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Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front By Wendell Berry Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want...

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Los 4 hijos son un "simbolo" de pesaj. Esta el Sabio, El Malvado, El Simple y El que no sabe preguntar. El sabio pregunta: cuales son todas las mitzvhot de pesaj? el mayor responde con todo detalle cada una de ellas El malvado pregunta: que es esto que hacen ustedes? el padre responde: ustedes!? como que ustedes? si vos tambien sos judio, si no fuese por D'os que nos saco de egipto, no estuvieramos aqui!. El simple pregunta: que es esto?...

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I grew up in an irreligious home. We rarely belonged to a Temple (Synagogue was too traditional) and attending a service was even rarer. When we did go to temple you would never a yarmulke except on the Rabbi & Cantor (sometimes). The only tallitot were these little vest things that the clergy wore. The only Hebrew was the Sh'ma, the Torah/Haftarah readings and the Mourner's Kaddish (which is really Aramaic). But every year, without fail, the Passover dishes and linens...

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In Libya, before Passover, women would grind flour for matzah for 7 days while the men took chalk from the mountains to make whitewash. Then, they would paint their houses inside and out. Until the Seder, everyone slept outside.

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The whole point of the seder is to ask questions. This is your time to ask about things that confuse you, things you don’t understand, or even things you don’t agree with. There really is no is no such thing as a stupid question, especially tonight.  - Joy Levitt (age 16) Questions are not only welcome during the course of the evening but are vital to tonight’s journey. Our obligation at this seder involves traveling from slavery to freedom, prodding ourselves...

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There is a word in Hebrew — Teshuvah — that means return. It is an acknowledgement that there is always a chance for forgiveness, redemption and change. Our traditions teach that Passover is open to all. Everyone is welcome at this table. There is always room. Because no one is ever turned away, there is always an opportunity for a rebirth of spirit. As a sign of hospitality to all, we open the door to our homes and symbolically invite anyone...

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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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Leader: In the spring of the year, the season of rebirth and renewal, on the festival of Pesach, we read from the Song of Songs.  The poetry of nature and of love evokes, as well, the love between God and the people Israel, and their Covenant-betrothal. Arise my beloved, my fair one, And come away; For lo, the winter is past. Flowers appear on the earth, The time of singing is here. The song of the dove Is heard in our...

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If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg. Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals...

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Long ago at this season, our people set out on a journey. On such a night as this, Israel went from degradation to joy. We give thanks for the liberation of days gone by. And we pray for all who are still bound. God, may all who hunger come to rejoice in a new Passover. Let all the human family sit together, drink the wine of deliverance, and eat the bread of freedom: Freedom from bondage     and freedom from oppression Freedom...

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Immediately following birkat hamazon (grace after meals) we drink the third of four cups of wine. We pour the fourth cup which will be for the upcoming completion of Hallel. We also pour a fifth cup that is situated in the middle of the table called Kos Shel Eliyahu (Elijah’s Cup). This cup is left undrunk until such time as the halakhic question is answered: Do the Jews in Israel drink the fifth cup which corresponds to the fifth redemptive expression...

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On Passover, Jews are commanded to tell the story of the Exodus and to see ourselves as having lived through that story, so that we may better learn how to live our lives today. The stories we tell our children shape what they believe to be possible—which is why at Passover, we must tell the stories of the women who played a crucial role in the Exodus narrative.  The Book of Exodus, much like the Book of Genesis, opens in pervasive...

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Although he is incapable of asking on his own initiative, we are not instructed merely to tell him what he does not know how to ask for. Rather, we are instructed to “open for him”; we are to stimulate and encourage him to ask his own question, whatever it may be, which we will use as an introduction for teaching him about the departure from Egypt. We are not to carry him into the room of knowledge; we are merely to...

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The Haggadah speaks of four questions, four cups of wine, four sons and four languages of redemption – “I will bring you out…, I will save you…, I will redeem you” and “I will take you…” (Shemos 6:6-7) – all alluding to our four exiles: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome. For these exiles all emanate from the exile of Egypt, just as their redemptions are rooted in the redemption from Egypt.

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How does this answer suit the simple son’s question?The simple son is not stupid. Rather, like the wicked son’s wickedness, the simple son’s simplicity is a character defect. He is simplistic and superficial because he is haughty. With the redemption long past, he arrogantly asks, “What is this?” That is, “Why dwell on the past?”We address the simple son’s conceit by recalling our humble beginnings as slaves to the mightiest nation in the world. We also note that G-d’s strong hand...