{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "ten-plagues-of-inequality-3", "title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "On Passover, we remember the ten plagues that were inflicted on the Egyptian people. Thousands of years later, modern-da...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>On <a href=\"http://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover\">Passover</a>, we remember the ten plagues that were inflicted on the Egyptian people. Thousands of years later, modern-day plagues of inequality should ignite contemporary responses to combat these injustices. Many of the most vulnerable members of our society are disproportionately affected; they cannot be “passed over” or ignored, especially during this important holiday. This moral impetus has become even clearer as our society and the world has grappled with the twin modern-day plagues of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed, widespread awareness and reckoning of racial injustice.</p>\n\n<p>As we think about the ancient plagues, let us also keep in mind those who still live under the weight of modern plagues.</p>\n\n<ol>\n\t<li>A justice system that instills fear and divides communities does no justice at all: it must be independent and fair to foster an equal and racially equitable society. Just as the first plague of <strong>blood </strong>recalls violence and turmoil, we must take action to reform our <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/criminal-justice\">criminal justice system</a> so that it meets the highest ideals of society and overcomes the brokenness – the spilled blood – that began this cycle, a cycle steeped in systemic racism.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Today, essential pathways to opportunity are blocked by a lack of basic shelter and affordable housing. Just as the plague of <strong>frogs</strong> transformed the Egyptians’ homes into unlivable conditions, <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice/housing\">the lack of affordable housing</a> can make even the most basic aspects of daily life burdensome. Until more affordable housing units are created, too many people in need will experience homelessness.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"http://www.rac.org/public-health\">Today’s health care system</a> remains out of reach to so many; millions of Americans still do not have insurance. The plague of <strong>lice</strong> reminds us that affordable, quality health care is important to have even when we are healthy, and especially when unforeseen circumstances arise. We must work to advocate for those who do not have access to health care to ensure that all Americans can receive the treatments that they need.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Sadly, the plague of <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/gun-violence-prevention\">gun violence</a> in America is all too familiar; guns kill nearly 40,000 Americans each year. Gun violence runs rampant in our communities, as did the <strong>wild animals</strong> in the fourth plague, but we have the power to end this scourge ourselves. We are commanded to take necessary measures to ensure the sanctity of human life and safety of our communities.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Hunger is not a distant tragedy; it is present in every community. Our tradition is explicit in commanding that we <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice/hunger\">feed the hungry</a>, and we must work to make that a reality. The plague of <strong>cattle disease</strong> reminds us how important it is to ensure that all people have the resources and support needed to live free from hunger.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color is just one symptom of a deeper problem. Due to centuries of systemic racism, People of Color are more likely to face a range of negative health outcomes and shorter life expectancies, but are less likely to have health insurance and often face discrimination in the <a href=\"https://rac.org/issues/health-care\">health care system</a>. Just as racial inequity in public health plagues us today, so did <strong>boils</strong> plague the Egyptians when this health crisis impaired their lives and livelihood.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>We must all take action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/environment\">climate change</a>, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that climate change most significantly affects low-income communities and People of Color. The climate disruption of the plague of <strong>hail</strong> is a reminder that it is our responsibility to take action to prevent climate disruption in communities where such events have an especially devastating impact.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Our tradition speaks strongly to valuing workers’ essential dignity as well as maintaining healthy families. Just as the <strong>locusts</strong> disrupted work and resources for the Egyptians, so does the lack of <a href=\"https://cqrcengage.com/reformjudaism/app/write-a-letter?0&amp;engagementId=511060\">paid sick days and family leave</a> harm families and workplaces across the United States. Without a national guarantee of paid leave, workers face agonizing choices between their health and their livelihoods.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"http://www.rac.org/education\">Education</a> is the key to opportunity and prosperity, and the fewer the educational resources, the more challenging it is for students to advance in society. The plague of <strong>darkness</strong> reminds us to pursue a bright future for all our children through robust public education. We cannot keep some members of our community on the margins by denying them educational opportunities.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>There are many structural policy changes that we can make to ameliorate <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice\">economic inequality</a>. The pain and suffering of the plague of the <strong>death of the firstborn</strong> does not remind us of any one social justice issue, but it does remind us of the importance of taking action before crises become truly dire. Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage addresses the previous nine plagues by lifting millions of people, including millions of children, out of poverty and preventing them from suffering these plagues in the first place. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>We cannot let these injustices of inequality continue. On Passover, we commit to structural change so that these issues will no longer plague millions in the United States and around the globe. As we celebrate our redemption from the land of Egypt, and of the plagues that played a role in that redemption, we cannot lose sight of the plagues that still exist today, particularly as we continue to grapple with systemic racism and a global pandemic.