{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "ruth-s-cup-a-new-passover-ritual-celebrating-jewish-diversity", "title": "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Ruth’s Cup: A New Passover Ritual Honoring Jewish Diversity by Rabbi Heidi Hoover  Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for Egy...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Ruth’s Cup: A New Passover Ritual Honoring Jewish Diversity </strong></p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>by Rabbi Heidi Hoover </strong></p>\n\n<p> <em>Mitzrayim</em>, the Hebrew word for Egypt, is also interpreted to mean “narrow places.” At Passover, we celebrate being released from the restrictions that limit us and make our lives smaller. We are not fully free as long as we are kept down by attitudes and conditions that are unjust.</p>\n\n<p>Many Jews assume that “real Jews” look a certain way and have one path to Judaism — being born Jewish. When confronted with Jews who don’t fit these stereotypes, even well-meaning Jews may treat them as less Jewish. Jews of color and/or those who have converted to Judaism find that other Jews can act insensitively out of ignorance.</p>\n\n<p>In the biblical book that bears her name, Ruth is a Moabite who marries an Israelite living in Moab. After her husband’s death, Ruth insists on accompanying her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi, when she returns to Israel. There she cares for Naomi and ends up marrying one of her relatives. Because of Ruth’s declaration to Naomi: “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16), she is considered the prototypical convert to Judaism. Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David, from whom our tradition says the Messiah will descend.</p>\n\n<p>The following ritual—Ruth’s Cup—may be added after Elijah’s Cup or anywhere in the seder. It honors not only those who have converted to Judaism, but the overall diversity of the Jewish people:</p>\n\n<p> <em>Leader</em> </p>\n\n<p><strong>At Passover we fill a cup with wine for Elijah and open the door to welcome him to our seder. Elijah symbolizes our hope for the Messianic age, when the world will be perfected, and all people will live in harmony and peace.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>We also fill a cup of wine for Ruth, the first Jew by choice and great-grandmother of King David. We open the door to signify our welcome of Ruth and all who follow in her footsteps—those who become part of our people, part of our diversity.</strong></p>\n\n<p> <em>All rise, face the open door, and read together:</em> </p>\n\n<p><strong>We declare that we do not have to wait for the Messianic age to make sure that every Jew feels fully comfortable and integrated into our people, no matter what their skin, hair or eye color is; no matter what their name sounds like; no matter how they became Jewish—through birth or through conversion, as a child or as an adult.</strong></p>\n\n<p> <em>Close the door and be seated.</em> </p>\n\n<p>May your Passover be liberating and enlightening!</p>\n\n<p><strong> <em>Optional discussion question – </em> </strong> <em>Share a time when you felt like an outsider but were actively welcomed into a new community or space. How did that happen? How did it make you feel?</em> </p>\n\n<p><strong>download here:</strong><a>https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/ruths-cup/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/ruths-cup/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Greatest Hits Haggadah", "slug": "greatest-hits-haggadah", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204477/Screen-Shot-2020-02-25-at-1.52.38-PM.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204477/conversions/Screen-Shot-2020-02-25-at-1.52.38-PM-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Bareich", "slug": "bareich" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 694, "tags": [ { "tag": "Jews of Color", "slug": "jews-of-color" }, { "tag": "Inclusion", "slug": "inclusion" } ], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/ruth-s-cup-a-new-passover-ritual-celebrating-jewish-diversity", "og:title": "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204477/conversions/Screen-Shot-2020-02-25-at-1.52.38-PM-cover.jpg" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "total_books": 2, "total_clips": 27, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": { "title": "Greatest Hits Haggadah", "reading_length": 102, "author": "Haggadot", "author_initials": "HA", "table_of_content": { "Introduction": [ "OurJewishCommunity.org Introduction ", "Seder Plate", "Silent Meditation on Candelighting", "A Seder plate for current events", "Passover Themes Meaningful to Interfaith Families", "The Cup of Deliverance- Second Cup of Wine", "Matzah" ], "Kadesh": [ "Wine", "Four Cups of Wine", "Traditional - Kadesh", "Kadesh" ], "Urchatz": [ "Handwashing - Urchatz", "Urchatz", "Hand Washing", "Urchatz" ], "Karpas": [ "Karpas", "Karpas", "Karpas Kavannah", "Dip Parsley in Saltwater" ], "Yachatz": [ "Breaking the matzah - hunger", "The Middle Matzah Horcrux", "Entering the Broken World", "Yachatz - Break the Middle Matzah" ], "Maggid - Beginning": [ "Maggid" ], "-- Four Questions": [ "Traditional - Four Questions", "Four Questions in Fictional Languages" ], "-- Four Children": [ "Four Daughters ", "Four Children", "the four children", "Four Children", "The Four Adults", "Golden Girls Wise Child" ], "-- Exodus Story": [ "Natalia Kadish", "Exodus Story", "Geulah", "The Memory of Pesach: A Tale of Two Stories", "Min Hametzar - Calling Out from the Narrow Place", "The 21 Jump Street", "Letter to My Old Master", "DAYENU: An Exercise in Gratitude" ], "-- Ten Plagues": [ "Ten ancient and modern plagues", "Circle of Plagues", "The Journey Towards Liberation - The Hard Parts", "Ten Plagues - Frog ", "10 Plagues, Amsterdam Haggadah, 1738, NLI" ], "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu": [ "dayeinu graph", "Maggid Closing - Dayenu", "Pesach Matzah Maror", "The Passover Symbols, The Orange & Miriam's Cup", "Dayenu with English Hebrew and Transliteration", "love", "Opening the door for Elijah " ], "": [ "The Second Cup", "Who Knows One?" ], "Rachtzah": [ "Rachtzah" ], "Motzi-Matzah": [ "Motzi-Matzah", "DIY Matzoh Baking", "What is the meaning of matzah?", "Eating the Matza", "Why Flatbread?" ], "Maror": [ "Horseradish", "The Journey Towards Liberation - The complicated parts", "Marror- Daniela Hojda", "maror", "Maror", "Maror Cocktail" ], "Koreich": [ "Hillel Sandwich ", "Mixing the Bitter and the Sweet", "The Future, the Past, and the Present", "who invented the sandwhich", "Hillel's Sandwich" ], "Shulchan Oreich": [ "A Fish Tale", "The Meal", "Shulchan Orech", "Passover Around The World Trivia", "Dinner is Served" ], "Tzafun": [ "Afikomen - bread of subjectivity", "The Afikoman" ], "Bareich": [ "Opening the Door for Elijah ", "After Such A Fine Story: Blessing After Eating the Seder Meal", "Blessing for the third cup of wine", "Miriam's Cup", "Miriam's Cup by Miriam Jerris", "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity" ], "Hallel": [ "Sharing Responsibility", "To Say Nothing But Thank You", "Zeroah" ], "Commentary / Readings": [ "Praise the Contrary and Its Defenders" ], "Nirtzah": [ "NEXT YEAR IN... : A Note to my Future Self", "won't you celebrate with me, by Lucille Clifton", "Nirtzah", "Nirtzah", "Neertzah", "Echad Mi Yodea -- Who Knows One -- Hebrew / English / Transliteration", "Counting the Omer" ], "Songs": [ "One Little Goat - חַד גַּדְיָא", "Miriams Song", "Adir Hu", "Hatikva", "Ki Lo Naeh" ] } }, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "avadim-hayinu-we-were-slaves-3", "title": "Avadim Hayinu – “We Were Slaves”", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Download here: https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/avadim-hayinu/", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p><strong>Download here:</strong> <a href=\"https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/avadim-hayinu/\">https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/avadim-hayinu/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/avadim-hayinu/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187970/PASSOVER_FINAL_2018_180.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187970/conversions/PASSOVER_FINAL_2018_180-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 409, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Avadim Hayinu – “We Were Slaves” | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/avadim-hayinu-we-were-slaves-3", "og:title": "Avadim Hayinu – “We Were Slaves” | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187970/conversions/PASSOVER_FINAL_2018_180-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-trivia-place-cards", "title": "Passover Trivia Place Cards", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Download Here: https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/passover-trivia-place-cards/", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Download Here: <a>https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/passover-trivia-place-cards/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/passover-trivia-place-cards/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187971/PASSOVER_Placecards.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187971/conversions/PASSOVER_Placecards-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 429, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover Trivia Place Cards | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-trivia-place-cards", "og:title": "Passover Trivia Place Cards | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/187971/conversions/PASSOVER_Placecards-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "welcoming-all-an-inclusive-passover-reading-1", "title": "Welcoming All: An Inclusive Passover Reading", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "At Passover, we receive a personal directive to create an inclusive and welcoming community. Even when we intend to be w...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>At Passover, we receive a personal directive to create an inclusive and welcoming community. Even when we intend to be welcoming, many in our community still feel like strangers. The things that divide us — race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, among others — also have the power to unite us. During the Seder, we are each meant to remember that we ourselves were once strangers in a strange land. If the Jewish community is to be a home for all, we must make room at the table and share our stories. We hope this supplement will inspire thought, conversation and action; each and every one of us can be the welcome that another needs.</p>\n\n<p>This short supplement can be inserted after the Maggid or beginning of the Passover Story: \"This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover. This year [we are] here; next year in the land of Israel. This year [we are] slaves; next year [we will be] free people.\"</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader:</strong> At the start of the Seder, Jews around the world welcome all those who want to join us at our tables, in our homes, and in our community.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader: </strong>We welcome Jews of all ethnic backgrounds to join us at our table;<br />\n<strong>All: </strong>There are many ways to express and celebrate Jewish traditions.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader:</strong> We welcome Jews of all races to join us at our table;<br />\n<strong>All: </strong>We learn and grow from many points of view.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader: </strong>We welcome those who have chosen Judaism to join us at our table;<br />\n<strong>All: </strong>New enthusiasm and energy revitalizes the Jewish people.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader: </strong>We welcome all those exploring or connected to Judaism to join us at our table;<br />\n<strong>All: </strong>A variety of experiences and understandings strengthen the Jewish people.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Leader:</strong> We welcome those of other faiths or traditions to join us at our table;<br />\n<strong>All: </strong>We know that sharing our stories will help build a future of freedom.</p>\n\n<p><strong>All:</strong> We welcome all who have ever felt like strangers to our table. Tonight we go forth together for we are all strangers in Egypt.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Optional discussion question</strong> - Share a time when you felt like an outsider but were actively welcomed into a new community or space. How did that happen? How did it make you feel?</p>\n\n<p>Download here:<a>https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/welcoming-all-an-inclusive-passover-reading/</a></p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/publications/welcoming-all-an-inclusive-passover-reading/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "2019 Favorites", "slug": "2019-favorites", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 782, "tags": [ { "tag": "Inclusion", "slug": "inclusion" }, { "tag": "Jews of Color", "slug": "jews-of-color" } ], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Welcoming All: An Inclusive Passover Reading | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/welcoming-all-an-inclusive-passover-reading-1", "og:title": "Welcoming All: An Inclusive Passover Reading | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "don-t-passover-a-persian-passover", "title": "Don’t passover a Persian Passover", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "By Jacqueline Saper Persian Jews have lived in the Middle East for two-and-a-half millennia. As a result, they have adop...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "\n\n<p><strong>By Jacqueline Saper</strong></p>\n\n<p>Persian Jews have lived in the Middle East for two-and-a-half millennia. As a result, they have adopted many of their countrymen’s customs and merged them with their own, rich, Jewish traditions. One of the best examples of this Persian-Jewish fusion is when Nowruz (the Iranian new year) and Passover intersect.</p>\n\n<p>The Nowruz holiday takes place on the first day of spring (March 21) and is the most important festival in Iran. The preparations for the 13-day holiday begin weeks in advance when families clean their homes from top to bottom. The grueling task of cleaning and scrubbing every nook and cranny is known as khaneh takani meaning to shake the house. Everyone buys new clothes, and makes it a point to visit relatives and friends.</p>\n\n<p>The Nowruz traditional table setting, known as the haft seen, is the center of the new year celebrations. Seven symbolic items, all beginning with the Farsi letter sheen, are placed on the table: sabze (green grown sprouts); samanu (sweet pudding); senjed (dried fruit of the oleaster tree); seer (garlic); seeb  (apples); sumac (spice); and serkeh (vinegar). Also, colorful painted eggs, coins, fragrant hyacinths, goldfish and candles decorate the traditional spread.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on the Iranian celebrants’ religious affiliation, excerpts from the Quran, Bible, Avesta or poetry books of renowned Persian poets such as Ferdowsi or Hafez are placed at the table. Traditional dishes served include rice with herbs, and white fish stuffed with walnuts and pomegranate, and garnished with tarragon, parsley and radishes. The most common food offered over pleasantries is dried fruits, pistachios, edible seeds and dates.