A Haggadah for Poets and Goyim

Poets and Goyim

“Now we turn to memory, we search all the days we had forgotten for a tradition that can support our arms in such a moment. If we are free people, we are also free to choose our past, at every moment to choose the tradition we will bring to the future. We invoke a rigorous positive, that will enable us to imagine our choices, and to make them.”

— Muriel Rukeyser, The Life of Poetry (1944)

The Seder PREFACE & WELCOME - 1 Separation – CANDLE LIGHTING – 2 Sanctification - KIDDUSH – 3 Setting intentions - URCHATZ – 4 Blessing for the green vegetable - KARPAS – 5 Breaking of the middle matzah - YACHATZ – 6 Blessing for the orange – TAPUZ – 7 The Paschal Lamb, Miriam’s Cup, The Exodus, Four Questions : Telling the tale – MAGGID - 8 Tasting the sorrow and the sweetness - KOREICH - 9 The meal - SHULCHAN OREICH - 10 The afikoman - TZAFUN – 11 Saying grace - BAREICH – 12 The conscious recognition of those not completely seen - HA’CARAH – 13 Psalms of praise - HALLEL – 14 Blessing for the olive - ZAYIT – 15 Conclusion - NIRTZAH - 16

Preface Welcome (Together, In Turns) (Seder Leader) Here we are. Here we are, gathered to celebrate the oldest We’re so glad you can join us. We want everyone sitting here at continually practiced ritual in the Western world, to retell what is our table to be comfortable. It doesn’t matter if you are a believer, arguably the best known of all stories, to take part in the most an agnostic, or an atheist. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a widely practiced Jewish holiday. Here we are as we were last non-Jew. The story of Passover transcends these differences. year, and as we hope to be next year. Here we are, as night We gather tonight to celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people descends in succession over all of the Jews of the world, from slavery in Egypt more than three thousand years ago—the with a book in front of us. moment in our story in which the Jews became a people. Our Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has ceremony is the seder, a Hebrew word that means “order.” We been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any read from the Haggadah, which means “the telling.” We tell the other Jewish book.1 It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a story of our deliverance from Egypt using symbols, whose prayer book, user's manual, timeline, poem, or palimpsest—and meaning we explore. These symbols are on our seder plate and at yet it is all of these things. The Torah is the foundational text for our seder table. Jewish law, but the Haggadah is our book of living memory. We are not merely telling a story here. We are being called to a Jewish tradition requires that each of us act as if we had radical act of empathy. Here we are, embarking on an ancient, personally gone forth from Egypt. Every generation is encouraged perennial attempt to give human life—our lives—dignity. […] to make the story of the Exodus their own. In accordance with this obligation, each year our seder combines rituals and prayers Here we are: Individuals remembering a shared past and in developed over the millennia with contemporary readings and pursuit of a shared destiny. The seder is a protest against despair. new practices for our joyous celebration. The universe might appear deaf to our fears and hopes, but we are not—so we gather, and share them, and pass them down. We By telling the story of freedom on Passover (in Hebrew: Pesach), have been waiting for this moment for thousands of years—more we celebrate our Jewish history. The story of Exodus, however, is than one hundred generations of Jews have been here as we not just a Jewish story. It is a story that embodies humanity’s are—and we will continue to wait for it. And we will not wait idly. passion for justice and freedom. Now more than ever, this story and tradition matter. — The New American Haggadah, ed. Jonathan Safran Foer, trans. Nathan Englander

1 “…just like there isn’t a singer who doesn’t think he can cover a Bob Dylan song better than Dylan versions with prayers writ special for women, children, Russian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, and for the himself, the haggadah remains the book that everyone thinks they can improve on. The “Maxwell liberation of a wide variety of groups and causes, even those without benefit of 501(c)(3) tax- House Haggadah” might be good enough for the White House, but at homes across the country exempt charitable status.” – Tom Teicholz there are any number of printed and self-stapled versions, including egalitarian, feminist and vegan