</p>\n\n<p>If we can overcome these plagues, so many more people will be able to revel in the liberation and redemption that the Jewish people celebrate on Passover.</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": "-- Ten Plagues", "slug": "ten-plagues" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 170, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/ten-plagues-of-inequality-3", "og:title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Steven Freedman", "handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "total_books": 3, "total_clips": 24, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": null, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "fifth-child-11", "title": "Fifth Child", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "But there is a fifth child:  A caring one. What does the caring one say? “What is God that He is moved only by the suffe...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><strong>But there is a fifth child:  A caring one.<br />\nWhat does the caring one say?<br />\n“What is God that He is moved only by the suffering of the of the Egyptians?”<br />\nYou say to her, “In the Talmud, the Rabbi explains: ‘At that time (when the Egyptians were drowning) the ministering angels<br />\nwanted to recite a song (of praise) in the presence of the Holy One<br />\nBlessed is He. The Holy One<br />\nBlessed is He said to them: My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you recite a song of praise before Me?’”</strong></p>\n\n<p>Carol Gilligan, American feminist, ethicist, psychologist.  </p>\n\n\n\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Jubilee Haggadah", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "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": 190, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Fifth Child | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/fifth-child-11", "og:title": "Fifth Child | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "10-plagues-michael-walzer", "title": "10 Plagues Michael Walzer", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "The ten plagues have always been an embarrassment for Jewish liberals and leftists. Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><span><span>The ten plagues have always been an embarrassment for Jewish liberals and leftists. Why does God </span></span><span><span>harden Pharaoh’s heart when he could have softened it, set the Israelites on their march much sooner, and avoided the terrible suffering of the Egyptian people?</span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>So we dip a finger and spill the wine in order to reduce our pleasure in Egyptian pain. But it would be better to focus on the pain and think about the possibility of a different deliverance.  History is not determined. </span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>Imagine a God who knew the Geneva Convention and directed his plagues only against Pharaoh and </span></span><span><span>his officials. Imagine a Pharaoh who fell under the influence of his adopted son Moses.</span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>Imagine a general strike of the Israelites, joined, perhaps, by other inhabitants of the “house of </span></span><span><span>bondage.” There are many ways out of a bad situation, many alternatives for both the oppressed </span></span><span><span>and the oppressors to think about.  </span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>Michael Walzer, American political theorist.  </span></span></p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Jubilee Haggadah", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Ten Plagues", "slug": "ten-plagues" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 185, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "10 Plagues Michael Walzer | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/10-plagues-michael-walzer", "og:title": "10 Plagues Michael Walzer | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "eva-illouz-freedom", "title": "Eva Illouz Freedom", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "This text has another peculiarity: it is not only a story.  It wants to be the reenactment of a living memory. Why comm...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><span><span>This text has another </span></span><span><span>peculiarity: it is not only a story.  </span></span><span><span>It wants to be the reenactment </span></span><span><span>of a living memory. </span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>Why </span></span><span><span>commemorate at all? Why not </span></span><span><span>simply celebrate freedom? This is </span></span><span><span>because freedom can bring with it </span></span><span><span>the forgetfulness of bondage.  </span></span><span><span>Freedom can make one smug.  </span></span><span><span>Freedom is so fundamental that </span></span><span><span>once free, we can easily forget </span></span><span><span>what it is to be unfree, what it is </span></span><span><span>like to be arrested at checkpoints, </span></span><span><span>to see one’s land grabbed and </span></span><span><span>confiscated, to see courts always </span></span><span><span>side with the strong rather than </span></span><span><span>with the just, to be denied the </span></span><span><span>permit to work or travel. Yes, </span></span><span><span>freedom can bring smugness </span></span><span><span>and forgetfulness. To remember </span></span><span><span>the immense gift God gave the </span></span><span><span>Israelites is to remember that </span></span><span><span>we must never become pyramid-</span></span><span><span>builders, obsessed with our own </span></span><span><span>power, unable to heed the cries </span></span><span><span>and whispers of suffering of the </span></span><span><span>people living in our midst.</span></span></p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right;\"><font><span>Eva Illouz, Sociology Anthropology, Hebrew University Jerusalem</span></font></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": "-- Exodus Story", "slug": "exodus-story" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 181, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Eva Illouz Freedom | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/eva-illouz-freedom", "og:title": "Eva Illouz Freedom | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "shehecheyanu-107", "title": "Shehecheyanu", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה. TRANSLITERAT...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.</p>\n\n<p>TRANSLITERATION</p>\n\n<p> <em>Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, shehecheyanu, v'kiy'manu, v'higiyanu laz'man hazeh.</em> </p>\n\n<p>TRANSLATION</p>\n\n<p>Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.