</p>\n\n<p>Just like Nowruz, the preparations for the eight-day Passover holiday, which also occurs in the spring, begin weeks in advance. Families clean their homes and remove the forbidden hametz (leavened foods).</p>\n\n<p>The Passover traditional table setting, known as the Seder, is the center of the biblically derived holiday which retells the story of the Israelite’s freedom from bondage in Egypt. The Seder plate displays six symbolic items: matzah; zeroah (roasted lamb shank bone); maror (bitter herbs); beitzah (boiled egg); haroset, a mixture of chopped fruits and nuts; and karpas (greens such as parsley), that we dip in salt water. Four cups of wine are drunk during the banquet.</p>\n\n<p>I have vivid memories of my childhood Seders in Iran. My father would don a tailored three-piece suit and read from the Haggada in a strong, commanding voice. We would read along and sing the traditional songs from our Farsi and Hebrew Haggadot. We ate grape leaves stuffed with rice and ground beef, grilled fish, roasted eggplant, saffron rice with barberry and slivered almonds, and chicken stew. Most delicious was the crispy golden tahdig, which is the crust of rice left to scorch at the bottom of the pan.</p>\n\n<p>Now that I live in Chicago, our Seders have evolved again to incorporate Persian customs, as well as American and Ashkenazi Jewish customs.  At our table, we read and sing from the Haggada in English, Hebrew and of course Farsi. My granddaughter’s custom-made Haggada references the American civil rights movement and highlights the similarities with the Jewish people’s quest for freedom.</p>\n\n<p>We decorate our table with fresh flowers and fragrant hyacinths, and include a meal of herbed rice and white fish stuffed with walnuts and pomegranate, decorated with an assortment of fresh tarragon, parsley, and radishes. There is also brisket and matzah ball soup.<br />\nAt the center of our table, lettuce replaces the horseradish, and vinegar replaces salt water. We fight over the delicious haleq (Persian haroset), which everyone demands to have an extra serving. At the recitation of the 10 plagues, we incorporate the Ashkenazi custom of dipping one’s finger in the wine with the Sephardi tradition of spilling drops of wine into a bowl.</p>\n\n<p>The highlight of the evening is when we sing the traditional Passover song, Dayenu. In a uniquely Persian tradition, everyone grabs a scallion to fend off aggressive vegetables. This action is our way of remembering the “whipping” the Israelite slaves in Egypt received from their Egyptian masters.</p>\n\n<p>Persian Jews mark the end of Passover, known as Shab-e Sal, with a meal composed of dairy products featuring a variety of yogurt and herb dishes. The day after the end of Passover, known as Ruz-e Sal, as well as the last day of Nowruz celebrations, known as sizdah bedar, are both spent in the outdoors and close to nature. If Lake Michigan weather permits, we try to spend this time with family at a park or the Botanic Gardens.</p>\n\n<p>Passover is about celebrating our freedom with family and the community. So why don’t you find yourself a Persian American Jewish family and celebrate Passover with a twist?</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published in the Jerusalem Post at: </i> <a>https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Dont-pass-over-a-Persian-Passover-585679</a><br />\n<i>Read more from Jacqueline Saper at: </i><a href=\"https://www.jacquelinesaper.com/\">https://www.jacquelinesaper.com/ </a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/articles/identity/dont-passover-a-persian-passover/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188002/Screen-Shot-2019-04-15-at-2.14.16-PM.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188002/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-15-at-2.14.16-PM-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 224, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Don’t passover a Persian Passover | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/don-t-passover-a-persian-passover", "og:title": "Don’t passover a Persian Passover | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188002/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-15-at-2.14.16-PM-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "kitniyot-cultural-appropriation-or-cultural-appreciation", "title": "Kitniyot: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation?", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Aside from the love it or leave it relationship with Passover candies, rice and beans are often the most contentious Pas...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "\n\n<p>Aside from the love it or leave it relationship with <a>Passover candies</a>, rice and beans are often the most contentious Passover food concern. Most Jews with roots in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East have always been permitted to eat rice and beans at Passover while Jews with roots in Central and Eastern Europe have generally not. But today that is all changing. American Jews are less aware of historical distinctions and more open to exploring the global nature of Jewish traditions.</p>\n\n<p>Rice and beans belong to a broader category of legumes and other foodstuffs the rabbis called <a><i>kitniyot</i></a> which include legumes, corn and peanuts too. Unlike wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye which are expressly forbidden for all Jews at Passover, <i>kitniyot</i>occupy a gray area with some Jews abstaining and other Jews enjoying.</p>\n\n<p>But is it okay for one group of Jews to borrow traditions from another? Or is it cultural appropriation? In other words, does adapting <i>kitniyot</i> celebrate the Jewish diversity or is it insulting or insensitive to incorporate Jewish customs or traditions that come from a Jewish community from which you don’t originate?</p>\n\n<p>In her 2018 Passover video, <a>8 days of Sephardic</a>, <a>Sarah Aroeste</a>, a Greek Jewish singer and educator, made light of the trend to “be Sephardic” for Passover. For <a>Elad Nehorai</a>, an Orthodox activist for diversity, becoming Sephardi, should not be reduced to the convenience of food at Passover. Having grown up in a non-observant household and become observant as an adult, Nehorai sees <i>kitniyot</i> as part of a broader package of Sephardic culture and customs, some of which are more lenient and some of which are more strict than Ashkenazi practice. He prefers people stick with one system, or at least have broader philosophical or cultural connections.</p>\n\n<p>Aroeste acknowledges the breath of Sephardi culture and practice,  “Of course we are much more than rice and beans. But Sephardic food rocks and it opens up questions about where it came from.” Like her music, she sees “food as a way to open up the conversation about Sephardic culture and history.</p>\n\n<p><a>Rabbi Devin Villarreal</a><b>, </b>sees sharing of foodways as “a good thing in that it does help people expand what they think of as Jewish. At the same time, if notions of diversity stop at food or melodies or clothing, there is a great danger. It is critical that people understand that these external manifestations are rooted in diverse experiences, ways of encountering the world and ways of being Jewish. It is only when something like food is a gateway to those deeper understandings that it really serves as a vehicle for diversity.”</p>\n\n<p>Nahorai concedes that the culinary blending is inevitable. His own parents came to the United States from Israel. His mother’s roots were Lebanese and Persian but her cooking draws from the mix of cultures that came together in the Israel of her youth. At Passover, she makes matzo ball soup as well as meat with rice and Middle Eastern spices.</p>\n\n<p><a>Rabbi Juan Mejia</a> sees the role of Israel as well as that of modern communication in this changing landscape. “Before the 13th century, Ashkenazim used to eat <i>kitniyot</i> through proximity with Sepharadim in modern times, they have been reacquainted with perfectly legitimate and authentic Jewish choices that predate the Ashkenazi-Sephardi divide.”</p>\n\n<p><a>Rabbi Joshua Heller</a>, who is an Ashkenazi member of the committee on <a>Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative</a> movement that voted to permit Ashkenazi Jews to eat <i>kitniyot</i>.  Heller sees “this decision as part of a broader vision of part of an increasing appreciation among Ashkenazi Jews that our traditions are not the only ones or  even the ‘default.’” But notes that as Jews adopt customs from other communities, they run, “the risk of not showing respect to the context from which those customs were borrowed.”</p>\n\n<p>That concern is shared by <a>Tamar Zaken</a>, a Sephardi educator similarly has no qualms about culinary mixing, but feels strongly that “there does need to be more cross-edah (Jewish ethnic sub-group) learning that has nothing to do with cooking. When you think Sephardi you always think food and I am always trying to move away from that.” Zaken makes it a priority to teach Jewish texts written by Sephardi rabbis which are often overlooked in American Jewish settings.</p>\n\n<p>Not everyone is comfortable borrowing customs across Sephardi and Ashkenazi lines. Mejia grew up in Colombia where rice and beans are culinary staples. When he converted to Judaism, he like other converts had to choose what approach to follow and originally he chose Sephardi. But today, his Passover practice is dictated by the customs of his wife’s family who are faithful to the Ashkenazi prohibition against <i>kitniyot</i>.</p>\n\n<p>But there is clear agreement that if one does choose to break with your family tradition and add <i>kitniyot</i> to your Passover diet, make sure to give it some context. Learn about the communities which ate rice and lentils, delve into the history of the Jews of Greece, Yemen or Iraq. At your Passover Seder, bring in <a>commentaries Persian or Spanish</a> rabbis or Passover stories from <a>Ethiopia</a> or <a>Uganda</a>.  And if food is your main form of Jewish expression, take a page from Villarreal who recommends learning more through food. A good place to start? According to the Rabbi Villarreal, “Jennifer Felicia Abadi’s “<a>Too Good to Passover</a>” which has recipes from all over the Sephardic, North African and Middle Eastern world, and introduces each one with an interview with the person(s) who provided the recipe in which they share their family’s stories and experiences. In my mind, this is a wonderful model of a deep understanding of diversity.”</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/kitniyot-cultural-appropriation-or-cultural-appreciation/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/kitniyot-cultural-appropriation-or-cultural-appreciation/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188010/Kitniyot2.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188010/conversions/Kitniyot2-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 208, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Kitniyot: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation? | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/kitniyot-cultural-appropriation-or-cultural-appreciation", "og:title": "Kitniyot: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Appreciation? | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188010/conversions/Kitniyot2-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "how-to-talk-about-race-and-freedom-at-your-passover-seder", "title": "How to Talk about Race and Freedom at Your Passover Seder", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Jews are a people of memory and action. On Passover, we tell and retell a collective narrative of liberation, preserved...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Jews are a people of memory and action. On Passover, we tell and retell a collective narrative of liberation, preserved and developed through stories, teachings, and rituals. The Exodus story, though ancient, resonates through the generations as a story of deliverance from slavery to freedom. Struggles for freedom, personal and systemic, global and local, continue to be waged today.</p>\n\n<p>The American political landscape has never been more volatile, more unpredictable, or more racialized. Racially and ethnically motivated attacks frighten minority populations; communities on the left and on the right decry the loss of their voices in the American conversation, and political groups are becoming polarized. In these unprecedented times, divisive forces only distance us from one another, leaving us no path to unity and hope.</p>\n\n<p>Increasingly, we hear the mandate to move away from disunity and towards inclusion, but don’t know where to begin. How can we make ourselves ready to hear the stories of the marginalized, while making our own voices heard? How can we protect our communities from those who wish to divide us?</p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind that we are all on very different timelines in terms of racial identity development, which can be a potential source of conflict, misunderstanding and alienation. In order to avoid conflict, we must establish rapport and trust with others. This process builds shared power and allows for deeper conversations.</p>\n\n<p>Our goal is to introduce some tools to challenge this narrative and build a stronger and more inclusive Jewish community that is better equipped to wrestle with its own identity. We have created two unique Seder resources:</p>\n\n<h3><b>Passover Trivia Place Cards</b></h3>\n\n<p>In some communities, like the Jewish communities of Ethiopia and Uganda, individuals find it easy to imagine themselves as coming out of Egypt, as, for them, Exodus and liberation are not just metaphors but lived experiences in their lifetimes. Even if we have not lived through a literal Exodus, we have an obligation—and an opportunity—to consider the meaning of this story in our own lives.</p>\n\n<p>At Be’chol Lashon we see the struggle for racial justice in the Jewish community as directly tied to the global and diverse nature of the Jewish people. Most are not aware that 20% of American Jews identify as African American, Latinx, Asian, mixed race, Sephardic, and/or Mizrahi. To help raise awareness, welcome your guests to their seats with trivia place cards that celebrate Passover rituals and traditions from diverse Jewish communities around the world, reminding us that Jews are a multicultural people. Personalize and print them <a href=\"http://www.bechollashon.org/resources/holidays/passover/passover_2018.php\">here</a>.</p>\n\n<h3><b>Haggadah Insert: Avadim Hayinu / “we were slaves”</b></h3>\n\n<p>Why does the Haggadah say <b><i>we</i></b> were slaves in Egypt rather than <b><i>our ancestors</i></b> were slaves in Egypt? We created a discussion guide that can be used either as a supplement to the traditional storytelling or in its place. It includes several prompts to engage guests and encourage thoughtful conversation around race, diversity and liberation in our own lives. The guide can be found <a href=\"http://www.bechollashon.org/resources/holidays/passover/passover_2018.php\">here</a>.</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/how-to-talk-about-race-and-freedom-at-your-passover-seder/\">https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/how-to-talk-about-race-and-freedom-at-your-passover-seder/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/how-to-talk-about-race-and-freedom-at-your-passover-seder/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188023/Screen-Shot-2019-04-16-at-4.25.04-PM.