The Exodus gave us our freedom. It also taught us our ethics, our theology, our philosophy. How many commandments in the Torah are rooted in our experience of slavery and freedom? I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides Me. (Exodus 20:1) You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers In the land of Egypt. You...

We have so many reasons to be grateful to God tonight: for freedom and dignity, friendship and family, prosperity and health. Any one of these would have been enough - Day'aynoo!  Kama ma'alot tovot la-Makom alaynoo, Day'aynoo! How many are the gifts that God has granted us! Eeloo ho'tzee-anu me'meetzrayeem, Day'aynoo! Eeloo seepayk tzarchaynoo ba-midbar arbaeem shana, Day'aynoo! Eeloo heh-eh-cheelanoo et ha-man, Day'aynoo! Eeloo kayr-vanoo leefnay har seeni, Day'aynoo! Eeloo natan lanoo et ha-Shabbat, Day'aynoo! Eeloo natan lanoo et ha-Torah, Day'aynoo!...

As we recite each of the Ten Plagues, we dip out a drop of wine from our wine cup. When human beings suffer, even evil human beings, our joy cannot be complete. God brought Ten Plagues upon the Egyptians, and they were: Blood | Dam Frogs | T'z'fardaya Lice | Keeneem Beasts |  Arov Blight | Dever Boils | Shecheen Hail | Barad Locusts | Arbeh Darkness | Choshech Death of Firstborn  | Makat Bechorot   - When Israel saw the wondrous...

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk maintained that "whoever believes in miracles is a fool; and whoever does not believe in miracles is an atheist." How can the idea of the miraculous be meaningful to us today? We may be guided by the biblical Hebrew term for miracle, nes, which means "sign." A miracle is an event that signifies something of significance, something that makes an important difference in my life or in the life of my community. A miracle is an intimation...

The most devastating effect of slavery, ultimately, is that the slave internalizes the master's values and accepts the condition of slavery as his proper status. People who live in chronic conditions of poverty, hunger, and sickness tend to show similar patterns of acceptance and passivity. As with slaves,their deprivation deprives from their political and economic status and then becomes moral and psychological reality. It is this reality that was overthrown in the Exodus. —Irving Greenberg We got used to standing in...

The Israelites were a prosperous, powerful people in Egypt. How did Pharoah manage to enslave them so quickly? The Israelites were 'well connected.' How did Pharoah persuade his people to join in the exploitation, enslavement, and ultimately, the genocide of their Israelite neighbors?  Moses had two identities — son of slaves, and prince of Egypt. He could have spent his lifetime in the palace. Why did he "go out to his brothers?" Why did he choose to identify with the slave...

There are many questions. Now we begin to answer. Our history moves from slavery toward freedom. Our narration begins with degradation and rises to dignity. Our service opens with the rule of evil and advances to the kingdom of God.  1. We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt and the Lord freed us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Had not the Holy One liberated our people from Egypt, then we, our children and our children's children would still be enslaved. ...

Five rabbis, living under the Roman oppression in the second century, gather for a Seder and lose track of the time, until reminded by their students that dawn has come. Some scholars suggest that they used this Seder, with its themes of liberation from oppression, to plan a revolution. With their students posted as look-outs to warn of the approach of Roman authorities, the debate raged all night long: Pacifism or militant revolt? Is there a right time to take up...

Free people ask questions. We begin our Seder with questions. Although the custom is that the youngest at the table asks, tradition instructs that all must ask: Ma Neeshtana ha-laila ha-zeh meekol ha-laylot? Sheh-bichol ha-laylot anoo ochleem chametz oo-matzah. Halailah hazeh chametz oomatz. Sheh-bi'chol ha-laylot anoo ochleem sheh-ar yerakot. Ha-lailah hazeh maror. Sheh-bi'chol ha-laylot ayn anoo mat-bee- leen afeeloo pa-am echad. Ha-laila hazeh sh'tay pi-ameem. Sheh- bi'chol ha-laylot anoo ochleem bayn yoshveen oo-bayn misoobeen. Ha-laila hazeh koolanoo misooveen. Why is this...

The central imperative of the Seder is to tell the story. The Bible instructs: “ You shall tell your child on that day, saying: ‘This is because of what Adonai did for me when I came out of Egypt.' ” (Exodus 13:8) We relate the story of our ancestors to regain the memories as our own. Elie Weisel writes: God created man because He loves stories. We each have a story to tell — a story of enslavement, struggle, liberation. Be...

We have become slaves to the cities we build and to the cars we drive. It is the soil from which humanity came, the earth which each year displays the miracle of creation! As Spring re-awakens all that is green, let us re-awaken our ties to the natural world and our bonds to the earth. We dip greens into salt water and acknowledge through our blessing that we are partners in the work of Creation.  Green vegetables represent the coming of...

Slaves eat quickly, stopping neither to wash nor to reflect. Tonight, we are free. We wash and we express our reverence for the blessings that are ours. Pass a bowl of water, a small cup and a towel around the table. Everyone pours three cupfuls over their fingers. There is no blessing over this washing.

The Hebrew word “Kiddush” means sanctification. But it is not the wine we sanctify. Instead, the wine is a symbol of the sanctity, the preciousness, and the sweetness of this moment. Held together by sacred bonds of family, friendship, peoplehood, we share this table tonight with one another and with all the generations who have come before us. Let us rise, and sanctify this singular moment. HOW? We will drink four cups of wine at the Seder in celebration of our...

The first words in the creation of the universe out of the unformed, void and dark earth were God’s “Let there be light." Therein lies the hope and faith of Judaism and the obligation of our people: to make the light of justice, compassion, and knowledge penetrate the darkness of our time till the prophecy be fulfilled, ‘that wickedness vanish like smoke and the earth shall be filled with knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea’ (Isaiah 11:9).  Baruch...

The Seder is all about answering questions. But one question remains unanswered, and that’s the most important question – Why? We are taught, “ In every generation, each person must see him/​herself as if s/​he were redeemed from Egypt.”  But why? Why return to Egypt year after year? Why re-taste the bitterness of slavery? Ask the Torah – What difference does this experience make for me? How am I shaped by the experience of slavery and liberation? Here is the Torah’s...

How am I, a believing Jew raised in a world of scientific culture, to speak to my grandchildren, about miracles? They who are taught to explain events in terms of natural cause and effect, how are they to understand the record of speaking serpents and donkeys, rivers turned into blood and frogs, seas split? They ask at different stages of their life, "Did it really happen'? Could it really happen?" And I am caught between affirmation and denial of a literal...