</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": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 113, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Shehecheyanu | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/shehecheyanu-107", "og:title": "Shehecheyanu | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "olive-for-ukrainians", "title": "Olive for Ukrainians", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "Olives on our Seder plate this year, for peace in Ukraine: We have olives on the Seder plate this year because according...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><span><span> </span></span></p>\n\n<p><strong>Olives on our Seder plate this year, for peace in Ukraine:</strong></p>\n\n<p><span><span><span><span>We</span> have olives on the Seder plate this year because according to the story of Noah and the ark, God was on the verge of destroying humanity because we were a mess. Noah and all the animals were on the ark as a last-ditch attempt to see about the possibility of humans creating goodness. As the story goes, Noah sent a dove from the ark in search of land, and she came back with an olive branch in her mouth as a sign the water had subsided, and that humans were going to be given another chance. Since then, the olive has become a symbol of hope and peace. Please eat an olive, while you hold the victims of war in your heart and read:</span></span></span></p>\n\n<p><span><span>The Jewish community in Ukraine isn’t reclining tonight. They aren’t recounting the story of <span>slavery,</span> plagues and ultimately finding freedom. Instead, they are the ones that are running or fighting for their lives. Families are broken apart, displaced, and suffering. Instead of counting plagues they are counting their dead. Untold lives ruined. Homes, offices, loved ones, friends, </span></span><span><span>p<span>e</span></span></span><span><span>ts…</span></span> <span><span>all</span></span> <span><span>l<span>e</span></span></span><span><span><span>f</span></span></span><span><span>t</span></span> <span><span>behind</span></span> <span><span>in</span></span> <span><span>a</span></span> <span><span>rush</span></span> <span><span><span>t</span></span></span><span><span>o</span></span> <span><span>li<span>v</span></span></span><span><span><span>e</span></span></span><span><span>.</span></span> <span><span>Busines<span>s</span></span></span><span><span>es</span></span> <span><span>and</span></span> <span><span>fi</span></span><span><span>nancial</span></span> <span><span><span>s</span></span></span><span><span>tability</span></span> <span><span>a<span>r</span></span></span><span><span>e</span></span> <span><span>gon<span>e</span></span></span><span><span>.</span></span> <span><span>Li<span>t</span></span></span><span><span>e<span>r</span></span></span><span><span>ally</span></span> <span><span>no</span></span> <span><span>time</span></span> <span><span><span>f</span></span></span><span><span>or</span></span> <span><span>their</span></span> <span><span>b<span>r</span></span></span><span><span>ead</span></span> <span><span><span>t</span></span></span><span><span>o</span></span> <span><span>ri<span>s</span></span></span><span><span><span>e</span></span></span><span><span>.</span></span> <span><span>Our </span></span><span><span>people have been here <span>before.</span> Heartbreaking decisions made one at a time. The tragedy of lives ruined and the trauma that </span></span><span><span>will</span></span> <span><span>li<span>v</span></span></span><span><span>e</span></span> <span><span>on</span></span> <span><span><span>f</span></span></span><span><span>or</span></span> <span><span>gene<span>r</span></span></span><span><span><span>a</span></span></span><span><span>tions</span></span> <span><span>is</span></span> <span><span>he<span>a</span></span></span><span><span><span>v</span></span></span><span><span>y</span></span> <span><span>in</span></span> <span><span>the</span></span> <span><span>ai<span>r</span></span></span><span><span>,</span></span> <span><span>li<span>k</span></span></span><span><span>e</span></span> <span><span>smo<span>k</span></span></span><span><span>e</span></span> <span><span>f<span>r</span></span></span><span><span>om</span></span> <span><span>the</span></span> <span><span>bombs</span></span> <span><span>and</span></span> <span><span>fi</span></span><span><span><span>r</span></span></span><span><span>es</span></span> <span><span>th<span>a</span></span></span><span><span>t</span></span> <span><span>burn</span></span> <span><span>near<span>b</span></span></span><span><span><span>y</span></span></span><span><span>.</span></span></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": "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu", "slug": "cup-2-amp-dayenu" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 124, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Olive for Ukrainians | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/olive-for-ukrainians", "og:title": "Olive for Ukrainians | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "ten-plagues-of-inequality-2", "title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "On Passover, we remember the ten plagues that were inflicted on the Egyptian people. Thousands of years later, modern-da...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>On <a href=\"http://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover\">Passover</a>, we remember the ten plagues that were inflicted on the Egyptian people. Thousands of years later, modern-day plagues of inequality should ignite contemporary responses to combat these injustices. Many of the most vulnerable members of our society are disproportionately affected; they cannot be “passed over” or ignored, especially during this important holiday. This moral impetus has become even clearer as our society and the world has grappled with the twin modern-day plagues of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed, widespread awareness and reckoning of racial injustice.</p>\n\n<p>As we think about the ancient plagues, let us also keep in mind those who still live under the weight of modern plagues.</p>\n\n<ol>\n\t<li>A justice system that instills fear and divides communities does no justice at all: it must be independent and fair to foster an equal and racially equitable society. Just as the first plague of <strong>blood </strong>recalls violence and turmoil, we must take action to reform our <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/criminal-justice\">criminal justice system</a> so that it meets the highest ideals of society and overcomes the brokenness – the spilled blood – that began this cycle, a cycle steeped in systemic racism.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Today, essential pathways to opportunity are blocked by a lack of basic shelter and affordable housing. Just as the plague of <strong>frogs</strong> transformed the Egyptians’ homes into unlivable conditions, <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice/housing\">the lack of affordable housing</a> can make even the most basic aspects of daily life burdensome. Until more affordable housing units are created, too many people in need will experience homelessness.