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188023/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-16-at-4.25.04-PM-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 204, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "How to Talk about Race and Freedom at Your Passover Seder | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/how-to-talk-about-race-and-freedom-at-your-passover-seder", "og:title": "How to Talk about Race and Freedom at Your Passover Seder | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/188023/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-16-at-4.25.04-PM-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "perfect-passovers-in-guatemala", "title": "Perfect Passovers in Guatemala", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "There was nothing typical about photographer Jaime Permuth’s Jewish childhood in Guatemala. Even so, Passover stood out...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>There was nothing typical about <a>photographer Jaime Permuth’s </a>Jewish childhood in Guatemala. Even so, Passover stood out among the holidays he experienced. In the first of two posts, Be’chol Lashon caught up with Jaime to learn more about Jewish life in Guatemala and Passover in particular.</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: You grew up in Guatemala. How big was the Jewish community? What was your childhood like? Was your family religious? Involved with Jewish life?</b></p>\n\n<p>Permuth: There are more Jews in a single block of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, than in the whole of Guatemala. As far as I know, the Jewish community has always hovered between 1,500 to 2,000 members strong. And yet, there were three synagogues growing up and for a time we even had a Jewish school as well. My father was a founder of Maccabi Hatzair and later in life served as President of the Jewish Community as well. My mother was President of <a>Keren Kayemet</a>. When my parents asked me if I preferred to have a big party in Guatemala City for my Bar Mitzvah or just have an intimate ceremony at the Kotel in Jerusalem, I didn’t hesitate for a second, and we all visited Israel as a family for the first time. This was a turning point in my life. As soon as I completed high school, I moved to Israel, where I studied both psychology and English literature at the <a>Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a>.</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: Guatemala is a largely Catholic country. Did you feel welcome and accepted there as a Jew?</b></p>\n\n<p>Growing up in a tiny Jewish minority was difficult at times, and I probably made it worse than it needed to be. I answered the usual childhood taunts and provocations with my fists when just a bit of wit and humor would have been enough to quiet them. At any rate, I always felt like an outsider. The camera around my neck didn’t help either; people always took me for a tourist in my own country. It wasn’t until I was living far away in Jerusalem and later in New York that I started to yearn for my native country and feel how deeply rooted and connected I was to it after all.</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: Passover stands out among the Jewish holidays, why?</b></p>\n\n<p>Permuth: Of all the Holidays, Passover is the one that makes me most nostalgic. Our family Seder would always take place in our country home, located on the outskirts of the colonial city of <a>Antigua, Guatemala</a>. Somehow, when we opened the door for Eliyahu Hanavi to join our table, the entire house was filled with the murmur of the night outside, in a valley surrounded by volcanoes. The promised redemption of an eventual return to Jerusalem seemed near at hand.</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: Where there any particular Guatemalan customs or foods?</b></p>\n\n<p>Permuth: Not during the Seder, which was strictly old country Poland: gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, roasted veal shank, and potatoes, and for dessert a hazelnut torte. But the rest of the holiday would most certainly see its fair share of hand-made corn tortillas, carne asada, guacamole, refried black beans, and fried plantains!</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: Given your family history, did the story of the Exodus have a particularly personal meaning?  </b></p>\n\n<p>When I left Guatemala at age seventeen and moved to Jerusalem, I saw that journey as the ultimate homecoming. However, I eventually realized that, as much as I loved the country, I was not an Israeli either. There were—and may yet be—many other journeys waiting for me.</p>\n\n<p><b>Be’chol Lashon: How do the story and themes of Passover resonate for you as an artist? As a person who has moved homes several times? </b></p>\n\n<p>Permuth: During the course of my <a>artistic practice</a>, I have returned over and over to the themes of exile and redemption. What makes a person leave behind their country of birth, their family and traditions, to wander among strangers in unknown lands? Is this a form of betrayal or an act of love? What is the meaning of faith, freedom, and servitude in an open society? Where lies the threshold between the sacred and the profane?</p>\n\n<p>With each new decade of life, a face I no longer recognize stares back at me from the mirror. The continuity in my life is the art-making. Every new project is an effort to deepen my understanding of things, to reconcile myself with the passage of time, and an opportunity to return to old questions from a fresh vantage point.</p>\n\n<p>And through it all, the golden light of Jerusalem still shines, beckoning from a distant horizon.</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/perfect-passovers-in-guatemala/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/perfect-passovers-in-guatemala/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189937/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.03.40-PM.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189937/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.03.40-PM-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 184, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Perfect Passovers in Guatemala | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/perfect-passovers-in-guatemala", "og:title": "Perfect Passovers in Guatemala | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189937/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.03.40-PM-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "a-special-father-son-duo-and-their-unique-indian-charoset", "title": "A Special Father-Son Duo and Their Unique Indian Charoset", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Father-son rabbinic dynasties are nothing new, but Rabbis Sion and Braham David stand out as a family of firsts who have...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Father-son rabbinic dynasties are nothing new, but Rabbis Sion and Braham David stand out as a family of firsts who have an especially strong dedication to Jewish tradition and a love of Passover.</p>\n\n<p>Both Rabbis David are Bene Israel Jews who trace their roots back more than a thousand years in India. The documentary evidence of the roots of this community are lost to time, but as Rabbi Sion David explains, the story that was passed through the generations tells of travelers who were shipwrecked off the Indian coast, long before the Romans captured Jerusalem or the Maccabees rebelled.</p>\n\n<p>The community thrived through the generations; they were shopkeepers and merchants, movie stars and professionals, but not rabbis. Until Sion David.</p>\n\n<p>In 1966, Rabbi Sion David was the first Bene Israel to be ordained a rabbi when he graduated from <a>Hebrew Union College</a>. In 2003, his son <a>Braham David</a> followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming the first Bene Israel to be ordained in the <a>Conservative Movement.</a></p>\n\n<p>The majority of Indian Jews have in recent years emigrated to Israel and other Western countries, and neither Rabbi Davids have served pulpits in India. But the customs and memories of Jewish life in India remain part of their Jewish lives in America.</p>\n\n<p>Rabbi Sion David recalls that in India, preparation for Passover included having all the household pots refinished so they would be kosher for the holiday. “We did not have the packaged goods like the matzot, and you did without the stuff we take for granted today,” he says. Matza was made by hand. It was large and round and crisp like a cracker, made at home or purchased at the synagogue. It was not rolled out. Instead, the ball of dough was tossed from hand to hand back and forth until it was thin and round. Then it was put in a stone oven built into the ground and baked within the 18 minutes allotted.</p>\n\n<p>Serving as rabbi of Temple Shalom in Medford Massachusetts, Rabbi Braham David does not make his own matzah, but he does still make the traditional Bene Israel Indian charoset called  <em>shira</em> .   <em>Shira</em>  is similar to  <em>chalek</em>, a version of charoset made by North African and Middle Eastern Jews, but unlike  <em>chalek</em>, it is made exclusively from dates. “It is more of a syrup than a paste,” explains Braham David. It is work and time intensive but it is well worth it, he says.</p>\n\n<p>The flavor and texture of  <em>shira</em>  is so central to the David family Seder that when the junior David was studying in Israel, he went out of his way to make it. Finding the dates was easy enough, but the recipe pivots on squeezing the cooked mixture through cheesecloth and “I did not know where to find it, or how to say it in Hebrew.” In desperation, Braham David went into a fabric stall in the market and tried in vain to explain what he was looking for. “I was getting nowhere,” he explains, “until I said, charoset. Then the shop owner pulled out a bolt of cheesecloth and the effort was saved.”</p>\n\n<p><strong>Directions for making David Family Shira</strong></p>\n\n<p>The following is a recipe in the loosest form. As with many historic recipes, it comes down to us as a set of directions. Feel free to adjust.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Ingredients:</strong></p>\n\n<p>Water -approximately 6 cups</p>\n\n<p>Best quality dates you can find (Medjool dates are best) approximately 2lb pitted and chopped, approximately 6 cups</p>\n\n<p><strong>Special equipment:</strong></p>\n\n<p>Heavy pan</p>\n\n<p>Cheesecloth</p>\n\n<p><strong>Directions:</strong></p>\n\n<p>Place chopped dates in a heavy saucepan.</p>\n\n<p>Cover with water.</p>\n\n<p>Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer over very low heat.</p>\n\n<p>Simmer until the dates are well dissolved, this can take more than 20 or 30 minutes. Stir constantly. Dates should fall apart.</p>\n\n<p>Remove pot from heat and let the mixture cool completely.</p>\n\n<p>When the mixture is cool, gather large spoonfuls in cheesecloth.</p>\n\n<p>Squeeze out the liquid from the solids over a heavy bottom pan. This will take time and effort. Do not stop until all the liquid has been separated from the solids.</p>\n\n<p>Put the heavy bottom pan over a medium flame. Stirring continuously bring to a boil.</p>\n\n<p>Reduce to a low simmer. Continue to stir. If you do not stir there is a danger the shira will burn.</p>\n\n<p>When the liquid has reduced to a syrupy consistency and coats a metal spoon, remove from the flame. Be careful not to overcook! Syrup will become thicker as it cools.</p>\n\n<p>Cool the shira fully before serving.</p>\n\n<p>Helaine Mazin David, Rabbi Sion David’s wife and Rabbi Braham David’s mother, was born and raised in Louisville, KY. Despite her non-Indian roots, she has been making  <em>shira</em>  for many years and offered this additional insight to the recipe the rabbis shared:</p>\n\n<p>When Sion and I make  <em>shira</em> , it is a team effort. Depending how much  <em>shira</em>  we make, we use one to three pounds of medjool dates. (The ratios stay the same.) We cover with water and cook until the dates pull apart. We then let it cool. At this point Sion uses cheesecloth to squeeze out the liquid and dispose of the remains. For many years we would cook in on the stove and keep stirring it constantly. Now we use a microwave with a glass covered pot. We start off microwaving for 20 minutes. We check often to see if the liquid is thickening. As it starts to get thicker, checking often is the key. One year I went a little too far and the whole thing exploded!</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/a-special-father-son-duo-and-their-unique-indian-passover-charoset/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/a-special-father-son-duo-and-their-unique-indian-charoset/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Jews Around the World", "slug": "jews-around-world", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189951/ShiraMaking-1226x900.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189951/conversions/ShiraMaking-1226x900-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 317, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "A Special Father-Son Duo and Their Unique Indian Charoset | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/a-special-father-son-duo-and-their-unique-indian-charoset", "og:title": "A Special Father-Son Duo and Their Unique Indian Charoset | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/189951/conversions/ShiraMaking-1226x900-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "preparing-for-passover-with-poetry-and-dance", "title": "Preparing for Passover with Poetry and Dance", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "As we prepare for our Passover seder this coming year, Stacey Menchel Kussell and Aaron Samuels bring us a collaborative...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>As we prepare for our Passover seder this coming year, <a>Stacey Menchel Kussell</a> and <a>Aaron Samuels</a> bring us a collaborative and film project combining dance, music and poetry to unpack the daily rituals that we practice in our lives.</p>\n\n<p>The video, Ritual, follows four dancers as they rehearse in the studio. Their preparation is prayer-like, full of repetition, meditation, ecstasy, and reflection, reinforcing the sacredness of daily practice. Set to poetry by Black and Jewish spoken-word artist <a>Aaron Samuels</a>, <i>Ritual’s</i> text reflects on his family memories of Passover, an ancient Jewish tradition that celebrates freedom from oppression. <i>Ritual </i>examines the tenacity and resilience that motivates us to keep our traditions and honor our histories, no matter our heritage or creed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/preparing-for-passover-with-poetry-and-dance/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/articles/arts-culture/preparing-for-passover-with-poetry-and-dance/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190000/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.17.48-PM.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190000/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.17.48-PM-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Songs", "slug": "songs" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 186, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Preparing for Passover with Poetry and Dance | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/preparing-for-passover-with-poetry-and-dance", "og:title": "Preparing for Passover with Poetry and Dance | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190000/conversions/Screen-Shot-2019-04-17-at-1.17.48-PM-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "who-knows-one-in-ladino-songs-at-the-sephardic-passover-seder", "title": "“Who Knows One?” in Ladino: Songs at the Sephardic Passover Seder", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "For Rachel Shemarya (née Capelouto), a native of the Island of Rhodes, Passover provided an opportunity not only to shar...