Haggadot Contributors

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Tears move us from one place to another, through the two most basic and essential elements - water and salt. The first sprigs of spring - the green veg called Carpas - remind us (like the egg does, too) that growth happens in and with our tears. Not just our tears, too - they're tears of empathy for our ancestors, and for the plight of whose who are enslaved, and who are strangers, and wanderers. Like us. Reminding us that we're...

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21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

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Havdallah means “the separation” in Hebrew. It’s here where we recognize that Shabbat is ending, even as Passover continues. We are standing in a liminal space between the double transcendent and the regular holiday transcendent - it's a pretty rare place to be, moving from holy into holy with a ritual that we usually use to move from the holy to the mundane. bell hooks wrote, “To commit to love is fundamentally to commit to a life beyond dualism. That’s why...

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The Haggadah says that we eat this sandwich to remember the almost-completely different sandwich that was eaten during the Temple period. It seems strange to eat this paltry sandwich, compared to the (very artisinal sounding) smoked meat and horseradish sandwich that was part a product of the sacrificial rites.  And yet, this is an adaptation to a "new" ritual, with a nod to an "old" ritual, which can show us a little bit more how rituals can be created for our...

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:  רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר:כָּל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר שְׁלשָׁה דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ בַּפֶּסַח, לֹא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וְאֵלוּ הֵן  פֶּסַח, מַצָה, וּמָרוֹר Rabban Gamliel would teach that all those who had not spoken of three things on Passover had not fulfilled their obligation to tell the story, and these three things are: Pesach, Matzah, and Marror.  Pesach - Shankbone This reminds us to wear who we are on our sleeves, in public if we can, or at least within our communities, in order...

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In the traditional Haggadah, we begin to tell the story of the Exodus right after the four questions. The four questions notoriously do not get answered in the Haggadah, but in lieu of answers, we encounter a story. It begins:  Avadim hayinu. We were slaves.  This is the first line of our story for tonight as well, and possibly for many of the stories that we tell about our lives every day. Whether it's the past, or the present, or the...

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Why on Passover do we look backward instead of forward? If we look forward, how far do we have to look forward to things to look like a promised land? What keeps us from our own dreams? Especially when we see time as a construct and not an enemy… what can we do to bring about our dreams?

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“But turn it around and say it on the other side: in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone”

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Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and...

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Maggid – Beginning מגיד Raise the tray with the matzot and say: הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין. Ha lachma anya dee achalu avhatana b'ara d'meetzrayeem. Kol deechfeen yeitei v'yeichol, kol deetzreech yeitei v'yeefsach. Hashata hacha, l'shanah haba-ah b'ara d'yisra-el. Hashata avdei, l'shanah haba-ah b'nei choreen. This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land...

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So, first of all, the four children appear in the Jerusalem Talmud, where Rabbi Hyyia, a student of Rabbi Judah the Prince, is quoted as bringing this parable.  Hyyia’s text varies quite a bit from the text we know today: for one, the simple child is not "simple" but stupid. But it is Rabbis at the time of the collection of the Mishnah and Talmud who are creating this rubric. And so we proceed:  The "Wise" Child asks about the rules...