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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...

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So, here we are. We’ve gotten through the fire, and through singing-blessing, and now we’re at the water.  - which is an opportunity to engage with Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron: Miriam has long been associated with water. Although Miriam, a prophet and the sister of Moses, is never mentioned in the traditional Haggadah text, she is one of the central figures in the Exodus story. The rabbis attribute to Miriam the miracle of a well that traveled with...

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In Arabic The only language of loss left in the world is Arabic- These words were said to me in a language not Arabic. Ancestors, you've left me a plot in the family graveyard- Why must I look, in your eyes, for prayers in Arabic? Majnoon, his clothes ripped, still weeps for his Laila. O, this is the madness of the desert, his crazy Arabic. Who listens to Ishmael? Even now he cries out: Abraham, throw away your knives, recite a...

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The Shehechianu is said on holidays and at life cycles. We can also choose to say it at times that feel meaningful - it's a tool for marking time and achievement, annual cycles and moments of gratitude, and in this way creates an early echo of Dayeinu, which comes later as a sort of litany of moments when we might have said the Shehechianu. This blessing has been used this way for at least 2,000 years, and I'm honored to offer...

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The ritual we are sitting down to is one that others have sat down to for thousands of years. We move in tonight’s story from one place to another - from slavery to freedom, from a narrow place to a place of limitless possibilities - we chronicle the exodus from Mitzrayim, which in many ways is like getting our happy ending, walking out into the desert horizon toward the promised land.  But we know that history has continued from the moment...

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In dipping a vegetable "ka'zait" - the size of an olive - in salt water we're more obviously asked to viscerally experience others' - and our own - sadness. The point is often the freshness of the vegetable, the sad, saltiness of the water.  Think about the size, though, of the vegetable. Such a tiny amount of a thing to eat. It's still early in the evening so we don't want to let anyone be too satisfied...! But this is connected...

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When the Torah is talking about the "ger," pshat is CLEARLY referencing an immigrant. Clearly Avraham was not a convert when he was a ger with Bnei Chet. Clearly the Jewish people were not converts when they were geirim in Egypt. And more. Rashi agrees on Exodus 22:20 agrees: כָּל לְשׁוֹן גֵּר אָדָם שֶׁלֹּא נוֹלַד בְּאוֹתָהּ מְדִינָה, אֶלָּא בָּא מִמְּדִינָה אַחֶרֶת לָגוּר שָׁם: Wherever the Torah uses the word 'ger,' it refers to a person who was not born in that...

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In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim; each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one called unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of...

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The Sages taught: Four entered the orchard [pardes], i.e., dealt with the loftiest secrets of Torah, and they are as follows: Ben Azzai; and ben Zoma; Aḥer, the other, a name for Elisha ben Avuya; and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva,the senior among them, said to them: When, upon your arrival in the upper worlds, you reach pure marble stones, do not say: Water, water, although they appear to be water, because it is stated: “He who speaks falsehood shall not be...