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>For <a href=\"http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/sephardic-studies/rhodes-boreka-recipe-saved/\"><b>Rachel Shemarya (née Capelouto)</b></a>, a native of the Island of Rhodes, Passover provided an opportunity not only to share her delicious holiday recipes but also to transmit the Passover story and Sephardic songs in her native language, <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-languages-from-aramaic-to-yiddish/\">Ladino</a>, to her family right here in the Pacific Northwest. While most of the Shemarya relatives who remained in Rhodes tragically perished in <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/auschwitz-birkenau/\">Auschwitz</a>, those who came to the United States carried the tunes to their new home as documented here in a 1971 recording.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Photograph-from-Rachel-Rahil-Shemarya%E2%80%99s-Petition-for-Naturalization-November-1941-courtesy-of-Ancestry.com_.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph-from-Rachel-Rahil-Shemarya%E2%80%99s-Petition-for-Naturalization-November-1941-courtesy-of-Ancestry.com_.jpg\" />\nRachel Rahil Semarya\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n<p>Among the <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/where-to-find-songs-for-your-passover-seder/\">songs included in the Passover seder </a>is “Ehad Mi Yodea” (Who knows one), a cumulative song that enumerates 13 Jewish motifs and ideas, from belief in one God to the 13 attributes of God’s mercy with references to the biblical matriarchs and patriarchs, foundational Jewish texts and lifecycle events along the way. Scholars surmise that this song was added to the concluding section of the Passover seder as a way to keep the attention of children while imparting Jewish knowledge to them. So it may seem odd that a comprehensive review of Sephardic Haggadot (the plural of Hagaddah)reveals that most do <i>not</i> contain the text of “Ehad Mi Yodea” either in Ladino translation or in the original Hebrew. Only <i>two</i> include it in the Ladino translation, known as Ken Supiense.</p>\n\n<p>But the lack of printed versions of Ken Supiense did not stop the song from gaining popularity. We have many oral recordings of the song and quite remarkably, or maybe because the written text was very rare, there are many variations in the words and the melody.</p>\n\n<p>All versions of “Ehad Mi Yodea,” whether in Hebrew or in <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-languages-from-aramaic-to-yiddish/\">Yiddish</a> or Ladino translation, agree that, among the thirteen Jewish references enumerated in the song, one always refer to one God and five always refers to the five books of the Torah. But there are some major variations among the Ladino versions. For example, in oral recordings based on the Salonica and Rhodes traditions, the song includes a kind of redemptive, rhyming preamble half in Hebrew and half in Ladino: “Eleonu she-ba-shamayim, nos iremos a Yerushalayim, kon la karavana grande” (Our God in Heaven, we will go to Jerusalem with a great caravan [or perhaps pilgrimage]). This may be an allusion to the famous concluding wish of the Passover seder: “Next year in Jerusalem!”</p>\n\n<p>Other variations abound. According to the Hebrew text, the number two represents the two tablets of the covenant that Moses received at Sinai, yet we find that most Sephardic communities replaced the reference to the tablets with the names of two of the great leaders in the Passover story, Moshe (Moses) and Aaron. In Rhodes and Salonica, the names of the Patriarchs Abraham, Yitzhak (Isaac) and Yaakov (Jacob) are added, as are the names of Matriarchs Sara, Rivka (Rebecca), Leah, Rachel (the latter of which conveniently rhymes with “madres de Yisrael”).</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps one of the most intriguing differences can be discerned in the varied references in the final, 13th stanza of Ken Supiense. The Rhodesli and Turkish versions do not refer to the 13 attributes of God’s mercy as the original Hebrew text does, but rather to renowned medieval Spanish sage <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/maimonides-rambam/\">Rabbi Moses Maimonides</a>’ 13 principles of Judaism that he outlined in his famed commentary on the Mishnah, and which are popularly known today from <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/highlights-of-the-shabbat-morning-synagogue-service/\">Sabbath hymns</a> like “Yigdal” and “Adon Olam.”</p>\n\n<p>Ken Supiense refers explicitly to one of Maimonides’ key concepts and signifies the transformation of a song of Ashkenazi origin into one with fundamentally Sephardic allusions. The reference also demonstrates that high ideas expressed in writing by Sephardic sages like Maimonides penetrated the collective consciousness of the Sephardic masses through oral tradition—evidence of the importance of taking into account written and oral traditions together.</p>\n\n<p>The case of Salonika includes a completely different reference for the number 13 in Ken Supiense. (See the Salonican version of Ehad Mi Yodea recorded in 1982 by Dr. Susana Welch-Shahak, <a href=\"http://rosetta.nli.org.il/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE28999983&amp;gathStatIcon=true\"><b>available here</b></a>[beginning at minute 39:00], from the National Library of Israel). Rather than evoke the 13 attributes of God’s mercy or Maimonides 13 principles of Judaism, the Salonikan version departs considerably from the original Hebrew text and refers to “<i>ermanos kon Dina</i>”: Joseph and his 11 brothers who initiate the 12 tribes of Israel, plus <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/dinah/\">their sister Dinah</a>.</p>\n\n<p>At this point, we can only speculate as to why Dinah is included here. Could her inclusion be interpreted as a kind of feminist gesture that says that women ought to count? Or perhaps, as described in the <i>Me’am Lo’ez</i>, the most important Ladino biblical commentary, the significance of the story of Dinah (who, according to <a href=\"https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.34?lang=he-en\">Genesis 34</a>, is the victim of rape) is to reinforce patriarchy and remind men—fathers and brothers—that it is their responsibility to protect their women. Or perhaps, as also explained in the <i>Me’am Lo’ez</i>, the significance of Dinah lies in her ability—and by extension, the power of each woman—to improve the morality and behavior of her husband. The <i>Me’am Lo’ez</i> deduces this conclusion from Dinah’s later marriage to Job, who not only becomes an Israelite but also a holy figure—a transformation the <i>Me’am Loez</i> attributes to Dinah’s positive influence.</p>\n\n<p>Whichever interpretation one goes with – and there are likely many others – the variations among the different versions of Ken Supiense not only ought to entertain the children at the conclusion of the Passover seder, but also provoke a thoughtful discussion among the adults regarding the meanings and messages embedded in the numerous Ladino versions of the song.</p>\n\n<p> <em><a href=\"http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/digital-sephardic-treasures/who-knows-one-in-ladino/\">An extended version of this piece</a> can be found at <a href=\"http://jewishstudies.washington.edu/\">The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies</a> at the University of Washington website.</em> </p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/who-knows-one-in-ladino-songs-at-the-sephardic-passover-seder/\">https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/who-knows-one-in-ladino-songs-at-the-sephardic-passover-seder/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/who-knows-one-in-ladino-songs-at-the-sephardic-passover-seder/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190014/Haggadot_Sephardic_1600-1600x777.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190014/conversions/Haggadot_Sephardic_1600-1600x777-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Songs", "slug": "songs" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 308, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "“Who Knows One?” in Ladino: Songs at the Sephardic Passover Seder | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/who-knows-one-in-ladino-songs-at-the-sephardic-passover-seder", "og:title": "“Who Knows One?” in Ladino: Songs at the Sephardic Passover Seder | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190014/conversions/Haggadot_Sephardic_1600-1600x777-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "navigating-jewish-and-american-slavery-narratives", "title": "Navigating Jewish and American Slavery Narratives", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "As Jews, we know about the power of narrative. The slavery narrative presented in the Book of Exodus and retold around t...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>As Jews, we know about the power of narrative. The slavery narrative presented in the Book of Exodus and retold around the Passover table is probably the most powerful because it is the foundation of so many Jewish values: faith, compassion and justice, just to name a few.</p>\n\n<p>At Passover, we do not sit down to the Seder table and simply open the Book of Exodus. Rather we open our Haggadah , which over time has developed into a narrative in which God is the hero, where the Pharaoh represents not only his own excesses of power, but tyranny across the centuries. Rather than start with Exodus, with the slavery itself, one of the first quotes is from <a>Deuteronomy 26:5</a> referring back to the Book of Genesis: “Arami oved avi—My father was a wandering Aramean.”</p>\n\n<p>It is not simply the Exodus that shapes our worldview as Jews. It is the Exodus portrayed within the context of this narrative, a narrative that presents our God as powerful, and presents our people as compassionate, when we take a drop out of our wine glass for each plague; grateful, when we recite the Hallel Psalms of praise; inquisitive, when our children ask the Four Questions; and imaginative, when haroset can play the role mortar and saltwater that of our tears. Most importantly, it presents Jews as a people blessed with freedom. That’s the Jewish narrative. The parts that are not true we still wish to be true. The narrative of the Exodus has served our people well. That narrative has made us vigilant against abuses of power, for example, and given us hope that from each period of oppression we can move to redemption and freedom.</p>\n\n<p>American Jews have overwhelmingly interpreted our freedom to be a mandate to work for the freedom of all. In America, though, there is another narrative—a racial narrative. It is best summed up by attorney Bryan Stevenson of the <a>Equal Justice Initiative</a>, author of “<a>Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption</a>.” Unlike other societies that had slavery, Stevenson argues, America was unique in being a slave society. Slavery was established and perpetuated on a narrative of white supremacy. The ideology preached that blacks were violent and needed slavery to tame them. It taught in ways overt and subtle that blacks were dangerous and to protect themselves whites needed to use either subjugation or segregation. While the laws were changed, the narrative never was.In the generations since America’s founding, a subtle form of bias has also emerged called privilege, that unspoken part of the narrative that grants to people with white skin more opportunity than people with dark skin. There are, of course, Jews with all different shades of skin, and each of us must strive to understand the privilege that has been bestowed upon us.</p>\n\n<p>White American Jews are inheritors of two often competing narratives. One tells us that there is something inherently different between blacks and whites. The other tells us that freedom is a gift we must share with others, as we are all created in God’s image.</p>\n\n<p>We have to confront the fact that, for most of us, working for racial equality means working to change the American narrative. If we are successful in this, then our own sense of privilege will be transformed in ways that make us uncomfortable. But considering the sacrifices that those of previous generations made for justice and equality, the risks are small and the potential to build a better society great.</p>\n\n<p>Let us understand the power we hold, the privilege that gives us that power, and the narrative that supports that privilege. I believe we can and must work to rewrite our American narrative so that it better reflects our common history and our shared ideals.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Note: This Torah commentary is offered ahead of the Martin Luther King Day holiday.</strong></p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/navigating-jewish-and-american-slavery-narratives/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/navigating-jewish-and-american-slavery-narratives-2/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190057/prison-162885_960_720.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190057/conversions/prison-162885_960_720-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 500, "tags": [ { "tag": "Jews of Color", "slug": "jews-of-color" }, { "tag": "Justice", "slug": "justice" }, { "tag": "Interfaith", "slug": "interfaith" } ], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Navigating Jewish and American Slavery Narratives | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/navigating-jewish-and-american-slavery-narratives", "og:title": "Navigating Jewish and American Slavery Narratives | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190057/conversions/prison-162885_960_720-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-and-the-need-for-wiser-questions", "title": "Passover and the Need for Wiser Questions", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "In college, David Abusch-Magder (then David Abusch) decided to take a class in African dance. Over the years he had watc...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>In college, <a>David Abusch-Magder</a> (then David Abusch) decided to take a class in African dance. Over the years he had watched every semester as the class was often held outside. People seemed to be having fun and the movement was so easy and fluid.</p>\n\n<p>His experience comes to mind each year at Passover when we read in the Haggadah (Passover prayer book) that there are four children, the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one that cannot even ask. My husband David, of the aforementioned story, who is now a Jewish educator, often teaches about these differences to help remind us about the different types of learners we need to be able to reach to be successful in Jewish education.</p>\n\n<p>But it is more than that. My husband was, by his senior year, a confident and accomplished student. He was the epitome of the wise child, eager to ask, engage in discussion and to explore new terrain. His achievements in both Jewish studies and physics highlighted both his intellectual flexibility and capacity.