Ways of connecting your Seder to & the Jewish People The story of Passover does not begin only in Egypt when the Israelites are enslaved. It begins all the way back with Avraham Avinu and the prophecy in Genesis Chapter 15, verse 13 “And God said to Abram, know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years”. It is in fact a long journey traveling from Canaan to Egypt during Joseph’s time, wandering for 40 years in the desert building a faith and a nation, through exile and renewal of the Modern State of Israel. This journey continues in our day as we continue to fight for freedom for all Jews and people around the world. We continue to build Israel through strengthening its democracy and commitment to religious pluralism and by working on perfecting our covenant with God by renewing and building Jewish life around the world.

This year we are free? How is this year הא – After reading Ha Lachma Anya you can add this reading different from all other ,לחמא עניא about past and present struggles for years? freedom: This year we are slaves, next year may we be free After the youngest child reads the four questions, ask yourselves these questions: Let my son go free so that my descendants will What has changed this year? honor me • Pleaded Abraham silently to the angel Last year was 5772. This year is 5773. What changed in your life this year? Let my people go free so that they may worship me •Last year in Israel, elections were called. This Said God to Pharaoh year, after the election there are 53 new Let my people go free so that they may rebuild for members, including for the first time me an Ethiopian woman and an American born Grieving Rabbis requested of Rome Rabbi.

Let my people return to the land so that •Last year 21 women sat in the Knesset. This they can be free year’s Knesset has 28 women. Wrote Herzl to the nations who would listen •Last year in 2012, the Mayans predicted the

Let my people gather unto me so they can rise from world would end. This year, we’re still here the ashes but what can you do with your gift of time to Whispered the voices of the persecuted to those improve the world? who lived •Last year, archaelogists in Israel found a

Let my people fight for their home so that their mosaic depicting the biblical hero Samson. This children will know peace year, they found a wine press underneath a Prayed the mothers of Israel to the surrounding street in Yaffo, near . What part of nations Jewish history would you want to uncover?

Let my people go out so that they may worship •Last year nearly 18,000 people made to freely Israel and an estimated 3.5 million people will Cried the voices of many to Soviet Russia visit in 2013. Will you be one of them? Where would you like to go in Israel and why? Let my people pray free in the way that they desire חג פסח שמח! to speak to me Appealed the women in tallitot to the men who Happy Passover from deny them MERCAZ Olami & Masorti Let my people go free so that they may worship me This year we are slaves, next year may we be free Olami!

Content created by Hillary B. Gordon and Rabbi Tzvi Graetz, Paratroopers at Kotel, 1967 (l), Women of the Wall, 2012 (r) with the generous support of the World Zionist Organization.

Next Year in Jerusalem! Read the following before you finish :חסל סדר פסח - your Seder

The land of Israel has witnessed destruction and renewal many times over the last 2000 years. After The child in Israel who does the destruction of the 2nd Temple, hope was lost for many to ever see the land filled with the nation of not know how to ask Israel again. The following story is told about Rabbi :after reading about the Akiba, the great sage of the Talmud,מגיד During you can add “As they approached the Temple site, they saw a ,שאינו יודע לשאול - four sons this text and then discuss. jackal bounding out of the rubble that had been the Who today is the child who does not know what to ask or Holy of Holies. His companions wept. Rabbi Akiba how to ask or even where to start? Throughout history smiled. ‘Why do you smile?’ they asked, ‘Why do the Jewish People has maintained its traditions via a strict you weep?’ said he. ‘We see the ruins of our Holy adherence to literacy in Jewish sources. As time has Sanctuary, that is now become the haunt of passed, these sources have opened up to more and more jackals, and should we not weep?’ Said Rabbi people: men and women, boys and girls, Jews and non- Akiba: ‘Therefore do I smile. The prophets foretold Jews. Where, therefore do we find a Jew who cannot ask both the destruction of Jerusalem and its a question about the story of Am Yisrael? restoration to glory. Now I have seen the first According to Dr. Ruth Calderon, a newly elected member prophecy come to pass, and I know the second will of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), you find that Jew in also be fulfilled.’ His companions said; ‘Akiba, thou Israel. She identifies herself as having been “not acquainted with the Mishna, the Talmud, Kabbala or hast comforted us.” (Talmud Bavli Makkot 24b) Hasidism” but rather raised in a society that was busy Rabbi Akiba was able to see through the pain and nd building a nation, protecting its borders and developing a loss of the 2 Temple in Jerusalem to a time when start-up nation. Israel and Jerusalem would be restored to its former Her imperative is that “The time has come to glory. We are fortunate to have witnessed the reappropriate what is ours, to delight in the cultural establishment of the State in 1948 and the riches that wait for us, for our eyes, our imaginations, continued rebuilding of the land over 2000 years our creativity.” …The Torah is not the property of one later. Movement or another. It is a gift that every one of us “Next year in Jerusalem” is meant to be literal. Our received, and we have all been granted the wish should be to celebrate the Seder in the actual opportunity to meditate upon it as we create the city of Jerusalem. It also means that in our hearts realities of our lives.” MK Calderon states further that and our minds we wish for hope and the ability to it must belong to all of Israel: “Torah scholar, man or always envision – even through disappointment or woman, based on the quality of their study, not their through triumph – a Jerusalem and an Israel one communal affiliation; when secular and pluralistic step closer to holiness through our deeds and yeshivot, batei midrash, and organizations win fair actions, one step closer to a city for all of its and equal support in comparison to Orthodox and inhabitants by following the advice of Hillel the Haredi batei midrash. Through scholarly envy and healthy competition, the Torah will be magnified and Elder “that which is hateful to you, do not do to glorified.” She concludes with a prayer “May it be Your your fellow, this is the whole Torah” (Talmud Bavli will, Lord our God, God of our fathers and mothers, Shabbat 31a). that I leave this house as I entered it – at peace with As Rabbi Akiba and his disciples knew and the many myself and with others. May my actions benefit all fighters for freedom from oppression throughout residents of the State of Israel. May I work to our history “You are not obliged to finish the task, improve the society that sent me to this chamber and but neither are you free to neglect it”. (Pirkei Avot cause a just peace to dwell among us and with our 2:21) Now, it’s time to complete our Seder and to neighbors.” And let us say – Amen. begin anew our task as the Moses’ of our generation Do you agree with MK Dr. Ruth Calderon? How can as if we personally had come out of Egypt. you help to bring the gift of Torah to everyone in At this point, you may want to add Hatikvah after the Jewish community? “L’shana haba’a b’Yerushalayim”

Photographs: Avinoam Shemesh