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1.      God, have You forgotten me? I have forgotten how to breathe. The air here is tight around me Each day presses in and tomorrow feels impossibly far away I long to feel Your wide, wide love To feel hard earth beneath my cracked feet, shade on my bent back, cool mist on my sun-scorched skin I long to hear sweet words For respite from the sting that forces me into this pit and keeps me here Day after day God,...

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We were slaves in Egypt, now we are free. Let’s have a Seder! What’s on the Seder plate? Egg, herbs, bone, greens, charoset Let’s drink some wine. Why is this night different? Why is this child different? Ten plagues on the Egyptians. Enough already – Dayeinu! Drink wine again. Matzah, Maror, Hillel sandwich, let’s eat! Where’s the Afikoman? Thanks for the food! Drink some more Wine. Open the door for Elijah! Drink some wine – last one. Thanking and singing. Next...

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by Miriam Grossman May it be your will Our God and God of our ancestors that you lead us in peace and direct our steps (our marching, Rebellious, organized, queer dance-partying, prayerful steps) in peace and guide us in peace and support us in just peace (and in the tearing down of walls, and in the rising up of peoples), and cause us to reach our destination in life and joy and peace (all of us together, no one left behind)....

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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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The top MatzohAnd bottom Matzoh are,it is said,Pesach substitutesFor the two loaves of challah on Shabbat,Supposedly a reminderOf the two portions of mannaThey received  in the dessertEvery Friday before Shabbat. But the middle matza?!Ah,That's for the seder.We break it in halfAnd call it the bread of affliction,Just like the unleavened breadWe ate as we fled slavery Matza Number Two,The afflicted matza, We break it in halfAnd separate ourselves from joySo we don't forget the painThat has been ours.We break it in...

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By: Rabbi Ari Weiss As we approach Berach and reflect and give thanks to God for the meal we recently consumed, let us pause for a moment and reflect on what a Jewish meal is. Having a meal according to the Jewish tradition is much richer and more complex then just consuming food. As William H. Gass [1]  has noted, as animals we desire only nourishment. However, in the process of eating, other things happen. The desire to have food is...

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The Passover Haggadah recounts ten plagues that afflicted Egyptian society. In our tradition, Passover is the season in which we imagine our own lives within the story and the story within our lives. Accordingly, we turn our thoughts to the many plagues affecting our society today. Our journey from slavery to redemption is ongoing, demanding the work of our hearts and hands. Here are ten “modern plagues”:   Homelessness In any given year, about 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness,...

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Here is a kid and adult friendly alternative to for the Maggid section (the Passover story section) of the Haggadah. This short play is in the style of "sedra scenes" -- a contemporary take which makes the story current but stays true to the Exodus narrative. I've written it for large crowds -- so there are 13 parts, but if you have a smaller gathering you can easily double up. LET MY PEOPLE GO!A short play for the seder CAST: NARRATOR,...

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I'm in hour three of cleaning my kitchen and there's still no end in sight.Crouching on my kitchen floor, refrigerator door open, food stuffs spoiling around me, I wonderIs this what the Israelites did? Did they throw out their moldy jars of pasta sauce and shriveled vegetables, so rotten I'm not sure what some of the things once were?I have taken my kitchen apart in a rather manic fashion.  Pots to scour sit on the countertops, cabinet doors are open, their...

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Miriam, and the other midwives, Nachshon, Moses and all the people needed courage to stand up and defy the Pharoah. The third cup of wine is dedicated to the courage that is needed to seek freedom.  (everyone raises her or his wine or juice cup and says together) Blessing for Wine Let us bless the source of lifethat nurtures fruit on the vine as we weave the branches of our lives into the tradition. (Everyone drinks the second cup of wine...

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The Israelites were growing stronger, taking care of each other learning how to resist the treatment of the Egyptians. In time, they began to realize that they might be strong enough to overthrow Pharoah or escape from Egypt. Slowly, slowly, they began to plan a massive escape: an exodus. Meanwhile, Moshe had grown to be a man. He often roamed around the places where the Hebrews were working. One day, he went out from the palace when he saw an overseer,...

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Why do we talk about 4 children? (This part of the seder comes from Rabbinic midrash or Rabbis interpretation of the torah. The Torah speaks about children in connection with the Pesach story 4 times using the exact same words. Rabbis made sense of why the same thing was said 4 times by explaining that each time was supposed to represent different types of children.) How would we respond to each of these 4 types of children? The eager child: (Teach...