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"God has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land." — Dr. Martin Luther King, April 3,1968, the night before his death.

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While we’re enjoying in the sweetness of wine, we still show sympathy for those that suffered. The joys of just punishment and the need for restraint are vengeful feelings. For your own discussion later during the meal: How can we exercise empathy in today’s political climate? How do we show mercy to those that espouse hateful views? e.g. Charlottesville, Tree of Life Synagogue, Sri Lanka  Does suffering make us more empathetic? When does it make us vengeful or insensitive? How is...

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As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human beings made in the image of God. Dip a finger into your wine glass and pour out a drop of wine for each plague as we recite them. These are the ten plagues which God brought down on the Egyptians: Blood | dam | דָּם Frogs | tzfardeiya | צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ Lice | kinim | כִּנִּים...

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Passover, like many of our holidays, combines the celebration of an event from our Jewish memory with a recognition of the cycles of nature. As we remember the liberation from Egypt, we also recognize the stirrings of spring and rebirth happening in the world around us. The symbols on our table bring together elements of both kinds of celebration. We now take a vegetable, representing our joy at the dawning of spring after our long, cold winter. Most families use a...

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בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ, כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרָֽיִם B’chol dor vador chayav adam lirot et-atzmo, k’ilu hu yatzav mimitzrayim. In every generation, every human being must look upon himself, or herself, as though we personally left Egypt, as we go forth from slavery into freedom. May we continue to reach future holidays in peace and happiness. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen. We praise God, Ruler of...

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What experiences give you hope for the future? What lessons have we learned from past and present injustices and how can they help us combat future injustice within the legal system and beyond?

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Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home.  Pour out your wrath on them; may your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens. Pour out your love on the nations who have known you and the kingdoms who call upon your name. For For they show loving-kindness to the seed of...

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Freedom never comes on a silver platter… You don’t get to the Promised Land without going through the Wilderness… Whenever you break out of Egypt you better get ready for stiff backs. You better get ready for some homes to be bombed. You better get ready for some churches to be bombed. You better get ready for a lot of nasty things to be said about you, because you are getting out of Egypt. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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"Israel (Jacob) descended to Egypt, resided there in small numbers, and became a great nation—great and powerful and numerous." (Deut. 26:5) How does a minority preserve its identity?

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Rabbi Joachim Prinz recalls that in Nazi Germany, Jewish holidays assumed a new importance: No longer were they perfunctory observances of the day. They became part of the context of danger, fear, death and hope in which we lived. Passover was now the great day of hope for delivery from our own Egypt. The whips which beat the naked bodies of Jewish slaves in Egypt were the very same that struck our bodies. Slavery was no longer an abstract term, foreign...

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We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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A sense of where you come from as a pathway to who you are as a person and participant in a community. I don’t think you can fully be a member of The Jewish people and, creatively, a member of humanity, without knowing who you yourself are... [To] achieve a deep sense of self is to know your own beginnings... Rabbi Chaim Potok (pg 19 of A Night to Remember ) Tonight will be an exploration of the Passover story as...