Passover and Easter are holidays infused with the promise of Spring. I feel it in the air! I want it to fill the air! We need to feel it in the air!
Because, this year, once again, the sound of the breaking Matzah will echo the shattering of our broken hearts and our fears. The salt water will carry the taste of despair, as people take to the streets protesting – Hands Off! We will hear “Let my people go” not in Moses’s voice, but in the many voices asking for the release of the hostages in Gaza. Reading lines like: “We were slaves in Egypt and now we are free” and singing “dayenu – it is enough,” may feel odd.
With all that, we start with gratitude. We give thanks and appreciate the good.
Ha’kol be’seder, is a commonly used expression in Hebrew meaning “all is ok.” It is the secular equivalent to thanking God. Even in hard times, Hebrew speakers still say those words, perhaps as an affirmation of the good in the world, or maybe as a hope for things to get better.
In the Hagaddah, we find the word Kol used for a different purpose. Early in the Seder we declare, Kol dichfin, “let all who are hungry and in need come eat and celebrate.” All are welcome. In the first section of the Magid we are reminded that our salvation cannot be only personal. We need a free society for all people to be free.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “I Have a Dream“ speech, quoted the prophet Amos: “ No, no, we are not satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”
Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” written in 1883 and affixed to the Statue of Liberty in 1903, is a declaration of the sacred promise of the United States -a home open to all. It reads: ”…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
A Few Seder Suggestions
Sing Hallel and praise. Do enjoy the food, especially the sweets, to help sweeten the bitterness of this time. Because if we don’t see the good, we succumb to despair and that is not the Jewish way. Ha’tikvah! Hope is the main path which we journey. A path of liberation, transformation and faith that we can repair, overcome hardship, and mend this world, again and again.
During Ye’chatz Hold up the Matzah, the bread of affliction and freedom, break it ceremoniously and let people speak about how they feel broken. Then, ask people to share hopes and prayers, and wrap those into the afikoman half using a cloth napkin. Leave it on the table or hide it for the children to look for it. From then on, the entire telling of the story and the meal will be a prayer directed toward the hidden hopes and prayers (tzafun) in the afikoman, the sweet dessert.
Fill the second cup of wine before the Four Questions – Mah Nishtanah, but do not drink from it yet. During the recitation of the Ten Plagues, remove ten drops from the cup—symbolizing the diminishment of our joy in recognition of the suffering of the Egyptians. Wait until the blessing at the end of the Magid section, and only then drink the second cup.
Leave an empty seat and/or place pictures for the hostages who cannot be at a Seder. Let these be a prayer for their well-being and release.
Set a cup for Elijah – a symbol of hope and prayer for when we need help from a force greater than human strength and agency.
Lastly, because Passover begins on Saturday night all preparations are moved up by one day. Bedikat Hametz – search for leavened crumbs at the home will be on Thursday. Please see this link for more details about preparation for Passover and special ritual inclusions.
I wish you and yours sweet and meaningful holidays. Happy Passover and Happy Easter.
Rabbi Sigal