</p>\n\n<p>As it turned out he stunk at African dance and gratefully relied on a generous pass/fail system to make it through a class he had undertaken precisely because it would be a break from the stress and strain of the rest of his studies.</p>\n\n<p>The four children of Passover exist not as static solitary characters but are exist as parts of our unified self. Before arriving on campus, David, like the one who did not know how ask, had no idea that the University offered such a class. As a senior, David the wise physicist became David the simple African dancer. In different areas of knowledge or competence, we may move between being the wise, the wicked, the simple or the child who does not know how to ask.</p>\n\n<p>At <a>Be’chol Lashon</a> we work on inclusion in the Jewish community. No one in the Jewish community is against inclusion. And yet, because of the range of ways to include, there are different approaches depending on the individuals being addressed. So It is not surprising that people who are wise about one form of inclusion, are not necessarily so about our area of focus, racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community.</p>\n\n<p>Working to raise awareness about the vast richness of the diversity in the Jewish community, we connect with many wonderful well-meaning people. But each of those people is at their own place in the journey of understanding and celebrating diversity. Knowledge and experience with one area of inclusion does not guarantee success in another area, any more than knowledge of physics guaranteed success in dance.</p>\n\n<p>Some in our community, like the wicked child, may look around their sanctuary and see only ‘white’ faces and easily pronounce that issues of race have nothing to do with the Jewish community. We eschew the Passover Hagaddah’s vision of breaking the teeth of the wicked child. Instead, as we work to build cultural competence and understanding of Jews as a multi-cultural people, we see individuals, institutions and communities as building their own skills and in need of support in a journey to raise self-awareness. Talking about race and understanding the complexities of identity comes, as does the Passover story, through discussion and education.</p>\n\n<p>None of us is born an expert on all that exists in the world. Our tradition teaches us that instead of arrogance about that which we know, we should be aware of that there is always that which we don’t know we know. It teaches us that simple questions are reasonable questions and that we all have a less than positive approach some of the time. So let us take the four children of Passover as a model to move our own understanding of race and ethnicity, so that next year we ask wiser questions and have a more informed vision of Jewish life.</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/passover-and-the-need-for-wiser-questions/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/passover-and-the-need-for-wiser-questions-2/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190074/african.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190074/conversions/african-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Children", "slug": "four-children" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 254, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover and the Need for Wiser Questions | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-and-the-need-for-wiser-questions", "og:title": "Passover and the Need for Wiser Questions | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190074/conversions/african-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "this-passover-choose-judaism", "title": "This Passover, Choose Judaism", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "My wife and I are an interracial couple. I am a White, Ashkenazi Jewish man from New York. She is a Black woman from Det...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>My wife and I are an <a>interracial couple</a>. I am a White, Ashkenazi Jewish man from New York. She is a Black woman from Detroit, raised in the Lutheran faith, who converted (to Jewish, not to White. She’s still Black). Our 3 year old Biracial son is Jewish.</p>\n\n<p>When I talk about my wife’s <a>conversion</a>, rather than saying she converted I like to say that she’s Jewish by choice. I do this because conversion sounds like the process by which a sofa becomes an uncomfortable bed. Or it sounds like something that happens by magic. I wave my magic wand and “poof” you’re Jewish. Whereas being a Jewish person by choice requires a conscious affirmative decision.</p>\n\n<p>And make no mistake, being Jewish is a choice, whether you were born into our Tribe or whether you joined us midway through the show. Because being Jewish isn’t easy. For starters, there’s the fact that lots of people hate us. Then, there’s the fact that in this nation and the world we’re outsiders. Yes, we manage to assimilate wherever we reside, but as history shows us, Jews, no matter how much a part of the society in which we live, are still always a bit on the outside. And, of course, there are all the rules. Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. <a>Don’t eat at all</a>. Love the stranger, but don’t intermarry with them. Don’t wear <a>wool and linen together</a>. Wear a tiny hat that’s exactly the right size to never stay on your head. Sit outside during football season in a <a>shed</a> that has porous walls and no roof. Pursue justice, but by the same token, it’s not a problem to have slaves if you’re generally nice to them. Count the Omer (once you figure out <a>what the Omer is</a>). Read, study and love this book that’s inconveniently not provided on an iPad but is in the form of a giant, heavy <a>scroll</a>. And, if you drop that book, you’re not allowed to eat for a day (or 40).</p>\n\n<p>Given these inherent challenges to leading a Jewish life, why did my wife choose to be Jewish. Well, obviously, it’s because being a Black woman in America was just way too easy, and she needed a challenge.</p>\n\n<p>In America, as we know from demographic data (and from walking into synagogue on Saturday mornings . . . that is, for those of us who wake up early enough to do that), there aren’t that many Jews “of color” in America. There are some, and the numbers are growing all the time. But, if you walk into any Congregation Bet Something or Temple Something Shalom and for sure if you walk into Agudath Something (the Orthodox shul) on any given Saturday, even in New York City, you’re not going to see that many Black people.</p>\n\n<p>And, that’s unfortunate for any number of reasons. First of all, given where Jews—Hebrews—originated (just a stone’s throw from North and East Africa), it’s a good bet that many of us were Black (or to use a modern phrase “Blackish”). Did Abraham or Moses look like Denzel Washington? Maybe not. But, it’s likely that they looked more like him (or maybe Omar Sharif in  <em>Lawrence of Arabia</em> ) than they looked like your Uncle Sol or your Grandpa Murray. Which means somewhere along the way we lost some color.</p>\n\n<p>Second, there is a parallel between the Jewish experience in Egypt (and the Exodus therefrom) and the history of African-Americans. Indeed, as we approach the <a>Passover </a>holiday, it is apt to remember that the struggle for freedom and self-determination in Ancient Egypt and in this country are stories with similar narratives. In fact, the parallels are so strong, that because of my wife’s (and our son’s) background, and to make her family feel more at home when they celebrate the holiday with us, we’ve modified our Seder to create a fusion of these two stories and created a Haggadah that reflects the flight to freedom of both cultures:</p>\n\n<p>“When we were slaves in Egypt . . . and the Southern United States. Moses . . . and Dr. King said, “let my people go.” When they were refused, God . . . and the NAACP, set forth 10 plagues . . . and many lawsuits. And, the people went out, and they searched for years, till they could find a homeland where they could be free and enjoy self determination. We speak of course of the land of Brooklyn. Where Blacks and Jews roam free, even to this day.”</p>\n\n<p>Then we eat matzah and play the game “guess which Biracial Hollywood actor is Black and Jewish.”</p>\n\n<p>We don’t actually say all that, but I do think it. Because our family isn’t just Jewish. It’s Black and Jewish, and it’s important to remember the history of both those cultures and how much they sync up.</p>\n\n<p>So, why did my wife choose Judaism? Well, I like to think it’s because she loved me and becoming Jewish was just a small price to pay to be able to spend a lifetime with me and my neuroses.</p>\n\n<p>More importantly, though, I think it’s because she saw in the story of the Jewish people a story that she already knew from her vantage point as a Black person, and that story was comfortable and familiar and filled with the same themes of exodus and freedom.</p>\n\n<p>But, most importantly of all, I think it’s because choosing is at the very core of what it means to live a fulfilling life, especially a fulfilling Jewish life. Indeed, to my mind, that we are the “Chosen People” refers not to the fact that we were chosen for some special status so much as it refers to the fact that each day, each Jewish person must affirmatively choose whether they will follow the mitzvot or not.</p>\n\n<p>So, why did my wife choose Judaism? For the same reason the slaves of Egypt <a>chose it</a>—she wanted to be free to live life on terms she consciously agreed to rather than those that had been selected and mandated for her.</p>\n\n<p>Why do you choose?</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/this-passover-choose-judaism/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/this-passover-choose-judaism-2/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190149/AlexCamilleBarnett_5.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190149/conversions/AlexCamilleBarnett_5-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 299, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "This Passover, Choose Judaism | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/this-passover-choose-judaism", "og:title": "This Passover, Choose Judaism | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190149/conversions/AlexCamilleBarnett_5-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "afikomen-mambo-1", "title": "Afikomen Mambo", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Popular children's songster and author of  Boker Tov!, Rabbi Joe Black returns with a catchy rhyme to enliven the afik...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Popular children's songster and author of  <em>Boker Tov!</em>, Rabbi Joe Black returns with a catchy rhyme to enliven the afikomen hunt at your seder. This title includes lively pictures and a sing-along CD.</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://www.amazon.com/Afikomen-Mambo-CD-Audio-Passover/dp/0761356398", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190113/afikomen-mambo.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190113/conversions/afikomen-mambo-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Songs", "slug": "songs" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 289, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Afikomen Mambo | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/afikomen-mambo-1", "og:title": "Afikomen Mambo | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190113/conversions/afikomen-mambo-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "abuelita-s-secret-matzahs", "title": "Abuelita's Secret Matzahs", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Abuelita’s Secret Matzahs tells the fascinating and little-known story of the Cryptojews, while illustrating the univers...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p><i>Abuelita’s Secret Matzahs</i> tells the fascinating and little-known story of the Cryptojews, while illustrating the universal importance of faith for people of all religious denominations. Jacobo loves to visit his abuelita, his grandmother, especially at Easter time. But Abuelita has a big secret. During semana santa, Holy Week, his grandmother never makes bread, only tortillas made without yeast. She never eats pork, and she lights two candles on Friday nights. But whenever Jacobo asks her questions, she answers, \"Ah, mijito, my child, it is the way of our family.\" One day, Abuelita is finally ready to share her secret. \"Sit with me on the porch. It is time to tell you the secret of our family . . .\"</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://www.amazon.com/Abuelitas-Secret-Matzahs-Sandy-Eisenberg/dp/1578601770/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190130/secret-matzah.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190130/conversions/secret-matzah-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 297, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Abuelita's Secret Matzahs | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/abuelita-s-secret-matzahs", "og:title": "Abuelita's Secret Matzahs | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190130/conversions/secret-matzah-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-around-the-world", "title": "Passover around the world", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Introduces children to the many different ways of celebrating Passover around the world, including customs that can be a...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Introduces children to the many different ways of celebrating Passover around the world, including customs that can be adopted for use in the child's own family seder.</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://www.amazon.com/Passover-Around-World-Tami-Lehman-Wilzig/dp/1580132154/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FU4QWWIFIMQF&keywords=passover+around+the+world&qid=1555534874&s=books&sprefix=Passover+around+%2", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190145/passover-around-the-world.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190145/conversions/passover-around-the-world-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 383, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover around the world | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-around-the-world", "og:title": "Passover around the world | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190145/conversions/passover-around-the-world-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "a-modern-passover-miracle", "title": "A Modern Passover Miracle", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "This modern Passover Miracle story is perfect for sharing with friends and family at your Seder. At Passover, every per...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p> <em>This modern Passover Miracle story is perfect for sharing with friends and family at your Seder.</em> </p>\n\n<p>At Passover, every person is supposed to feel as though he himself left Egypt. For me and the Jewish community of Uganda, we do not need to imagine. In our lifetime, we were rescued from ‘slavery’ and saved by divine intervention in order to celebrate.</p>\n\n<p>When Field Marshal <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin\">Iddi Amin Dada</a> took power in Uganda by way of the gun in 1971, he outlawed Judaism and confiscated our synagogues and most of the Hebrew books. Practice of Judaism was punishable by death. He was a modern day Pharaoh. He gave the community two alternatives, either to convert to Islam or Christianity, or remain unaffiliated. He murdered anyone suspected of opposing his rule and judicial executions were the order of the time. Many Abayudaya feared for their lives and converted to the two majority religions, Islam and Christianity. However, things did not go well for the Christians either. The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda was run over by army trucks in a stage-managed accident; and the chief Justice, who was also Christian, was shot dead on Amin’s orders.