Contributors

Michele Margolis

-- Four Questions

The four question (plus a few more)

by Michele Margolis

Traditionally, the youngest person present asks: Why is this night different from all other nights? 1. On all other nights we eat either bread or matzah. Why, on this night, do we eat only matzah? 2. On all other nights we eat herbs of any kind. Why, on this night, do we eat only bitter herbs? 3. On all other nights, we do not dip our herbs even once. Why, on this night, do we dip them twice? 4. On all...

Conclusion

by Michele Margolis

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 23:9).

Fourth cup of wine

by Michele Margolis

It is time to fill up our wine glasses again. The fourth and final cup of wine also includes a cup of wine for the project Elijah. For millennia, Jews opened the door for him, inviting him join their seders, hoping that he would bring with him a messiah to save the world. Yet the tasks of saving the world - once ascribed to prophets, messiahs, and gods - must be taken up by us mere mortals, by common people with...

Finding the afikoman

by Michele Margolis

There are many explanations given for why we hide the afikoman . The simple reason that we put the afikoman aside or hide it, is because we will eat this matzah only near the very end of the Seder, and we don’t want it to get mixed up with the other matzahs at the table Some have the custom to hide the piece of matzah that was set aside for the afikoman , and have the children find it and then...

The Hillel sandwich

by Michele Margolis

As legend has it, the idea of eating two pieces of bread with something in between was invented by England’s fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792). An avid gambler, the Earl couldn’t bear to leave the card table for as long as it took to eat a normal meal, and so invented this handy snack so that he could eat and gamble at the same time. Yet as nice as this story is, tradition tells us that Jews have been eating sandwiches...

Maror

by Michele Margolis

Why do we eat maror or a bitter herb? A common interpretation is that the bitter herb reminds us of the time of our slavery. We force ourselves to taste pain so that we may more readily value pleasure. A second interpretation of the bitter herb, which was eaten at spring festivals in ancient times, is that the sharp taste is meant to awaken the senses and make people feel at one with nature's springtime revival. In this interpretation, maror is...

Rachtzah

by Michele Margolis

As we now transition from the formal telling of the Passover story to the celebratory meal, we once again wash our hands to prepare ourselves. In Judaism, a good meal together with friends and family is itself a sacred act, so we prepare for it just as we prepared for our holiday ritual, recalling the way ancient priests once prepared for service in the Temple. Some people distinguish between washing to prepare for prayer and washing to prepare for food by...

Yachatz - Breaking of the middle matzah

by Michele Margolis

When the Israelites left Egypt they did so in a hurry and had no time to wait for the bread they were baking to rise. The bread they baked was flat – matzah. Matzah is more than a commemorative food. It is called the ‘bread of affliction’ or a ‘poor man’s bread’. It remains flat symbolizing humility. Regular bread that rises symbolizes arrogance. On Passover we remove all leavened bread (and grain products) from our homes, eating only the matzah. We...

Karpas

by Michele Margolis

The karpas, the green vegetable, is the first part of the seder that makes this night different from all other nights. So far, the first glass of wine and the hand washing, though significant, do not serve to mark any sort of difference; they are regular parts of meals. The karpas, however, is not. As a night marked by difference, that difference starts now. Passover, like many Jewish holidays, combines the celebration of an event from Jewish memory with recognition of...

Four cups of wine

by Michele Margolis

Tonight we drink four glasses of wine, two cups before the meal and two glasses after the meal. Why four? The traditional explanation for the four cups of wine relates to the four expressions of redemption describing the Jews’ exodus from Egypt in the Bible. 1. “I will take you out…” 2. “I will save you…” 3. “I will redeem you…” 4. “I will take you as a nation…” (Exodus 6:6-7). The rabbis who wrote the Mishnah (rabbinic literature documenting oral...

Orange on a seder plate

by Michele Margolis

At the height of the Jewish feminist movement of the 1980s, inspired by the abundant new customs expressing women’s viewpoints and experiences, I started placing an orange on the Seder plate. At an early point in the Seder, when stomachs were starting to growl, I asked each person to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit and eat the segment in recognition of gay and lesbian Jews and of widows, orphans, Jews who are adopted and all...

A very special Haggadah

A very special Haggadah

by Michele Margolis

Four Cups of Wine

by Alan Scher

Tonight we drink four cups of wine. Why four? Some say the cups represent our matriarchs—Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah—whose virtue caused God to liberate us from slavery. Another interpretation is that the cups represent the Four Worlds: physicality, emotions, thought, and essence. Still a third interpretation is that the cups represent the four promises of liberation God makes in the Torah: I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you, I will take you to be...

My Favorite Freedom Quotes For Passover

by Rachel Danzig

I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free. -Rosa Parks Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -George Orwell Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. -JFK If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary. -Malcolm X

Unavoidable Meanings

by Ezra Haggadah

Pesach is many things to many people. Its customs are familiar and can be viewed with many lenses. The symbols are universal and are subject to almost any reading: social justice, class, the Holocaust, Middle East politics, American politics, agriculture, the environment, the list is endless, and the proliferation of interpretations is evidence that this is fertile territory. A few things – maybe only two – about the holiday are unavoidable, as in, Pesach wouldn't be Pesach if not for these...

Orange on a seder plate

by Michele Margolis

Why is there an orange on our seder plate? In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came across a Haggadah that had been written by some Oberlin students to express feminist concerns. One ritual they devised was placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians ("there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for...

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