Clips Library
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Passover Thoughts by David Har
Thoughts on the meaning of Passover These thoughts are adapted from an essay by Rabbi Prof. David Hartman (z”l), written in 2010.As much as I am happy to be part ...Introductioncontributed by Anson Laytner -
A Night of Questions
The Four Questions are the questions most commonly associated with the Passover Seder. Though they are thought of as four separate questions, they are really just subsets of the single question: what makes tonight so special? Even ...-- Four Questionscontributed by Matthew Green -
The Ten Plagues - help us drea
Shekhinah, soften our hearts and the hearts of our enemies. Help us to dream new pathsto freedom, so that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning; so that our singing isnever a ...-- Ten Plaguescontributed by Kara Wentworth -
Maror
Tonight, as we taste the bitter herbs, we share in the bitterness and disappointment of the lives of our forebears. We recognize the bitter consequences of exploitation and repression - the loss of lives and the waste of human pot ...Covercontributed by Isaac Skromne -
The Four Children - AJWS
At Passover each year, we read the story of our ancestors’ pursuit of liberation from oppression. When confronting this history, how do we answer our children when they ask us how to pursue justice in our time?WHAT DOES THE ACTI ...-- Four Childrencontributed by Daniel Gropper -
The Plagues and Knowing God
Part INehama Leibowitz (1905-1997), one of our generation's great Bible teachers, notes the significance of Pharaoh's opening response in what will prove a lengthy dialogue with Moses."Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Ph ...-- Ten Plaguescontributed by Neeloufar Gharavi -
In Every Generation
The story of Passover may seem very remote to you, as it happened thousands of years ago, when the oldest people at your seder table were very, very young, and so many of the details of the story seem somewhat old-fashioned, such ...-- Closingcontributed by Daniel Gropper -
Let All Who are Hungry, Come a
Ha lachma anya—this is the bread of affliction.At the seder we begin as slaves. We eat matzah, the bread of affliction, which leaves us hungry and longing for redemption. It remi ...Yachatzcontributed by Daniel Gropper -
QUESTIONS
Questions are not only welcome during the course of the evening but are vital totonight’s journey. Our obligation at this seder involves traveling from slavery tofreedom, prodding ourselves from apathy to action, ...Introductioncontributed by Alan Scher -
A NOTE ON “ISRAEL”
Passover celebrates freedom, exemplified in the story of our Exodus from Egypt. Thatstory leads our entry into Israel—not exactly a simple redemption tale. Especially notnow, as Israelis and Palestinians continue to fight for th ...Introductioncontributed by Alan Scher -
President Obama on Passover
Passover is a story of centuries of slavery, and years of wandering in the desert; a story of perseverance amidst persecution, and faith in God and the Torah. It is a story about finding freedom in your own land. For the Jewish pe ...Introductioncontributed by Daniel Gropper -
Ten Plagues
As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom was hard-earned. We regret that our freedom came at the cost of the Egyptians’ suffering, for we are all human beings. We pour out a drop of wine for ...-- Ten Plaguescontributed by Danielle Selber -
Urchatz - one person symbolica
The first hand-washing of the seder is unusual. The rabbis point out that even a child would wonder at least two things: why do we wash without a blessing and why do we bother to w ...Urchatzcontributed by Danielle & Misha Slutsky -
For Fresh Greens: Introduction
Fresh, crisp greens remind us of spring, of new beginnings, of hope. Salt water reminds us of the long, sad season of our slavery. As we mix the two together, we remember tha ...Karpascontributed by heidi aycock
