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Over the years, the Passover story has evolved from a story just about Moses and Aaron to include their female counterparts. We set aside a cup of water for Miriam, celebrate Shifrah and Puah for their act of bravery and comment on Pharaoh’s daughter’s defiant move. As we commemorate the leadership of matriarchs in the Exodus story, the questions about our contemporary relationship to women’s rights and liberation come to the fore. These questions contemplate how our future can be more...

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By Rabbi Melissa Klein, Rabbi Joanna Katz, Rabbi Julie Greenberg, Rabbi Jo Hirschmann, Susan Kaplow, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell This year, we add a padlock and a key to our seder plate. Those of us who are blessed to live in our own homes tend to associate locks and keys with protection and access. Many of us have homes that keep us safe and that allow us to go in and out as we please. In contrast, for more than two...

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Kafka once wrote in his journal: "You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world. That is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature. But perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid." The "you" that Kafka is addressing might be himself, or it might be each of us. But it also could be -- and here's the stunner -- the God of Exodus Himself. It accords with His nature,...

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As we remember this struggle, we honor the midwives who were the first Jews to resist the Pharaoh.  our legends tell us that Pharaoh, behaving in a way common to oppressors, tried to get Jews to collaborate in murdering their own people.  He summoned the two chief midwives, Shifra and Pu'ah, and commanded them to kill newborn Jewish males at birth.  He threatened the midwives with death by fire if they failed to follow his commands. But the midwives did not...

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Salt Water Salt is unique in that it is bitter on its own, yet sweetens and brings out the taste of that which it is added to. For this reason, salt is the staple of suffering. There are two perspectives of suffering – Purposeless Suffering and Purposeful Suffering. Purposeless Suffering is suffering without reason, value, or an end-goal, and is therefore completely bitter. It is based on a keyhole view of life: “What is right in front of my eyes is...

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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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In 2008, we moved from Boise to Corvallis Oregon. Why did we leave? The job? Were we through with Boise? Did we need to begin a new chapter in our lives? We were uncertain about many things. The economy, tearing ourselves from the place we had raised a family. Our move was very difficult physically and emotionally. There were many things we clung to here in Boise. People, places and things that were familiar to us and gave us comfort. Yet...

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By Rabbi Tamara Cohen We sit down for our seders this year at a powerful cultural moment when the voices of women and girls are rising – the collective activism of #metoo, Emma Gonzales’s six minutes of silence and 11-year-old African American Naomi Wadler’s speech at the March for Our Lives, and even the truth telling of Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels. All this makes the absence of women’s voices in the Passover Haggadah more glaring. Thirty years ago,...

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Caged Bird BY MAYA ANGELOU A free bird leaps  on the back of the wind    and floats downstream    till the current ends  and dips his wing  in the orange sun rays  and dares to claim the sky.  But a bird that stalks  down his narrow cage  can seldom see through  his bars of rage  his wings are clipped and    his feet are tied  so he opens his throat to sing.  The caged bird sings    with a fearful trill    of things unknown   ...

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IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH One of most beloved songs in the Passover Seder is "Dayeinu". Dayeinu commemorates a long list of miraculous things God did, any one of which would have been pretty amazing just by itself. For example, “Had God only taken us out of Egypt but not punished the Egyptians – it would have been enough.” Dayeinu, translated liberally, means, “Thank you, God, for overdoing it.” Dayeinu is a reminder to never forget all the miracles in our...

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WHO KNOWS ONE? Who Knows One? I know one! One is our God in the heaven and earth. Two are the tablets of the covenant. Three are the patriarchs. Four are the matriarchs. Five are the books of the Torah. Six are the sections of the Mishnah. Seven are the days of the week. Eight are the days to circumcision. Nine are the months to childbirth. Ten are the commandments at Sinai. Eleven are the stars in Joseph’s dream. Twelve are...

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THE BITTER HERB Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al achilat maror. Blessed are You, Spirit of the universe who commands us to eat bitter herbs.