As our democracy weathers a brutal storm; as we witness our country double down on white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, classism, ableism, and Lighting the Candles more; as we struggle with how to resist the horror of what is done (Together, In Turns) in our name, from the U.S.-backed Israeli war against Palestine to the deportation of thousands in a courthouse just a few short blocks from here—we are reminded that the struggle for human freedom never stops. But tonight, we rejoice. Our celebration is intended to be a source of inspiration and strength, to be drawn upon by each of us throughout the year as we strive to be vigilant against injustice, as well as to heal from oppression we carry in each of our unique identities. In short, this seder is a reminder of the ways we can be better allies to others, and to ourselves. One last note: Questions are not only welcome during the course of the evening, they are vital to tonight’s journey. Our obligation at this seder involves traveling from slavery to freedom, prodding ourselves from apathy to action, encouraging the transformation of silence into speech. Because leaving mitzrayim—the narrow places, the places that oppress us—is a personal as well as a communal passage, your participation is encouraged. Talk,

interrupt, question, learn, argue, sing! Engage with what we have written and compiled. Reflect on your deepest spiritual beliefs, or THE COMING OF LIGHT just enjoy the food. Remember that questioning itself is a sign of freedom. We live in a time in which all of this feels very close to Even this late it happens: the surface, and yet out of reach. May we all live next year in a the coming of love, the coming of light. world of justice and peace. And may we all work together to build You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, that world. stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows, — excerpts from Sharing the Journey and Love & Justice in Times of War haggadahs sending up warm bouquets of air. Even this late the bones of the body shine and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.

— Mark Strand, 2002

(6) CHAZERET, the bitter herb for the “sandwich” which we eat later, following the custom established by Hillel the Elder, as a reminder that our ancestors “ate matzah and What’s on the Table? bitter herbs together.”

— Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon by Elie Wiesel, by Elie Wiesel

ORANGE: The orange has come to symbolize inclusion in Judaism for those not traditionally seen as full participants or leaders in Jewish life, especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. MATZAH: Matzah is the unleavened bread we eat in place of bread during Passover, to symbolize our “bread of affliction” packed in haste by our ancestors, who had no time for their bread to rise before they fled Egypt. OLIVES: Olives, from the olive branch, an ancient and universal symbol of peace, signal hope for eventual peace between Israelis and Palestinians. ELIJAH’S CUP: The fifth ceremonial cup of wine poured during the Seder. It is left untouched in honor of Elijah the prophet, who, according to tradition, will arrive one day as an unknown guest to herald the advent of the Messiah. The entire story of the Haggadah is contained in the Seder plate; MIRIAM’S CUP: Miriam’s cup, filled with water, a twentieth century everything on it symbolizes an aspect of Exodus: addition to the Passover seder, recognizes the too-often silent and unnoticed role of women in the Passover story. (1) KARPAS, parsley or another green vegetable, represents hope and renewal. — Haggadot.com, various contributors (2) ZEROA, a roasted bone, evokes the Paschal lamb which our forefathers offered to God. (3) BEITZA, a boiled egg whose roundness symbolizes the circle of life and death. (4) MAROR, a bitter herb, reminds us of the bitterness of Egyptian bondage. (5) CHAROSET, a mixture of nuts, fruit, wine, and spices, represents the mortar our ancestors used in building the pyramids in Egypt.

Kiddush (Together, In Turns) All Jewish celebrations, from holidays to weddings, include wine as a symbol of our joy—not to mention a practical way to increase that joy. The seder starts with wine, and then gives us three more opportunities to refill our cup and drink.2 Some say the four cups represent our matriarchs—Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah— whose virtue caused God to liberate us from slavery. Another interpretation is that the cups represent the Four Worlds: physicality, emotions, thought, and essence. Still a third interpretation is that the cups represent the four promises of liberation God makes in the Torah: I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you, I will take you to be my people (Exodus 6:6-7.) The four promises, in turn, have been interpreted as four stages on the path of liberation: becoming aware of oppression, opposing oppression, imagining alternatives, and accepting — Maxwell House Haggadah, Deluxe Edition (1964) responsibility to act. This first cup of wine reminds us of God’s first declaration: “I will bring you out from the oppression...” — The Velveteen Rabbi’s Haggadah for Pesach, assembled by Rabbi Rachel (Together, As One) Barenblat With a blessing, we lift our wine, our symbol of joy; let us welcome the festival of Passover!