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"http://www.rac.org/public-health\">Today’s health care system</a> remains out of reach to so many; millions of Americans still do not have insurance. The plague of <strong>lice</strong> reminds us that affordable, quality health care is important to have even when we are healthy, and especially when unforeseen circumstances arise. We must work to advocate for those who do not have access to health care to ensure that all Americans can receive the treatments that they need.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Sadly, the plague of <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/gun-violence-prevention\">gun violence</a> in America is all too familiar; guns kill nearly 40,000 Americans each year. Gun violence runs rampant in our communities, as did the <strong>wild animals</strong> in the fourth plague, but we have the power to end this scourge ourselves. We are commanded to take necessary measures to ensure the sanctity of human life and safety of our communities.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Hunger is not a distant tragedy; it is present in every community. Our tradition is explicit in commanding that we <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice/hunger\">feed the hungry</a>, and we must work to make that a reality. The plague of <strong>cattle disease</strong> reminds us how important it is to ensure that all people have the resources and support needed to live free from hunger.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color is just one symptom of a deeper problem. Due to centuries of systemic racism, People of Color are more likely to face a range of negative health outcomes and shorter life expectancies, but are less likely to have health insurance and often face discrimination in the <a href=\"https://rac.org/issues/health-care\">health care system</a>. Just as racial inequity in public health plagues us today, so did <strong>boils</strong> plague the Egyptians when this health crisis impaired their lives and livelihood.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>We must all take action to mitigate and adapt to the effects of <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/environment\">climate change</a>, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that climate change most significantly affects low-income communities and People of Color. The climate disruption of the plague of <strong>hail</strong> is a reminder that it is our responsibility to take action to prevent climate disruption in communities where such events have an especially devastating impact.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>Our tradition speaks strongly to valuing workers’ essential dignity as well as maintaining healthy families. Just as the <strong>locusts</strong> disrupted work and resources for the Egyptians, so does the lack of <a href=\"https://cqrcengage.com/reformjudaism/app/write-a-letter?0&amp;engagementId=511060\">paid sick days and family leave</a> harm families and workplaces across the United States. Without a national guarantee of paid leave, workers face agonizing choices between their health and their livelihoods.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li><a href=\"http://www.rac.org/education\">Education</a> is the key to opportunity and prosperity, and the fewer the educational resources, the more challenging it is for students to advance in society. The plague of <strong>darkness</strong> reminds us to pursue a bright future for all our children through robust public education. We cannot keep some members of our community on the margins by denying them educational opportunities.<br />\n\t  </li>\n\t<li>There are many structural policy changes that we can make to ameliorate <a href=\"http://www.rac.org/advocacy/economic-justice\">economic inequality</a>. The pain and suffering of the plague of the <strong>death of the firstborn</strong> does not remind us of any one social justice issue, but it does remind us of the importance of taking action before crises become truly dire. Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage addresses the previous nine plagues by lifting millions of people, including millions of children, out of poverty and preventing them from suffering these plagues in the first place. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>We cannot let these injustices of inequality continue. On Passover, we commit to structural change so that these issues will no longer plague millions in the United States and around the globe. As we celebrate our redemption from the land of Egypt, and of the plagues that played a role in that redemption, we cannot lose sight of the plagues that still exist today, particularly as we continue to grapple with systemic racism and a global pandemic.</p>\n\n<p>If we can overcome these plagues, so many more people will be able to revel in the liberation and redemption that the Jewish people celebrate on Passover.</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": "-- Ten Plagues", "slug": "ten-plagues" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 133, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/ten-plagues-of-inequality-2", "og:title": "Ten Plagues of Inequality | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "covid-2021", "title": "Covid 2021", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "This year we will be observing a bittersweet anniversary. Last year was the first Seder we observed in quarantine and we...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>This year we will be observing a bittersweet anniversary. Last year was the first Seder we observed in quarantine and we hoped that it would be our last. For most of us, it will not be.Those of us whose observance allows it will be able to hear the Haggadah with friends over Zoom. But we will not be cooking with grandparents or meeting new babies or hugging dear friends who are home for the holiday. We will be missing loved ones whose faces we will never see at our table again. We will tell our ancient story of Jews sheltering behind blood-marked doors, waiting for the plague to pass over, and moving towards freedom and we will feel it in a new way. We will allow ourselves expressions of our losses even as we celebrate our foundational narrative—our story of freedom.