The meaning of Passover

Haggadah Section: Yachatz

For us (Ken and Gisela), the story of Pesach is a story of constant struggle at many levels: At the most basic level, struggle between security and certainty of remaining a slave in Egypt

and uncertainty and potential freedom of following the path of faith. It is also a struggle between faith and doubt. Am I willing to leave everything I’ve known for the total unknown? Abandoning a known way of life for something unknown? Many Jews in Egypt remained, and only a minority followed Moshe into the desert. Connected to this tension between faith and doubt is a third struggle between a material dimension of existence and a spiritual one. And finally, Pesach is a struggle between the individual and the collective. The story of the Exodus is a story that connects Jews in a very particular way to each other because it is a story of trust, of commitment, and of a shared experience of persecution and liberation. These are struggles that Jews encounter every day in the modern world, struggles we first encountered as a people during the Exodus. Reading the Haggadah not only reminds us that these struggles are not new, but it also offers us a script to overcome these challenges and to grow spiritually, socially and intellectually as an individual, as a community, and as a people. 

Ken and Gisela Loiselle

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Table of contents
    Nirtzah
  • Passover is the night for reckless dreams
  • Conclusion
  • Nirtzah: The end is the beginning is the end
  • Sing... Sing a Song
    • Introduction
  • Shabbat Candles
  • Lighting of the Candles Additional Blessing
  • We are the Generation between the flames
  • Map of the Exodus
  • Seder Plate Art
    • Kadesh
  • Kadesh
  • Stranger in a Strange Land
    • Urchatz
  • Urchatz: Washing Our Hands Before We Begin the Seder
    • Karpas
  • Before Karpas
  • Karpas
  • Karpas, Rebirth and Renewal
    • Yachatz
  • The Matzah of Peace
  • The meaning of Passover
  • Yachatz - Breaking the Middle Matzah
    • Maggid - Beginning
  • Maggid (Introduction)
    • -- Four Questions
  • The Four Questions
  • Alternate Four Seinfeld Questions (to be asked by four neurotic adults):
  • Hunger Seder: Four Questions
  • Mazon's Fifth Question (2019)
    • -- Four Children
  • Jewish Identity
  • The Four LGBTQIA+ Jews
  • Four Children
  • Four Faces of Senior Hunger
  • The Four Children Approach the Future
  • The Four Janets
    • -- Exodus Story
  • The Story of Passover (Skit)
  • The Passover Story by Miriam
    • -- Ten Plagues
  • The Ten Plagues
  • 10 Quotes from 2018- Modern Plagues
  • 10 Plagues
    • -- Cup #2 & Dayenu
  • Dayenu: Behind the Music (A Fictional Origins Story)
  • Fanny Neuda - First Days of Passover Prayer
  • Second Cup of Wine
  • Cup #2 of Wine
    • Bareich
  • Miriam and Elijah – Two Cups for Your Seder
  • Bareich
  • Third Cup of Wine
    • Rachtzah
  • Rachtzah
    • Motzi-Matzah
  • An Ode to Bread
  • #SecondSederPlate for Today's Refugees
    • Maror
  • Maror
  • Have Yourself a Piece of Bitter Maror
    • Koreich
  • The Wandering is Over Haggadah - Koreich
    • Songs
  • Games
    • Shulchan Oreich
  • Passover Around The World Trivia
    • Tzafun
  • Afikoman
  • Afikomen Prize
    • Hallel
  • Zeroah
  • Fourth Cup of Wine
    • Commentary / Readings
  • Welcoming All: An Inclusive Passover Reading
  • Commentary
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