Drink the first cup of wine!

2 An important note: while the seder mandates four cups of wine, it does not specify how much wine = a cup. Pour as little or as much as you wish!

(Seder Leader) During a traditional seder, we wash our hands twice: now, with no Urchatz blessing, to get us ready for the rituals to come; and then again later, with a blessing, to prepare us for the meal. Tonight we are going to do things a little differently. Let’s take a moment instead THE HANDWASHING to cleanse and clear our minds, so we can engage fully in tonight's ritual.

First, I invite you to look around you. What are five things you can see? Notice things you hadn’t noticed before. Maybe the flickering of the candlelight, or a knick-knack in the room.

Now, close your eyes.

Bring your awareness to four things that you can feel. Maybe you can feel the pressure of your feet on the floor, your shirt resting on your shoulders, or the temperature on your skin.

Now, take a moment to note three things that you can hear. Notice all the background sounds you had been filtering out, such as birds chirping, or cars on a distant street.

Take a deep breath. What are two things that you can smell?

Lastly, notice one thing that you can taste. You can take a sip of

a drink, simply notice how your mouth tastes, or even “taste” the air to see how it feels on your tongue.

Now, let us begin.

— mindfulness exercise from TherapistAid.com

“I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country, or even the least glimpse of gaining the shore, which I Karpas now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled

with horrors of every kind, still heightened by my ignorance of THE BLESSING OF THE GREEN VEGETABLE what I was to undergo. I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a (Together, In Turns) salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so The karpas is the first part of the seder that marks this night that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I different from all other nights. The kiddush and the hand washing, became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the though significant, are ordinary parts of Jewish meals. The karpas, least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, however, is not. As a night marked by difference, that difference death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men starts now. offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, Pesach is a holiday of spring, and we begin the seder by eating and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never the karpas, a fresh green sprig, to remind us of the rebirth and experienced anything of this kind before, and, although not being renewal of the season. We are eating the hope of nature itself. used to water, I naturally feared the element the first time I saw it, yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side; but I could not; and besides, the crew used At the same time, we dip the karpas twice in saltwater. If the to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the greens represent new life and growth, the reawakening of the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some earth after winter—and the reawakening of a people emerging of these poor African prisoners most severely cut, for attempting from bondage—then the saltwater reminds us of tears, and the to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often pain of all those who have been, and are still, enslaved. the case with myself. In a little time after, amongst the poor chained men, I found some of my own nation, which in a small Traditionally, we would recite a Hebrew blessing. Instead, as the degree gave ease to my mind. I inquired of these what was to be saltwater runs down your cheeks and seeps into the corners of done with us? They gave me to understand, we were to be your mouth, we invite you to taste these tears, carried to these white people’s country to work for them.” and listen:

— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. (1789) Distribute the karpas, then dip it twice in a bowl of saltwater. Eat the karpas.

experience displacement, uncertainty, lack of resources, and the complete disruption of their lives. Over the past year, we have read almost daily about humanitarian Yachatz crises, watched xenophobic hate crimes increase, and been overwhelmed by the sheer number of people being persecuted. In the United States, in particular, we have experienced a THE BREAKING OF THE MIDDLE MATZAH devastating closing of doors to refugees. (Seder Leader) We now have the opportunity this evening to move beyond the headlines and the statistics to focus on the individual experiences On Passover, we eat matzah in memory of the quick flight of our behind the numbers and policies. These are the experiences of ancestors from Egypt, who had no time for their bread to rise. refugees around the world who, like the ancient Israelites, are searching for liberation amidst brokenness and to rebuild their Take the middle matzah of the three on your seder table. Break it lives. Tonight, as we embrace the experience of our ancestors, we also lift up the experiences of the world’s refugees who still into two pieces. