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Hamotzi thanks God for bringing bread from the earth. This bread results from a partnership between God and humanity: God provides the raw materials and people harvest, grind, and bake. So too must we remember that combating human trafficking requires partnerships: among survivors, allies, lawyers, social workers, law enforcement, diplomats, people of faith…the circles of involvement are ever-expanding. Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ. Blessed are You...

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Our hands were touched by this water earlier during tonight's seder, but this time is different. This is a deeper step than that. This act of washing our hands is accompanied by a blessing, for in this moment we feel our People's story more viscerally, having just retold it during Maggid. Now, having re-experienced the majesty of the Jewish journey from degradation to dignity, we raise our hands in holiness, remembering once again that our liberation is bound up in everyone...

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The beauty of Urchatz was revealed to me during a women's seder.  Each participant washed the hands of another with care and kavanah (intentionality)—and without words. The sisterhood created in the sacred silence elevates communal consciousness. How will we utilize this state of purity? V'ahavtah l're'echa kamochah - to love the other as ourself. How will this ancient wisdom propel us forward to empower the silent? How will we elevate the hands of all those still in Mitzrayim? --Jessica K. Shimberg,...

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At the end of the seder, we pour—but do not drink—a fifth cup for Elijah the prophet, who symbolizes the coming of salvation. Jointly we can bring salvation; change is coming, but it is not yet here. We come together at Passover to connect our separate stories into the story of new freedom. We must cross the wilderness of change before we can enter a promised land of greater justice, greater freedom, greater peace, and deeper healing. Next year in a...

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We fill the fourth cup, the cup of song, and join in singing songs of celebration, struggle, and solidarity. We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome some day! Deep in my heart, I do believe, We shall overcome some day. Michael row the boat ashore, halleluyah… Sister help to set the sails, halleluyah… Sinai desert is hot and wide, halleluyah, I’ve got a home on the other side, halleluyah… Prison walls are thick and tall, halleluyah... Hold the body...

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Just as we search for the afikoman, we seek out the injustice in our societies, the hidden as well as the revealed, and organize to transform these dark places into ones filled with light. We seek within ourselves for the places where we are complicit in injustice and pledge to do better. And we search out the places where we are hurt or angry and wash these away, so we may proceed with calm and renewed determination. We say the blessing...

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How is this night different from all other nights? Tonight we come together, as members of different communities, to learn from each other, to bring attention to the plight of asylum seekers in Israel, and to strengthen our resolve to advocate for their rights. Tonight’s Four Questions are a starting point for small group conversation. 1. What is your family’s exodus story? 2. How does your exodus story shape your worldview? Your sense of responsibility for the Other? 3. How would...

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The song “Dayeinu,” which literally means “it would have been enough for us,” thanks God for all the miracles performed for the Jewish people: from the Exodus out of Egypt, to their journey through the desert, until they entered the land of Israel where they built a national home. In reality, no one of these alone would indeed have been enough. But we celebrate each step toward freedom before moving to the next step. If we dismiss small victories, we will...

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Rabban Gamliel says that anyone who has not discussed three central symbols has not fulfilled the obligation of the seder. These are the Passover lamb, Pesach in Hebrew, representing freedom; matzah, representing poverty; and bitter herbs, maror in Hebrew, representing suffering. Pesach—Freedom I have been out of jail [in Israel] for a few weeks now. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate my freedom after what I have been through. I take nothing for granted…My only wish is to remain...

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We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt… The reason people are leaving Eritrea is not hunger; it’s a dictatorship that imprisons and tortures citizens at will. If he could live in Eritrea with freedom and safety, W told me there was no place he would rather live; it was home. As we drove out of Holot [Detention Facility in the Negev], W said, “it looks exactly like the military camp in Eritrea” (where men do constant, mandatory service until they’re 55,...

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Matzah, unleavened bread, reminds us both the bread of poverty that the ancient Israelites ate in Egypt and the bread of freedom that they ate in their rushed escape to freedom. Three matzot sit on a plate at the center of the table. At this point of the seder, we break the middle matzah in two, wrap one portion in a napkin, and set it aside, hidden from sight. This division reminds us of the forced separation of communities and families,...

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OPENING SONG: Hinay ma tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad. How good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. (Psalm 133) KADESH: SANCTIFYING OUR GATHERING A central symbol of the Passover seder—literally an “order”— is four cups of wine or grape juice, representing different stages of the seder. We move from gathering to hearing other people’s stories, then to sharing our own exodus narratives, and finally to song. Let us fill the first...

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Our tradition speaks of four children or four attitudes: the wise child, the wicked child, the simple child, and the one who does not know how to ask. Each child has a different reaction to hearing about slavery. . . What does the wise child say? “What are the testimonies, the statutes, and the laws that apply to this situation? How are we to discern what God demands of us?” You are to answer this child: “God brought us out of...

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by Rabbi Gilah Langner The Exodus story is fundamental to Judaism. The liberation from Egypt defines us as a people. As a touchstone for Jewish identity, it was our essential passage as we prepared for revelation. We do not reenact the Exodus story only once a year during Pesach. Our liturgy has us sing the great Song of the Sea every morning, to signal our daily redemption from slavery. Redeeming those who remain captive and preventing future enslavement must be our...

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It is very sad that we have an expert on modern-day slavery in our world, but E. Benjamin Skinner is that person. He has been writing and studying slavery since 2001 and I begin with a chilling excerpt from a March 23, 2008 op-ed that he wrote in the LA Times: Let me be clear: By "slaves" I mean, very simply, those who are forced to work, un- der threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence. That is the nice,...

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At the heart of a progressive Muslim interpretation is a simple yet radical idea: every human individual, female or male, Muslim or non-Muslim, rich or poor, of the “developed” North or “underdeveloped” South, has exactly the same intrinsic worth. The essential value of human life is God-given, and is in no way connected to culture, race, ethnicity, gender, geography, or privilege. A progressive Muslim is one who is committed to the strangely controversial idea that the true measure of a human...

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by Professor David Gushee The Passover story communicates the fearsome commitment of God to the human rights of suffering people. Because Pharaoh would not let God’s people go, God finally inflicted that grievous last recompense on Pharaoh’s people, while passing over the households of the Jews whose liberation had been so long in coming. This story reveals God as one who not only hears the cries of the oppressed, but delivers them from bondage into freedom. It shows a God who...

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by Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer Celebrating the new year of the trees in wintry Philadelphia always seemed counter intuitive to me. When our children were small we aspired to mark the occasion by planting parsley in paper cups. Some years we did not get organized in time to buy the seeds, and some years we forgot about the plants and they went missing, but more often than we had any right to expect, the seeds germinated and by Pesach we had a...