Contributors

Barry Louis Polisar

Silver Spring , US

You've probably heard many of Barry's songs and stories already. Barry sings his song "All I Want is You" in the opening credits of the film Juno and on the Grammy Award-winning Juno Soundtrack. A 2-CD, 60-song Tribute Album of his songs was just released. Barry is an author, songwriter, story-teller and poet. A five-time Parents' Choice Award winner, Barry has written songs for Sesame Street and The Weekly Reader. A pioneer in the world of books and music for children, he paved the way for an entire generation of musicians who perform for kids when he began writing and recording for children in 1975. Thirty-five years later, his unique songs and stories are now heard all around the world. He adapted this Haggadah for adults --with illustrations by his daughter--because he saw the need to tell the Passover story in a simple and straight-forward way. The Haggadah, "Telling the Story: A Passover Haggadah Explained" is available for sale, but Barry also allows people to download the entire book for free from his site: http://www.barrylou.com/books/TellingTheStory.html Barry's other books--and his songs--are also available on his web site: http://www.barrylou.com He is currently working on a Midrash on the Book of Genesis.

Nirtzah

by Barry Louis Polisar

Our Seder now ends. Together we say, “Next year in Jerusalem. Next year may all men and women everywhere be free!”

The Cup of Acceptance--the Fourth Cup of Wine

by Barry Louis Polisar

Hallel is a recitation in Hebrew of Psalms. This is the time to once again give thanks. It is a time of singing and of praise. We are to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our might and to diligently teach our children the Torah commandments, speaking of them daily and keeping them close to our minds and close to our hearts. Just as the fringes on our prayer shawls are meant to remind...

We Explain the Cup of Elijah

by Barry Louis Polisar

The wine glasses are filled — including the wine glass for Elijah, which is now filled to the top We fulfill our obligations to God through Torah study and prayer but also through our daily lives — how we make a living, how we conduct our affairs, how we reach out to those around us. In the center of our table is a cup of wine called “Kos Eliyahu;” the cup of Elijah. Elijah was a Prophet who is said to...

The Cup of Redemption- The third cup

by Barry Louis Polisar

Fill the third cup of wine Together we take up the third cup of wine, now recalling the third divine promise to the people of Israel: “And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen. We now drink the third cup of wine

The Blessing After Meal

by Barry Louis Polisar

Traditionally, a series of prayers and blessings after eating are now recited in Hebrew. Together we say: We have eaten this Passover meal as a free people and we give thanks to God for his many blessings. Preserve us in life, sustain us with good and honorable work and make us worthy. Bless this home, this table, and all assembled here; may all our loved ones share our blessings.

The Afikoman is Found and Eaten

by Barry Louis Polisar

Toward the end of the meal, the children look for the afikoman, which has been hidden. Since neither the meal nor the Seder can be concluded before everyone has eaten a piece of it, whoever finds the afikoman is given a reward. Nothing is eaten after the afikoman, so that the matzoh may be the last food tasted. This custom of hiding the afikoman is not found in early Haggadot and was probably added as a device to keep up the...

Boiled Egg

by Barry Louis Polisar

It is customary to begin the Passover meal with hard-boiled eggs flavored with salt water. The egg is symbolic of new life, and of hope; the salt water, a symbol of tears. Eggs, unlike other foods, harden when they are cooked, symbolic of our faith being tempered and hardened by the forces of our history. May we reflect on our lives this year and soften our hearts to those around us. Another year has passed since we gathered at the Seder...

Korekh

by Barry Louis Polisar

On Passover, Hillel, the head of the Rabbinic academy in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, combined the pesach, matzoh and maror and ate them together, so he might observe the commandment exactly: “They shall eat the Pesach lamb offering with matzoh and maror together.” The destruction of the Temple by the Romans brought an end to animal sacrifices, so our sand- wich today is made only with matzoh and maror. We will now eat the bitter herbs sandwiched between two pieces...

