For thousands of years, Jews have gathered at the seder table as an act of
resistance: in Judea during the Bar Kokhba revolt, in Spain during the Inquisition,
in Warsaw during the Holocaust.
Pesach is a festival of liberation, which also acknowledges that none of us is free
until all of us can be free.
To observe Pesach is to be inclusive:
Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed. The seder we celebrate tonight would not be
the same if any one of us were absent.
Tonight, we tell the story of the Exodus in many different ways, because we all learn
in different ways. We taste foods, tell stories, answer questions, and sing songs.
Our goal is for each of us to see ourselves as the people who left Mitzrayim, if only
for a moment.
To observe Pesach is to celebrate:
We take our time with the seder, celebrating by enjoying leisure all evening long.
Even as this evening gives us an opportunity to examine the oppression of our own
time, we also take time to acknowledge the progress that we’ve made. We are leaving
Mitzrayim if we can continue to do this work.