</p>\n\n<p>Growing up during this era was a hard pill to swallow. Adults and children would shout insults at Jews and no one did anything to stop them. We were not permitted to wear any Jewish symbols including kippot. Nor were we allowed to appear anywhere near the synagogue premises. We dared only to pray and learn under the cover of the night in our bedrooms. My father, Rabbi Yondav Keki, was caught studying Torah in the Sukkah that he had built in the back yard of our house and only survived after the arresting officer demanded a bribe. Three leaders of the community, including Yaakov Were and Yaakov Kasakya, were arrested and tortured for collecting iron sheets that had been blown off the roof of the Moses Synagogue in Nabugoya.</p>\n\n<p>In that same year when a <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/History/1967-1980/Operation_Entebbe.shtml\">hijacked plane full of Jews was held at Entebbe</a> by Palestinian terrorists with the permission of Amin, a fast was secretly declared and silent prayers were conducted, each family praying in their bedrooms. The daring rescue of the hostages gave hope to community members that soon or later Amin would go.</p>\n\n<p>This came to pass on Wednesday 11, April 1979, corresponding to 14 Nisan, 5739, <b>Erev Pesach when the new Government, comprised of Ugandan rebels and Tanzanian troupes, declared freedom of worship</b>. This was considered a miracle from above and was celebrated in a special style. More than four cups of 80% proof Uganda banana wine were served making everyone excessively happy by the end of the Seder. No more than 300 of the nearly 3,000 earlier members remained steadfast and loyal to Judaism, which makes me think that had Amin’s regime continued for another five years, the community would not have survived.</p>\n\n<p>Passover remains a special moment for all us. I will always remember my first <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/The_Seder.shtml\">Seder</a> ever. It is amazing that the reign of terror ended and that freedom of worship was reinstated at the season of freedom. Each year as the community grows, Passover is the moment that we celebrate both our ancient and modern freedom. With the help of Jews from around the world<a href=\"http://www.bechollashon.org/projects/abayudaya/synagogue.php\"> the synagogue that was destroyed is being rebuilt</a> to be better and stronger than ever and the numbers of our community have nearly returned to their earlier size. That <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1700-1914/Zionism/Theodor_Herzl.shtml\">Uganda would have been a Jewish state</a> had Herzl’s proposal been successful, that the hijackers chose <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/History/1967-1980/Operation_Entebbe.shtml\">Entebbe</a>airport as their final resting place, and that Amin like Pharoah was humiliated on the Eve of Pesach could not have simply been a mere coincidence. It was our Passover miracle.</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a href=\"https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/a-modern-passover-miracle/\">https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/a-modern-passover-miracle/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/a-modern-passover-miracle/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Jews Around the World", "slug": "jews-around-world", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190176/Abayudaya_Elders_Bechol_Lashon.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190176/conversions/Abayudaya_Elders_Bechol_Lashon-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 572, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "A Modern Passover Miracle | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/a-modern-passover-miracle", "og:title": "A Modern Passover Miracle | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/190176/conversions/Abayudaya_Elders_Bechol_Lashon-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-global-history-of-ma-nishtana", "title": "The Global History of Ma Nishtana", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Each year, Jewish children around the world learn the Four Questions. After all the image of the small child chanting th...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>Each year, Jewish children around the world learn the Four Questions. After all the image of the small child chanting their way through the Four Questions is one of the most endearing images of the Passover seder. The image is so strong that for many it automatically conjures music and words. This simple piece of the Haggadah liturgy is one the first Jews learn but few of us know about the history of this text and the music that has now become the classic tradition!</p>\n\n<p>The Four Question come down to us through the generations. The original Ma Nishtana (Why Is This Night Different?) questions found in the ancient codes of law, the Mishnah and subsequently in variations in the Talmud. Included in these early versions was a question about roasting the Passover sacrifice — which was the practice when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem. As the Temple rites faded from memory, the question about sacrifice was replaced with a question about leaning while eating.</p>\n\n<p>The order in which we find the Four Questions in most modern American Haggadahs, follows the Ashkenazi custom. It starts with matzah vs. bread, moves on to maror/bitter herbs, considers double dipping and concludes with reclining. But the Ma Nishtana order in the Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite tradition is a little different. They begin with double dipping, then go on to matzah, come round to maror/bitter herbs and similarly conclude with reclining.</p>\n\n<p>Another notable difference between the historic Ashkenazi and Sephardi/Mizrahi customs around the Four Questions was language. In Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi communities, the Ma Nishtana were traditionally sung in Yiddish. Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews, by contrast, chanted them in Hebrew and not in Ladino or Judeo-Arabic.</p>\n\n<p>The tune that today is nearly universal is a modern invention and speaks to the Zionist vision to create a new Jewish culture. It was composed by Ephraim Abileah. Abileah was born in Russia in 1881 and was originally called Leo Nesviski. The son of a cantor and a gifted musician, he came to value music as integral to Jewish life and founded The Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersberg. But as Nesviski took to the Zionist vision of a homeland for all Jews in the land of Israel, he made his way there in 1922.</p>\n\n<p>Understanding the power of music in culture, Abileah became part of a movement that composed music that like his new name, would move away from the culture of Diaspora and create a new sound for a new vision of Judaism. In 1936, he composed an oratorio called \"Chag Ha-Cherut,\"  the holiday of freedom. The work was a modern Zionist Passover work that told the story of the Exodus.</p>\n\n<p>While “Chag Ha-Cherut” was performed in full only once, the tune for the Ma Nishtana became a global Jewish standard. In many ways this short simple melody harnessed the power of folk music and achieved what Abileah set out to do. He created a new version of the Four Questions that is today sung by Jews in all parts of the world. This Israeli version has supplanted the Yiddish version nearly completely and is even sung in many Sephardi and Mizrachi homes as well and even by the Jews of Uganda! So while his oratorio may have failed, Abileah succeeded in creating an enduring new vision of global Passover folk music.</p>\n\n<p>You too can sing along to Abileah’s version of Ma Nishtana:</p>\n\n<p><i>Originally published here:</i> <a>https://www.myjewishlearning.com/jewish-and/the-global-history-of-ma-nishtana/</a></p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/blog/the-global-history-of-ma-nishtana/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "Jews Around the World", "slug": "jews-around-world", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/192855/4463082712_cee76f2a8d_b.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/192855/conversions/4463082712_cee76f2a8d_b-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 361, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Global History of Ma Nishtana | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-global-history-of-ma-nishtana", "og:title": "The Global History of Ma Nishtana | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/192855/conversions/4463082712_cee76f2a8d_b-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-engaging-across-diffrences", "title": "Passover: Engaging Across Diffrences", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "By Sarah Spencer Passover is a time for people to gather around tables, share stories food and rituals. It can be joyous...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p>By Sarah Spencer</p>\n\n<p>Passover is a time for people to gather around tables, share stories food and rituals. It can be joyous and exciting. But like with any communal setting, is can also be complicated to navigate the different needs and agendas people bring to the table. Still, if we follow Jewish tradition, we will find Passover can be a model for how to create positive diverse communal connections. Its rituals and structures teach us to talk across differences and celebrate commonalities.<br />\n<br />\nPassover is about story telling. And good communication is based on the ability to tell our own stories. Before we gather to celebrate our common identity, we must each own our personal story. Judaism has an oral history, and we have survived by telling those stories and passing them down through the generations. Passover brings us together to celebrate a universal experience of slavery to freedom, a concept everyone can relate to in some way or another. This is the theme around which the story telling takes place on this particular evening. Having a common theme around which to tell stories, a theme with which people from different places or times can identify which, is one of the ways in which people can connect across differences.<br />\n<br />\nPassover encourages us to invite strangers into our home so that we remember that we too were once strangers in own land. We are supposed to open the door and include the strange, the unfamiliar into our familiar Passover ceremony. We can only build strong community when we view the prospect of engaging others as a positive opportunity. Recognize that perhaps some of the people at our table may feel like strangers or that people already sitting at your table may be a stranger to your personal Passover story. We welcome others into our experience and learn about ourselves when we share our stories and hear other people’s experiences and perspectives.    </p>\n\n<p>Passover is all about asking questions; so is bridging differences. Ask questions of the people whom share Seder. Diversity is not about trying to understand somebody else’s experience as your own or listening politely while they speak. It is about engaging and learning so that you both might learn from your curiosity about their life. Sometimes it is difficult to ask questions about that which makes us different. Asking questions in a well structured and thought out way can help us navigate what can feel like difficult and unfamiliar territory.</p>\n\n<p>There are many ways to ask questions: like the four children, we can be intentional about how we engage with one another, and need to recognize and celebrate that we all have different levels of skill and capacity when it comes to asking— some are wise, some wicked, some ignorant, and some don’t even know how to ask. Regardless of how we may ask or be asked, it is our engagement with one another that will ensure we continue to grow as individuals and as a people.</p>\n\n<p>The traditional Seder is supposed to be a raucous affair, with food, song, ritual and debate. This historic framework provides a wonderful space for all of us to engage across differences.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 340, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover: Engaging Across Diffrences | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-engaging-across-diffrences", "og:title": "Passover: Engaging Across Diffrences | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-global-experience-of-passover", "title": "The Global Experience of Passover", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "The Global Experience of Passover by Maya Kosowsky Every year at Passover Jews gather round tables to share in the Seder...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>The Global Experience of Passover by Maya Kosowsky</strong></p>\n\n<p>Every year at Passover Jews gather round tables to share in the Seder, reliving through custom and ritual, the experience of leaving Egypt and slavery, and emerging into freedom. The words only tell the story. The customs, songs, and foods help create that sense of being there. Around the world, Jews have passed down a variety of traditions that bring the Exodus to life. These global traditions provide wonderful ways to prompt new questions and interest at any Seder.</p>\n\n<p>While many communities use a special Seder plate to hold the edible and visual supplies for their Seder, Persian and Yemenite Jews place the different items directly on the table, or in small bowls in front of each person, so that they surround the participants, creating a truly immersive environment. Others use a basket covered with a decorated cloth to hold all the different ritual items, as do the Jews of Tunisia, so that they are ready to take them off the table and leave Egypt right away.</p>\n\n<p>Other visual and tactile cues can help to create a vivid setting to enhance the experience. Lately, “plague bags” with different toys for each of the ten plagues have become popular. The Tunisian community has had the same sort of idea for a lot longer. They place a fishbowl with live fish swimming in it on the table next to the Seder plate, to evoke crossing the Red Sea by seeing the fish that swam in the walls of water on either side.</p>\n\n<p>Traditionally, Jews outside of Israel hold two Seders, one each of the first two nights of Passover. The Jews of Kavkaz, in the Caucasus mountains, took advantage of this by holding their first night Seder in Hebrew, and the second night in their own language, so as to both hear the language of our ancestors and also be able to deeply understand what is going on. Following their example or modifying it to fit your needs can bring richness and depth to a Seder.</p>\n\n<p>The open of the Seder, like the opening scene of a good play, needs to engage and interest the participants. Instead of simply announcing the start, you could begin with the Seder leader or another participant circling the Seder plate over the head of each of the participants three times, reciting “In haste we came out of Egypt”, as is done in Morocco and Tunisia. Each individual responds with “Ha Lachma Anya” “This is the bread of affliction” or with “Avadim hayinu” “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt”. This physically immerses you in the sights and sounds of the Seder.