Garoongelman Hagaddah Companion 2020
Finding (an) order in pandem(on)ic times We’re thrilled you’ve joined us for this second seder of Pesach 5780 (2020). Our family accepted an invitation from our shul and rabbi to host a traditional seder that would speak, broadly, to social justice, for folks of every age. To that end, we’ve assembled this companion to your own Haggadah. We’ll move through the seder traditionally, yet pause before each step to read reflect on, and respond to selected texts. We hope they’ll spark conversation! The texts feature a range of themes: liberty, bondage, power, and oppression; silence, voice, language, and narrative; boundaries and our passages through (and over) them; brokenness and repair; imagination, dream, and reality… … but our overarching theme is time. Time is of crucial importance to the seder. There’s the rabbis’ extended commentary on the time it should be held; there’s also its stress on timelines, lineages, ancestors, and generations. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic has turned our sense of time upside down. It’s difficult for many of us to keep track of what day it is, never mind what hour. קֶדֶ֥צ קֶדֶ֖צ ,How do we continue to pursue justice (per the Torah’s injunction in the midst of such troubling times? How do we find the time for ( ֹדְּרִתּ ףְִֹ֑ advocacy and action? And when we do find it, how do we best use it? And we’re (even more) interested in themes you see and want to discuss, especially in the face of the many challenges of life in a time of pandemic.
[Show full text]