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When we break the Matzah in half, we are symbolizing the split of the red sea. When we break the Matzah, we symbolize the hope that we can eat. When the red sea split, it symbolized the permission; yes you may pass, after hearing the word NO NO NO. During the Seder we get bored and we ask “When can we eat” and until this breaking of the Matzah, we get told NO NO NO. It is hope that there is...

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The formal telling of the story of Passover is framed as a discussion with lots of questions and answers. The tradition that the youngest person asks the questions reflects the centrality of involving everyone in the seder. The rabbis who created the set format for the seder gave us the Four Questions to help break the ice in case no one had their own questions. Asking questions is a core tradition in Jewish life. If everyone at your seder is around...

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A Meditation on the Four Children by Rabbi Brant Rosen As Jews, how do we respond when we hear the tragic news regularly coming out of Israel/Palestine? How do we respond to reports of checkpoints and walls, of home demolitions and evictions, of blockades and military incursions? It might well be said that there are four very different children deep inside each of us, each reacting in his or her own characteristic way. The Fearful Child is marked by the trauma...

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“To approach the Other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it. It is therefore to receive from the Other beyond the capacity of the I, which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity. But this also means: to be taught. The relation with the Other, or Conversation, is a non-allergic relation, an ethical relation; but inasmuch as it is welcomed this conversation is a...

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I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free. -Rosa Parks Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -George Orwell Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. -JFK If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary. -Malcolm X

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1) 64% felt unsafe at school due to sexual orientation 2) 44% felt unsafe at school due to gender identification 3) 42% of LGBT youth have experienced cyber bullying 4) 42% of LBGT youth say the community in which they live in is not accepting of LGBT people 5) Only 77% of LGBT youth say they know things will get better 6) 60% LGBT students report feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation 7) LGBT youth are 4 times...

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One element of the story of the exodus that the Roberts' version elides is God's hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Moses Maimonides (ca 1135 - 1204 CE) recognized this element of the story as a significant paradox since it seemed to suggest that God forced Pharaoh to make the wicked decisions that brought about the punishment of the plagues. As Maimonides recognizes, if this were so, then the notion that the plagues were a punishment as well as a means of the...

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Tonight with the traditional candles we also light a Veladora with the Virgen De Guadalupe, who is the protector of all Mexican People and all of Latino America. Similar to a Yarzeit candle, a candle of remembrance, people all over Mexico light veladora's in their home with prayers for those in struggle, those lost, and those in need of protection. Tonight we also light a veladora for all those who still are in the bondages of modern slavery and are yet...

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In America, starting in the early 1980s, some people have the custom to put an orange in the middle of their seder plate to express inclusion of all types of people in Judaism.

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In Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the south coast of Spain, they put brick dust in charoset to resemble the mortar used during slavery.

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Some families in Israel add a cup of water to the seder plate called “Miriam’s cup” to honor Miriam for her role in the Exodus and the contributions of women to Jewish history. Now, this custom is becoming popular in other countries.