</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively another opening ritual, which comes from the Jews of Persia, asks each participant to take a turn holding up the plate of matzot and reciting the 14 steps of the Seder in order, ending with ha lachma anya, “This is the bread of affliction”. This gives each participant the chance to take a first step into the experience individually, and to commit to this year’s journey to freedom.</p>\n\n<p>As we come to the Maggid section, in which the story of the Exodus is recounted, our core desire is to experience and understand what it meant to go from slavery to freedom. Many communities mixed readings with theater to recreate the sense of adventure and urgency. Consider doing as the Jews of Romania were accustomed to do. When you read the piece of the Haggadah that begins “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt” (In Hebrew “Avadim Hayinu”), take a pillowcase filled with heavy objects, and carry it on your back, around the table. First an older person might trudge around the table with his or her back bent under the load, and then each child could take a turn. In Romania, adults would say “difficult to be a slave” over and over as the children experienced the weight of slavery.</p>\n\n<p>Or you might begin your Seder as Iraqi Jews do- then be “interrupted” by a knock on the door. One member of the family dresses up as a nomad, with a hat, knapsack and walking stick. The leader of the Seder quizzes him or her: “where are you coming from?” (Egypt) “Where are you going?” (Jerusalem) and finally “what are the supplies for your trip?”, which cues the ‘actor’ to begin singing the 4 questions.</p>\n\n<p>The recital of the 10 plagues is a disturbing moment in the Seder, as we realize that our freedom comes at the price of someone else’s suffering. At most Seders, each participant removes a small amounts of wine or grape juice from their cup as each of the 10 plagues are read, symbolizing the lessening of our joy because of their pain. Most Ashkenazi (Jews of Eastern European origin) Jews remove some with their finger and place each drop on their plates. Other communities make the symbolism more visible. Some Sephardim (Jews from Western Europe and North Africa) pour wine off into a bowl of water, so that by the end it looks red, and we see in front of us the blood of those who suffered so that we could go free. Indian Jews take a slightly different approach and have a Cup of Pharaoh from which the wine is taken, diminishing the power of the one who caused the plagues, and the suffering of his people, through his refusal to let his slaves go free.</p>\n\n<p>Keeping children awake long past their bedtimes takes some creativity. The Afikomen, the last piece of food eaten at the Seder is, in many communities, one way that we keep children engaged. Often the afikomen is hidden, and children are asked to find it, so that we may end the meal. Other children steal it, and demand that it be ransomed back. Still others follow Bukharan custom, and let children use a towel to gently mock-whip the person who hid it until the location is divulged.</p>\n\n<p>Iraqi Jews take a different approach, and do not hide the Afikomen, but rather tie the afikomen to the back of a small child and tell him or her to guard it, which helps the little one stay awake and aware of their special role in the Seder.</p>\n\n<p>The story of the Exodus from Egypt is the core the story of the Jewish people. It is a universal tale that speaks to global themes of suffering, freedom and faith. Bringing the global custom to your Seder this year can not only bring new meaning to familiar rituals but also connect you with the global traditions of our people.</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/articles/world/the-global-experience-of-passover", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "Jews Around the World", "slug": "jews-around-world", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204558/person-in-white-top-holding-horn-in-focus-photography.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204558/conversions/person-in-white-top-holding-horn-in-focus-photography-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 317, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Global Experience of Passover | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-global-experience-of-passover", "og:title": "The Global Experience of Passover | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204558/conversions/person-in-white-top-holding-horn-in-focus-photography-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "passover-torah-teaching-1", "title": "Passover Torah Teaching", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "Passover Torah Teaching by Rabbi Alana Suskin During the Passover season, we revisit the story of how the people of Isra...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>Passover Torah Teaching by Rabbi Alana Suskin</strong></p>\n\n<p>During the Passover season, we revisit the story of how the people of Israel, in a reversal of humans searching for the Divine, are pursued and rescued by God. During the process, what has been a family and a tribal story becomes a national story. It is in our leaving Egypt that Israel becomes the Jewish people.</p>\n\n<p>One of the key points to our national identity though, happens before we leave Egypt. In the very first chapter of Shemot,  Pharaoh orders the Hebrew midwives, Shifra and Puah, to kill all the male children. Who are these women? The Hebrew is ambiguous – like the English, it could mean either “Hebrew women who are midwives” or “Midwives to the Hebrews.”</p>\n\n<p>The rabbis also are divided on this. Rashi declares them the former, but Abrabanel and Samuel David Luzzatto are firmly in the camp of the latter. Luzzatto reasons that this is because it would have been unreasonable for Pharaoh to think that Hebrew women would have murdered their own people. Chief Rabbi of England Jonathan Sacks comments, “The Torah’s ambiguity on this point is deliberate. We do not know to which people they belonged because their particular form of moral courage transcends nationality and race. In essence, they were being asked to commit a ‘crime against humanity,’ and they refused to do so.”</p>\n\n<p>Nevertheless, it is probable that Shifrah and Puah were Egyptian women. This meaning actually fits better with the sense of the narrative, since it is unlikely that the exchange between Pharaoh and the midwives would make much sense if the midwives were Hebrew women – they would not have been able to feign ignorance and surprise at the way that Hebrew women bore children. It also makes more sense that after the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh, he then charges all his people to destroy all the male children.</p>\n\n<p>What is fascinating about this small glimpse is how commonplace it actually must have been. Although it is the first instance of civil disobedience that we know of historically, it seems that the Egyptian women were not terribly different than other Egyptians were. After all, Pharaoh may have ordered all the Egyptians to ensure the killing of the Hebrew sons, but his own daughter – and all her maidservants who were with her that morning when she saw Moshe floating around in the box- disobeyed him.</p>\n\n<p>Shifra and Puah were indeed extraordinary women – it is of course, difficult to disobey your ruler, especially if your ruler was considered to be a God-  thus God rewarded Shifrah and Puah by making them houses – in other words, for saving all those Hebrew boys, their own families were increased and made numerous. It was they who laid the groundwork for the Jewish people to be a people who “feared God and did not do as the king commanded them.”</p>\n\n<p>I wonder if perhaps there is one more ambiguity to resolve. Where exactly were the houses that God made for Shifra and Puah? When Israel finally succeeded in leaving Egypt, they went out as 600,000, but the Torah adds (Shemot 12:38) that a “mixed multitude went with them.”</p>\n\n<p>Israel has never been a racial category. Although we began with Abraham as one family,  right away, that was undermined as Abraham and Sarah took all the souls they had made  from Haran (Beresheit 12:5)- which the midrash understands as converts from the local tribes. Then, at the moment of our becoming a nation – our release from Egypt, again, we did not go alone, but went together with those who chose to take our journey with us, and so became part of us, and stood with us at Sinai, and became Israel.</p>\n\n<p>Even the very existence of what we (wrongly) think of as a “regular” Jewish face – Ashkenazim – are actually evidence of the reverse. Semites, who came up from the middle east, assuredly did not then look like what we think of Ashkenazi Jews looking like any more than they do today! The very fact that we think of Ashkenazim as “Jewish-looking” at all is  actually funny – and proof that we have always welcomed in people of all colors, every tribe – anyone who seeks to join us on our mission of serving God. I like to think that even though Shifrah and Puah weren’t Hebrew women, that ambiguity was purposeful because  when the time came for the Israelites to leave Egypt, they came with us to stand at Sinai, that they stood there, living examples of what it means to fear God, that among us, their descendants, their houses, still stand.</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "www.globaljews.org", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204561/A_scene_from_Exodus.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204561/conversions/A_scene_from_Exodus-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 335, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Passover Torah Teaching | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/passover-torah-teaching-1", "og:title": "Passover Torah Teaching | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204561/conversions/A_scene_from_Exodus-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "the-spanish-roots-of-classic-chicken-soup", "title": "The Spanish Roots of Classic Chicken Soup", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "The Spanish Roots Of Classic Chicken Soup by Marissa Weitzman One of my earliest and endearing memories from my childhoo...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>The Spanish Roots Of Classic Chicken Soup by Marissa Weitzman</strong></p>\n\n<p>One of my earliest and endearing memories from my childhood is with my Bubbie, Ruth Gipstein, and mother in the kitchen preparing matzoh ball soup for Passover.  To reach the granite countertop, I would balance on a stepping stool and we would set up in an assembly line.  Scoop the dough up, squish and roll it into a ball, and gently drop the sculpture into a pot of boiling water.  After the balls were cooked, we placed them in chicken stock filled with a variety of vegetables.  I enjoyed every slurp and filling bite of this soup at the table with my family.</p>\n\n<p>Matzoh ball soup is commonly served as a traditional Passover dish, but did you also know that this soup is jokingly referred to as “Jewish Penicillin” and has medicinal powers?   </p>\n\n<p>The earliest recording of Jewish chicken soup dates all the way back to the 12th century. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher and physician from Spain, began prescribing “the broth of fowl” for ill patients to treat hemorrhoids, constipation, and even leprosy.  He claimed that the broth made from the meat of hens and roosters had healing powers to relieve respiratory illnesses.</p>\n\n<p>Chicken soup has been associated with Askenazic Jews, Jews from central Europe.  Askenazic Jews made chicken soup because it was the cheapest meat to raise, resourceful, and prevented illnesses.  It was flavored and seasoned with parsley, thyme, and often served with kneidlach (matzoh balls), kreplach (dumplings), or eggs.</p>\n\n<p>In 2000, Dr. Stephan Rennard of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha published a study in the medical journal, Chest, revealing that chicken soup has medicinal value.  He conducted laboratory tests on blood samples from volunteers and showed that the soup inhibits the white blood cell, neutrophils, that defends against infection and causes inflammation, which in turn reduces congestion in the nasal passages.  The exact ingredient has not been identified, however, it may be the combination of vegetables and chicken that cause the inhibitory effect.  Although chicken soup is not the cure for the common cold, there is a scientific consensus that is does relieve symptoms by reducing congestions and improving nasal secretion flow.</p>\n\n<p>Chicken soup contains many beneficial nutrients that help keep our bodies healthy.  Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, encourages the use of skin, meat, bones, and feet of the chicken because vital nutrients are secreted into the soup and can be absorbed in our body.  Chicken contains many amino acids, including cysteine, which has similar properties as a common drug acetylcysteine, which is used to relieve symptoms of bronchitis.  Additionally, other ingredients, such as carrots and onions, provide nutrients that act as anti-oxidants and prevent disease and infections.      </p>\n\n<p>Matzoh ball soup is more than just a traditional dish for Passover, it is a history story, a healing power, and a delicious, comforting meal. </p>\n\n<p>Below is my Bubbie’s chicken soup recipe that was passed down from watching her mother from Russia in the kitchen, and is now passed down to me.</p>\n\n<p>Chicken Soup</p>\n\n<p>Ingredients:</p>\n\n<p>1 onion</p>\n\n<p>1 whole Chicken</p>\n\n<p>2 or 3 carrots</p>\n\n<p>1 celery stickParsley</p>\n\n<p>2 tsp Kosher salt</p>\n\n<p>1 ½ tsp Peppercorns</p>\n\n<p>Preparation:Remove guts and butcher cut the chicken into 4 pieces.  Place in large pot.  Add a whole onion peeled, carrots cut into pieces about an inch long, a celery stick cut into a few pieces, a handful of parsley, kosher salt, and the peppercorns.  Cover with water and cover pot and cook on low heat for an hour or so.  </p>\n\n<p>Remove chicken, carrots, and celery.   Strain soup.  Cool soup and place in refrigerator over night.  Remove the fat, which will form on the top of the liquid. If you want to add a Spanish twist, add green chilies, garlic and potatoes.</p>", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/articles/food/the-spanish-roots-of-classic-chicken-soup", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204571/soup-beef-soup-beef-dumplings.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204571/conversions/soup-beef-soup-beef-dumplings-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 333, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Spanish Roots of Classic Chicken Soup | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/the-spanish-roots-of-classic-chicken-soup", "og:title": "The Spanish Roots of Classic Chicken Soup | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204571/conversions/soup-beef-soup-beef-dumplings-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "4-questions-2036", "title": "Four Children", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "QUESTIONS Leader: On Passover we tell our freedom story so that we can pass it on to new generations. Jewish tradition t...