Marror- A Blessing for the Bitter Herb

by Barry Louis Polisar

We now dip our food for a second time. Each of us will take a bit of the maror, the bitter herb, and dip it into the haroset — a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, wines and spices. We acknowledge that life is bittersweet. The sweet taste of haroset symbolizes that no matter how bitter and dark the pres- ent appears, we should look forward to better days. As we remember our ancestors, this is a time to be appreciative of...

Matzoh- A Special Blessing for Matzoh

by Barry Louis Polisar

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kidishanu b'mitzvo-tav v'tzivanu al a-chilat matzoh. We praise You, God, who hallows our lives with commandments, and enjoins us to partake in eating matzoh. (Each participant eats a portion of the two matzot)

Motzi- A Blessing for Bread

by Barry Louis Polisar

We are now coming to the Seder meal. As we ordinarily begin with the breaking of bread, we begin tonight with the breaking of matzoh. We recite two blessings; first the regular blessing for bread, then a special one for mat- zoh. The upper and middle piece of the three matzot are broken and distributed among the group as we recite togetherBaruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz. We praise You, God, who brings forth bread from the...

The Cup of Deliverance- Second Cup of Wine

by Barry Louis Polisar

We raise our cups as we recall the second promise of liberation to the people of Israel. Let us glorify God who performed these miracles for our ancestors and for us. Let us rejoice at the wonder of our deliverance from bondage to freedom, from servitude to redemption. Hallelujah. We praise God who has delivered us and our ancestors from Egypt and brought us here this night to eat matzoh and maror. Our God and God of our ancestors, help us...

Maggid - Beginning

Pesach, Matzoh, Marror

by Barry Louis Polisar

Pesach, matzoh, and maror have symbolic meaning for us. They are so important and so meaningful that no Seder is really complete unless they are fully explained. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS PESACH? This roasted shank bone is the symbol of the Pesach lamb. Each year at Passover, the Israelites would gather at the Temple to commemorate the Exodus from slavery. Each family would bring a lamb as an offering, to remember the time when our ancestors were spared the...

Dayenu- it would have been enough

by Barry Louis Polisar

A Medieval addition to the Haggadah, this hymn originally contained fifteen verses mirroring the fifteen steps in the Seder. How many are the gifts God bestowed upon us! Had God: Brought us out of Egypt and not divided the sea for us Divided the sea and not permitted us to cross on dry land, Permitted us to cross on dry land and not sustained us for forty years in the desert, Sustained us for forty years in the desert and not...

Ten Plagues

by Barry Louis Polisar

With your finger or spoon, lessen your cup of wine with each of the plagues mentioned, but do not drink Blood as we read “All the waters that were in the river were turned to blood” Frogs as we read “And the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt” Lice as we read “All the dust of the land became lice throughout all of Egypt” Swarms as we read “There came a grievous swarm of flies into the house...

The Plagues of Egypt

by Barry Louis Polisar

As Moses and the Israelites were fleeing Egypt, Pharaoh’s armies pursued them as they were encamped by the sea. Moses held out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove back the sea, allowing the Israelites to pass, but drowned the Egyptians. There is a Midrash that tells of God rebuking His angels for rejoicing as the Egyptians were drowning, saying, “Are these not my children also?” We now pour ten drops of wine to symbolize the ten plagues upon...

Maggid - Beginning

The Story

by Barry Louis Polisar

The Torah says we are to speak these words before God and say, “My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down into Egypt and sojourned there. With few in number, he became there a great and populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and afflicted us and imposed hard labor upon us. And we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers and God heard our cry and saw our affliction and our oppression. He brought us...

-- Cup #2 & Dayenu

We Were Slaves

by Barry Louis Polisar

The Haggadah sets forth the theme that we — not just our ancestors — were slaves to Pharaoh but God delivered each of us “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” We tell the story of the Exodus and search its meaning to better understand and appreciate its message. We have an obligation to retell and expand upon the story of our Exodus from Egypt in order to remind ourselves that the struggle for freedom is a constant one. Over...

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