DISAPPROVAL LOSS MOOD SWINGS YEARS OF THERAPY And some say: LOW SELF-ESTEEM OBSESSIVE-COMPULSION PARANOIA GRANDIOSITY DISASSOCIATION ISOLATION MELANCHOLY HOPEFULNESS PSYCHOSIS SUICIDAL IDEATION

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Sam Solomon 3-12-15 The symbols of Passover The Symbols of Passover The bone that represents the sacrifice.  It is weird to me that we sacrifice a lamb.  How can we sacrifice such a sweet and innocent animal? A hard boiled egg? A hard boiled egg? how can something so small have so much meaning? We eat bitter herbs to remind us of our ancestors work as slaves.  But why do we eat food that many love? I love the bitter herbs,...

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The seder plate holds the main symbols of a traditional Passover seder-- the shank bone, egg, karpas, charoset, and maror. The Kabbalists of the Middle Ages added hazeret, another kind of bitter lettuce. And in recent years feminists have added an orange on the seder plate to symbolize women's leadership roles and full empowerment in Jewish life. The artichoke however is a new development. What is an artichoke? Surely a work of God's imagination! Many petals, with thistle and a heart....

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Rumi, the Persian poet of the soul, understands the meaning of love in this way:             Your task is not to seek love             But merely to seek and find all the barriers             That you have built against it.             The same can be said of freedom; we build barriers against it, barriers born of fear-fear of death, fear of not having enough, fear of not being enough, fear of being happy. An antidote to these fears is gratefulness; when we cultivate our awareness...

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In washing our hands, we also think of those who don't get to share in the basic human right of abundant, clean water of people deprived of water by the weather in Somalia, in India, in Texas and those deprived of water by human action in places like Flint, Michigan as well as those whose homes have been ravaged by wind and water in Colombia, in California, and here in New Jersey. We wash our hands and accept our responsibilities to...

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I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world.  A fairer world.  A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves.  And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently.  We must also raise our sons differently. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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The First Cup: We drink to Ending Racism and Poverty, and Birthing Racial and Economic Justice We begin with the teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King 50 years ago, on the evening before his death. He came to Memphis, Tennessee to support the striking sanitation workers of the city, and he spoke to a gathered crowd: “The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers....

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Qualo Es El Uno? Quien supiense y entendiense, Alavar al Dyo criense, Qualo es el uno, qualo es el uno? Uno es el Creador, uno es el Creador, Uno es el Creador, baruch Hu uvaruch sh’mo  Quien supiense y entendiense, alavar al Dyo criense, Qualo son los dos, qualo son los dos? Dos Moshe y Aaron, uno es el Creador, Uno es el Creador, baruch Hu uvaruch sh’mo  Quien supiense y entendiense, alavar al Dyo criense, Qualo son los tres, qualo...

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The tasks ahead? Once again we have recited the age-old epic of our liberation from slavery. We have tasted the new growth of a world released from winter We have celebrated advances our, and other peoples of the world, have made toward freedom from oppression. We have focused our attention on how each one of us can become strengthened to feel, think and act so as to take an active role in our own lives. Each year we repeat the same...

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In dem land fun piramidn, Z’geven a Kenig—beyz un shlekht, Gevezen zaynen alle Yidn— Zayne diner, zayne k’nekht. Kinder hot men dan farmoyert Ven a tzigl hot gefelt Ver veis vi lang es volt gedoyert Ot di viste shklafn velt, In dem land fun piramidn Velt nit zayn a groyser held, Velkher hot gekemft far Yidn Mit zayn khokhme, un zayn shverd. There lived in the land of the pyramids a very cruel and angry king. The Jews in the land...