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span><span><span><b><span><span><span>QUESTIONS</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader:</span></b><span> On Passover we tell our freedom story so that we can pass it on to new generations. Jewish tradition teaches that it is important to ask questions. We are often taught that the questions are more important than the answers, for it is only through inquiry that we can truly understand ourselves and the world around us.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span>On Passover it is traditional to recite four questions. One key question is: Why is this night different from all other nights?</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>All:</span></b><span> Because tonight we remember that the things that divide us — race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, among others — also have the power to unite us.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader:</span></b><span> Whether it be questions about this ritual or story, or questions about the experiences of others at our communal table, tonight is an opportunity to learn.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>All:</span></b><span> Tonight we pledge to engage with openness, understanding, and respect for all, because we learn and grow from many points of view and a variety of experiences and understandings strengthen the conversation about Jewish ideas.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span>And we also pledge to share the values expressed in the answers to our questions and pledge to live them out for all the rest of our days.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span><span><span><b><span><span><span>THE FOUR CHILDREN</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader: </span></b><span>At Passover we speak of four children. The <b>wise child</b> asks: Why do we ascribe privilege to some racial groups? Why do we elevate the traditions, foods and languages of some ethnic groups and not others?</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Reader: </span></b><span>School the wise child in the history of slavery and hatred, as it existed in ancient times, about the role of slavery in building the ‘New World.’ Teach them about the patterns of migration, the exiles, the hard choices and the lack of choices and how they shaped the ways we see each other. Teach them that beyond the history and institutions there are individuals, each with their own experiences. Help them to learn how to recognize what they do not know, how to respect the needs of others, and how to find strength from the diversity of humanity.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader: </span></b><span>The <b>wicked child</b> says: You are much too sensitive. You make too much of this. There are always winners and losers in every society and in every era, we cannot expect to all have the same experiences.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Reader: </span></b><span>Take a deep breath and remember that a closed mind is often attached to a closed heart. Engage this child by asking open ended questions with curiosity and compassion. Listen for the places of fear. Ask questions that may widen the narrow spaces that they may expand, if not now, then in the future. </span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader: </span></b><span>The <b>simple child</b> says: I am colorblind. We are all human. I do not see the differences between people, I just see our humanity. </span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Reader: </span></b><span>Gently teach the simple child of the value of color and difference. Teach them the value of their own experience that they may see the value in the experiences of others. Help them celebrate the many ways we can be human.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Leader: </span></b><span>The <b>child who cannot ask</b> says: nothing.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>Reader: </span></b><span>With the child who cannot ask, share generously of the world. School this child in their own heritage but also in the heritage of others. Expose this child to many kinds of people, cultures, and customs. Let them taste many dishes, hear many types of music, and see a variety of arts and crafts so that they may build a broad and bountiful understanding of all that is beautiful in the world. </span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><b><span>All: </span></b><span>All of us are created in the image of God. Let us remember this as we move through the world. And with friends, family, in our conversations with others in school, let us talk about the many ways that hatred and assumptions diminish the holiness of others. Let us remember as we move through the world that we cannot know everything about others—until we begin to ask them questions.</span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><strong>The</strong> <strong>Racial Justice &amp; Inclusivity Haggadah</strong></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span>Download here: https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/</span></span></span></p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2021", "slug": "favorites-2021-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Children", "slug": "four-children" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 337, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Four Children | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/4-questions-2036", "og:title": "Four Children | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "cup-of-redemption-1", "title": "Cup of Redemption", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "CUP OF REDEMPTION At a traditional seder we fill a cup of wine for the prophet Elijah who is a symbol of redemption. At...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>CUP OF REDEMPTION</strong></p>\n\n<p>At a traditional seder we fill a cup of wine for the prophet Elijah who is a symbol of redemption.</p>\n\n<p>At this seder we are raising a cup of water as a symbol of the redemption that women have brought through the generations.</p>\n\n<p><strong>All: Water is the symbol of life.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Reader: The biblical prophet Miriam saved her brother from the waters of the Nile, she led the song of victory aber the waters of the red sea parted and God gave abundant water to the people.</p>\n\n<p>Reader: We remember Miriam the prophet, who danced at the Sea of Reeds to celebrate the  Exodus, a well of fresh water was said to follow her in the desert so that the Israelites always had water to drink. We remember Prophet Miriam</p>\n\n<p>Reader: Instead of being enslaved, Harriet Tubman, known as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, set out with her two brothers, and followed the North Star in the sky to guide her north to freedom always walking near the water’s edge.</p>\n\n<p>Reader: We remember, Harriet Tubman, conductor on the Underground Railroad, who led 300 captured Africans from slavery to freedom, as she sang Wade in the Water, a warning to those who followed that the water would protect them from trouble and offer redemption.</p>\n\n<p><strong>All: We acknowledge that water itself is necessary to sustain life. Water is the symbol of redemption.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>The Racial Justice &amp; Inclusivity Haggadah</strong></p>\n\n<p>Download here: https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2021", "slug": "favorites-2021-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Bareich", "slug": "bareich" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 435, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Cup of Redemption | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/cup-of-redemption-1", "og:title": "Cup of Redemption | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "storytelling-6", "title": "Storytelling", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "STORYTELLING Leader: The Exodus story, though ancient, also resonates through the generations because it is the story of...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span><span><span><span><b><span><span><span>STORYTELLING</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><b><span>Leader: </span></b><span>The Exodus story, though ancient, also resonates through the generations because it is the story of liberation and deliverance. For the Jewish communities of Ethiopia and Uganda, it is not hard to imagine themselves as coming out of Egypt, as they have experienced liberation and exodus not just as metaphors but as experiences in their lifetime. </span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><b><span>Yeganyahu Avishai Mekonen</span></b></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>In 1984, the Beta Israel—a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains—began a secret and dangerous journey of escape. His family embarked on the dangerous walk across Ethiopia to Sudan. This was a life-defining event for Avishai in many ways. Then 10 years old, he was kidnapped by slave traffickers in a Sudanese refugee camp. He was found by an Israeli special agent and returned to his family in time for them to board the plane to Israel as part of the Israeli airlift called Operation Moses. He made a documentary film about his experience, breaking his 20-year silence about the traumatic kidnapping he, along with other children, endured in Sudan. “<span>400 Miles to Freedom” chronicles Avishai’s exploration of what it takes to claim one's own identity. From Israel to the United States he connects with other Jews of color with similar struggles, and discovers how his community's trek across Africa, and what happened to him along the way, is part of larger histories of people affected by immigration, war, and Diaspora. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><b><span><span>Rabbi Gershom Sizomu</span></span></b></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Rabbi Gershom Sizomu is the leader of<b> </b>the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, which means “people of Judah.” This 2,000 strong community in Eastern Africa has only been in existence since 1919. According to Rabbi Sizomu, “At Passover, every person is supposed to feel as though he himself left Egypt. But we do not need to imagine, we were rescued from ‘slavery’ and saved by divine intervention in order to celebrate.</span></span><span> <span>When dictator Idi Amin Dada took power in Uganda in 1971, the practice of Judaism was outlawed. My father was caught studying Torah and only survived after the officer demanded a bribe. Three leaders of the community. were arrested and tortured for collecting iron sheets that had been blown off the roof of the Synagogue.</span> <span>In April 1979, on Passover, Ugandan rebels kicked Idi Amin out and declared freedom of worship. This was considered a miracle from above and Passover remains a special moment for all us. It is amazing that the reign of terror ended and that freedom of worship was reinstated at this season of freedom. That, Amin, like Pharoah, was humiliated on the Eve of Pesach could not have simply been a mere coincidence. It was our Passover miracle.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><strong>The Racial Justice &amp; Inclusivity Haggadah</strong></p>\n\n<p>Download here: https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Commentary / Readings", "slug": "commentary-readings" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 288, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Storytelling | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/storytelling-6", "og:title": "Storytelling | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "feeling-good-by-nina-simone", "title": "“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone", "author": "Be'chol Lashon", "author_handle": "be-chol-lashon", "author_initials": "BL", "covertext": "“FEELING GOOD” BY NINA SIMONE Birds flying high You know how I feel Sun in the sky You know how I feel Reeds driftin' on...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/conversions/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/187256/BecholLashon_GlobalJews_small.jpg", "body": "<div>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span><span><span><span><span><b><span><span><span>“FEELING GOOD” BY NINA SIMONE</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></p>\n</div>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Birds flying high</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Sun in the sky</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Reeds driftin' on by</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new dawn</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new day</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new life</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>For me</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And I'm feeling good</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p>____________________</p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Fish in the sea</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>River running free</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Blossom on the tree</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new dawn</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new day</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new life</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>For me</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And I'm feeling good</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p>____________________</p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Sleep in peace when the day is done, that's what I mean</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And this old world is a new world</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And a bold world</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>For me </span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And I’m feeling good </span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p>____________________</p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Stars when you shine</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Scent of the pine</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>You know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Oh freedom is mine</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And I know how I feel</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new dawn</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new day</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>It's a new life</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>For me</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>And I'm feeling good</span></span></span></span></span></p>\n\n<p>____________________</p>\n\n<p><strong>The Racial Justice &amp; Inclusivity Haggadah</strong></p>\n\n<p>Download here: https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "https://globaljews.org/resources/holidays/passover/racial-justice-and-inclusivity-haggadah/", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Songs", "slug": "songs" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 286, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/feeling-good-by-nina-simone", "og:title": "“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } } ], "clip_remake_history": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/ruth-s-cup-a-new-passover-ritual-celebrating-jewish-diversity", "og:title": "Ruth's Cup: A New Passover Ritual Celebrating Jewish Diversity | Passover haggadah by Be'chol Lashon", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/204477/conversions/Screen-Shot-2020-02-25-at-1.52.38-PM-cover.jpg" } }