</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": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 167, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Covid 2021 | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/covid-2021", "og:title": "Covid 2021 | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "crack-jpg", "title": "Crack jpg", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369279/Cohen-crack-graphic.png", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369279/conversions/Cohen-crack-graphic-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Maggid - Beginning", "slug": "maggid-beginning" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 175, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Crack jpg | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/crack-jpg", "og:title": "Crack jpg | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/369279/conversions/Cohen-crack-graphic-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "matzah-freedom", "title": "Matzah Freedom", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369314/Matzah-freedom-Chabad.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369314/conversions/Matzah-freedom-Chabad-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 166, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Matzah Freedom | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/matzah-freedom", "og:title": "Matzah Freedom | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/369314/conversions/Matzah-freedom-Chabad-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "quarantine-passover", "title": "Quarantine passover", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369401/Cellphones-Red-sea.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/369401/conversions/Cellphones-Red-sea-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 157, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Quarantine passover | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/quarantine-passover", "og:title": "Quarantine passover | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/369401/conversions/Cellphones-Red-sea-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "kadesh-covid-19-yahrzeit-candle", "title": "Kadesh Covid-19 Yahrzeit candle", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "This year, in addition to kindling the holiday lights, we light a yahrzeit candle to remember all that was lost this p...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>This year, in addition to kindling the holiday lights, we <em><strong>light a yahrzeit candle</strong></em> to remember all that was lost this past year.</p>\n\n<p><strong>“A Light in the Darkness” </strong>by Rabbi Danny Burkeman. </p>\n\n<p>In the beginning, when there was just darkness, God declared, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In an instant the darkness disappeared, and that radiance spread throughout the world. God’s first act of creation was to bring light into the darkness, to illuminate the world. With this candle we follow God’s example, extinguishing the darkness and sharing the light. Over this past year we have lost so much. It has been a year in which we were forced to live apart from one another, maintaining a social distance to protect ourselves and those around us. It has been 12 months and we have missed so many moments—times of joy and sadness—when we could not gather together. For 365 days, we have woken up each morning with the threat of a pandemic hanging over our heads, fearing the news and saddened by the rising death toll.</p>\n\n<p>Tonight, as we reflect on all that has been lost over this past year, we light this yahrzeit candle as a sign of our mourning and a commitment to the future. We light this candle and mourn for the moments that we missed: graduations that could not take place, vacations and summer camps we could not enjoy, lifecycle events that were unrecognizable. So many moments that were canceled, postponed or drastically different from what we had anticipated.</p>\n\n<p>We light this candle and mourn for the everyday experiences that were lost: the meals we could not share, the hugs and embraces we could not give and receive, the moments of community and gathering that could not take place. We light this candle and mourn for all the lives that have been lost: the hundreds of thousands who have lost their lives to this dreadful disease, the countless front-line workers and caregivers who gave their lives so that others could live, all of those who have died in these last 12 months and for whom we could not mourn as we would have wanted.</p>\n\n<p>But we also light this candle as a symbol of hope: despite the separation, we have found ways to come together; in the midst of suffering, we have cared for one another; in the shadow of death, we have found ways for life to continue. We take a moment now to name those moments and the people that we have lost, so we can remember. Share names of the people who have died and the moments that have been lost over this past year. Light the yahrzeit candle. With the candle lit, the light expels the darkness, and it joins with countless other candles being lit by our friends and family.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Rabbi Danny Burkeman", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Favorites 2022", "slug": "favorites-2022-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Kadesh", "slug": "kadesh" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 226, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Kadesh Covid-19 Yahrzeit candle | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/kadesh-covid-19-yahrzeit-candle", "og:title": "Kadesh Covid-19 Yahrzeit candle | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "matzah-of-unity", "title": "Matzah of Unity", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "Passover is the great Jewish family holiday -- but with a critical message about our ethics and values. We eat the Karpa...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>Passover is the great Jewish family holiday -- but with a critical message about our ethics and values. We eat the Karpas, the green vegetable -- and recall our concern for the environment. We dip into the salt water of tears -- and remind ourselves to care for the oppressed. We eat the bitter herbs -- and sharpen our concern for the stranger. We taste the matzah, the bread of affliction -- and feel the memories of our servitude to Pharaoh. We note the roasted egg, symbolic of the extra offering in the Temple in ancient days -- and ask ourselves what are our own sacrifices?<br />\n<br />\nPassover is so real and tangible, because we not only taste our freedome, but we also resolve to work for the liberation of all people. It is a time to ask ourselves: what are we doing to care for those in need? Can we reach out and assist with our tzedakah, our charitable contributions, or through our acts of loving-kindness?<br />\n<br />\nLet us now take the middle matzah and divide it in half. As we break this matzah and set it aside, we link ourselves symbolically with all Jews throughout the world, especially those who have lived under the heel of the oppressor.<br />\n<br />\nOur Seder meal will not conclude until the missing piece of Matzah is found and returned to the table. The Matzah, when restored, shows the desire of our people to be together as one, at peace. As Jews, we are a people of sacred fragments; we need help from God to bond together in everlasting unity.</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": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 180, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Matzah of Unity | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/matzah-of-unity", "og:title": "Matzah of Unity | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "miriam-s-cup-5817", "title": "Miriam&#039;s cup", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "This set of readings was formulated in order to highlight and celebrate Miriam’s role in the deliverance from slavery an...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>This set of readings was formulated in order to highlight and celebrate Miriam’s role in the deliverance from<br />\nslavery and her leadership throughout the wandering in the wilderness. When the seder table is set, we place<br />\nan empty cup alongside Elijah’s cup. Each attendee at the seder then pours a bit of his or her water into the<br />\ncup. This contribution symbolizes that, at every stage of her life, Miriam was integral in the Exodus of the Is-<br />\nraelites from Egypt. We pour water, specifically, because it plays a recurring role in the Exodus – the rescue of<br />\nMoshe, the first plague in Egypt when the water was turned to blood, the parting of the Red Sea, and so on.<br />\nToday, we continue the fight to protect women, to raise them up, and to honor their equality and agency. We<br />\ntake this moment to remember Miriam for the role model that she is, to honor the girls and women who are<br />\nat the seder table, and to remember those who have touched our lives.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading: Exodus 2:1-10 1 A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. 4 And his sister stationed herself at a distance to learn what would befall him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. 6 When she opened it, she saw that it was a child; a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses, explaining, “I drew him out of the water.”</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": "Bareich", "slug": "bareich" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 170, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Miriam&#039;s cup | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "yachatz-mazon-hunger-seder", "title": "Yachatz Mazon Hunger Seder", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/371727/Breaking-the-middle-matzah-Mazon.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/371727/conversions/Breaking-the-middle-matzah-Mazon-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 155, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Yachatz Mazon Hunger Seder | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/yachatz-mazon-hunger-seder", "og:title": "Yachatz Mazon Hunger Seder | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/371727/conversions/Breaking-the-middle-matzah-Mazon-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "hope-in-trying-times", "title": "Hope in Trying Times", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not o...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><strong><span><span><span>TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.<br />\nWhat we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.<br />\nAnd if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.</span></span></span></strong></p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span><span><span>Herbert Zinn, 2006</span></span></span></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": "Koreich", "slug": "koreich" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 167, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Hope in Trying Times | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/hope-in-trying-times", "og:title": "Hope in Trying Times | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "a-reflection", "title": "A Reflection", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "A Reflection Adapted from A Commofn Road to Freedom, Leonard Fein and David Saperstein, 1996 The very first thing we are...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong>A Reflection</strong></p>\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Adapted from A Commofn Road to Freedom, Leonard Fein and David Saperstein, 1996</p>\n\n<p>The very first thing we are told that we must know about God, and the very first thing that God tells us wa are to know, is this:  <em><strong>I am Adonai Your God who brought you out of Egypt</strong>. </em>  God tells us this before commanding us not to steal and not to kill, before commanding us to observe the Sabbath day and not to worship other gods.  Yet this reminder itself is a commandment.  It is the first commandment.  What does it command us?</p>\n\n<p>It commands us to know for all time that our God is a God of freedom, that he commandments God offers us are gifts, not burdens.  <strong>God wants us to understand that nothing is more central to the divine purpose than our our freedom--and that freedom depends upon just law.  </strong>Tonight, we are all of us, from youngest to the oldest, colleagues in a celebration of freedom.  </p>\n\n<p>Tonight we observe a festival of most ancient origin and most modern significance.  For more than 3,000 years, Jews have gathered to retell the tale of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage.  This story is told for all peoples, whose shining conclusion is yet to unfold, we gather to observe the Passover, as it is written:</p>\n\n<p>You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of Egypt.  You shall observe this day throughout your generations as a practice for all times.         (Exodus 12:17)</p>\n\n<p>To celebrate the Seder is not merely to recall the Exodus; it is to recapture it.  We are taught that, \"In every generation all of us are obliged to regard ourselves as if we ourselves went forth from the land of Egypt.\"  So it is not enough to remember; we must ourselves enter the story and, through prayer and song and symbol and ceremony, make it our own.  <strong>We must feel the lash and fell the hope that defeats its pain.  We must feel the water at our feet and the fresh breeze of freedom on our face.\"  </strong></p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "A Common Road to Freedom, Leonard Fein and David Saperstein, 1996", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 191, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "A Reflection | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "mi-shebeirach-15", "title": "Mi Shebeirach", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376411/Mi-Shebeirach-Debbie-Friedman-translation.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376411/conversions/Mi-Shebeirach-Debbie-Friedman-translation-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 224, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Mi Shebeirach | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/mi-shebeirach-15", "og:title": "Mi Shebeirach | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/376411/conversions/Mi-Shebeirach-Debbie-Friedman-translation-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "blessing-for-anyone-who-isn-t-jewish", "title": "Blessing for anyone who isn't Jewish", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": null, "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376563/Blessing-for-non-Jews-JewBelong-Haggadah.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376563/conversions/Blessing-for-non-Jews-JewBelong-Haggadah-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 170, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Blessing for anyone who isn't Jewish | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/blessing-for-anyone-who-isn-t-jewish", "og:title": "Blessing for anyone who isn't Jewish | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/376563/conversions/Blessing-for-non-Jews-JewBelong-Haggadah-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "this-year-we-are-slaves-5", "title": "This year we are slaves", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "", "cliptype": "image", "clipsource": "Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Joshua Heschel", "featured": 0, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376626/This-year-we--are-slaves.jpg", "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/376626/conversions/This-year-we--are-slaves-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Maggid - Beginning", "slug": "maggid-beginning" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 169, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "This year we are slaves | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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-year-we-are-slaves-5", "og:title": "This year we are slaves | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/376626/conversions/This-year-we--are-slaves-cover.jpg" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "stupidity-of-having-an-answer-kundera", "title": "Stupidity of Having an Answer Kundera", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "The Stupidity of Having an Answer A novel does not assert anything; a novel searches and poses questions. I invent stori...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p><strong>The Stupidity of Having an Answer</strong></p>\n\n<p>A novel does not assert anything; a novel searches and poses questions. I invent stories, confront one with another, and by this means i ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.  <br />\nThe novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. in a world built on sacrosanct certainties, the novel is dead. The totalitarian world is a world of answers rather than questions. There, the novel has no place.  In any case, it seems to me that all over the world people nowadays prefer to judge rather than to understand, to answer rather than ask, so that the voice of the novel can hardly be heard over the noisy foolishness of human certainties.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Milan Kundera, </strong>novelist and activist, Czech Republic</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": "-- Four Questions", "slug": "four-questions" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 163, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Stupidity of Having an Answer Kundera | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/stupidity-of-having-an-answer-kundera", "og:title": "Stupidity of Having an Answer Kundera | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "jdc-ukraine-1", "title": "JDC Ukraine", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "This is not only the bread of our affliction, but also the lechem oni, the bread of those in dire need.  It's called tha...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>This is not only the bread of our affliction, but also the lechem oni, the bread of those in dire need.  It's called that because of its purposeful lack of ingredients — only unleavened flour and water, nothing to make it rise, and it must be baked in haste — the food of those with nothing, those who've left everything, in desperate need of a miracle.<br />\nIt is the bread we took with us when we rushed out of Egypt to pursue our destiny and our peoplehood — to pursue life. Our Jewish family in Ukraine and those who are fleeing the country share in a single concern — life. A life of safety, of freedom, and of opportunity for better days. </p>\n\n<p>As we hold them close to our hearts tonight, and remember them here at our seder tables, let us do all we can to support and comfort them — in cities under bombardment and at the borders swelling with their numbers — and to build a future whose course we shape with every act of kindness.  We do this because all Jews are responsible for one another, embodying the mighty hand and outstretched arm that has delivered our people throughout time.  </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": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 176, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "JDC Ukraine | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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/jdc-ukraine-1", "og:title": "JDC Ukraine | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "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": "redemption-2022-rabbi-sharon-brous", "title": "Redemption 2022 Rabbi Sharon Brous", "author": "Steven Freedman", "author_handle": "steven-freedman-1", "author_initials": "SF", "covertext": "One copy of the Slave Bible, first published in 1807, sits today in the permanent collection of the Fisk University Libr...", "user_image": "", "user_image_original": "", "body": "<p>One copy of <a href=\"https://www.museumofthebible.org/exhibits/slave-bible\">the Slave Bible</a>, first published in 1807, sits today in the permanent collection of the <a href=\"https://www.fisk.edu/university-news-and-publications/the-slave-bible-returns-home-to-fisk-university/\">Fisk University Library</a> in Nashville. Originally intended for use in worship by enslaved people in the British West Indies, the biblical text was carefully redacted to exclude all references to the Exodus from Egypt. Imagine a Bible with no Moses, no burning bush, no Israelites fleeing slavery, no split sea and no revelation at Sinai.</p>\n\n<p>This version of the text, gutted of that central narrative, was designed to fulfill a two-part objective: to introduce enslaved people to Christianity and to <a href=\"https://www.fisk.edu/university-news-and-publications/the-slave-bible-returns-home-to-fisk-university/\">preserve the system</a> of slavery. The problem was that the Exodus story — bearing the promise of freedom over slavery, dignity over degradation — is powerful and dangerous. The slaveholders were surely concerned that enslaved people would see themselves in the Israelite struggle for liberation, that they would find strength in God’s identification with the oppressed and be inspired by the triumph of faith over even one of the strongest regimes of the ancient world. They may have feared that this story would plant the seeds of possibility, if not the seeds of rebellion.</p>\n\n<p>This week, Jews around the world will sit at Passover Seder tables and retell the very narrative stricken from that Slave Bible: the Exodus from Egypt. In Hebrew it is yetziat mitzrayim, literally “emerging or leaving from the narrow place.” This, our origin story, has animated and sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years. It’s read not as a remembrance of a one-time event but as an eternal promise, a frame of reference for all future struggles — including those we face in our time and our own country.</p>\n\n<p>The Exodus is a tale of a tyrannical ruler who violently suppressed the Israelite minority living under his rule, who he feared might one day rise up against him. With ruthless taskmasters carrying out his plan, Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites, forcing them to endure hardship and humiliation. By the time of the Exodus, every living Israelite was the descendant of enslaved people; none alive remembered freedom. Their bodies were broken, their spirits nearly crushed. But at the moment of their deepest despair, after hundreds of years of suffering, God heard the people’s cries and redeemed them with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. It was then the newly liberated began their long journey to freedom.</p>\n\n \n\n<p>This is an archetypal redemption story, a reminder that as much as the world has changed since ancient times, oppression, degradation and exploitation remain part of the human condition. As long as there is power, there will be abuses of power. But the Exodus is also a reminder that any moment could be the inflection point between oppression and liberation. And so the telling and retelling of this story are the closest we, as a people, come to the generational transmission of hope, which can itself be seen as an act of spiritual resistance.</p>\n\n<p>The Exodus narrative demands of us full partnership in the grueling, unending work of building a just society, one that stands as countertestimony to the brutality the Israelites experienced in Egypt. This is why the treatment of the ger, the stranger, the vulnerable one, becomes the central obsession of the five books of Moses. The many biblical commandments regarding treatment of the stranger are all rooted in the same principle: “Do not oppress the stranger, since you know the soul of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt” <a href=\"https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.23.10?ven=The_Contemporary_Torah,_Jewish_Publication_Society,_2006&amp;vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&amp;lang=bi&amp;aliyot=0\">(Exodus 23:9)</a>. The message is clear: The work of leaving Egypt doesn’t end once the people cross the Red Sea, on the path to the Promised Land. As Emma Lazarus, the poet whose words grace the Statue of Liberty, <a href=\"https://jwa.org/media/quote-from-epistle-to-hebrews\">wrote</a> in 1883, “Until we are all free, <em> </em> we are none of us free.”</p>\n\n<ul>\n\t<li>Did you know you can share 10 gift articles a month, even with nonsubscribers?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/opinion/passover-exodus-story-redemption.html#\">Share this article.</a></p>\n\n<p>Freedom was hard won for the ancient Israelites, coming only after God unleashed 10 formidable plagues on Egypt. The plagues are commonly read as punishments levied against the Egyptian people for the terrible suffering they forced upon the Israelites, but there is another way to interpret God’s actions. One medieval rabbi, <a href=\"https://www.sefaria.org/Sforno_on_Exodus.7.3.1?ven=Eliyahu_Munk,_HaChut_Hameshulash&amp;vhe=On_Your_Way&amp;lang=bi&amp;with=all&amp;lang2=en\">Sforno</a>, argued that the plagues were actually brought to awaken the conscience of the oppressor, “to increase the chances that Pharaoh would finally see the light and become a genuine penitent.” In other words, what God desired was a true change of heart. God wanted Pharaoh and his people to take responsibility for the injustices they committed. Tell the truth. Make amends. Offer reparations. Chart a new course, together with the Israelites.</p>\n\n<p>In this reading, the objective of the redemption story was the liberation of not only the Israelites but also the Egyptians. They needed to be liberated from the morally perverse mind-set that justified their cruelty in the first place. True redemption requires the transformation of the oppressed as well as the oppressors.</p>\n\n<p>American Jews read this story year after year in a beautiful and broken country, one that strives toward its loftiest aspirations even as it balks at contending honestly with its own past transgressions. One that remains wedded to the same supremacist thinking that has fueled the most shameful chapters of our shared history.</p>\n\n \n\n<p>The story of the Exodus leaves us with a moral imperative: Our perpetual challenge is to build a society in which every person is treated as an image of the Holy One, living in full dignity. Redemption is possible for us all.</p>\n\n<p>The tragedy of the Exodus is that Pharaoh himself could have been a part of the redemption story. He could have moved from oppressor to liberator or even partner in building a just future. But that would have required him to embrace the redemption narrative, rather than be threatened by it. Instead, he rooted only more deeply in his fear- and greed-driven mission, until the chariots and horsemen of the Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea.</p>\n\n<p>America, too, needs a redemption narrative, a shared story for the America being born in our time. Perhaps the Exodus from Egypt, once deemed so dangerous that it had to be excised from some Bibles, will awaken our moral imagination as we strive to write a new story for this nation. I still believe that together we can build a redeemed society. A multiracial democracy, rooted in equal justice that defends the dignity of every person and strives to embody the great, age-old vision of collective liberation.</p>\n\n<p>Sharon Brous is the founding and senior rabbi of <a href=\"http://www.ikar.org/\">Ikar</a>, a Jewish community based in Los Angeles.  </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": 171, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Redemption 2022 Rabbi Sharon Brous | Passover haggadah by Steven Freedman", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. 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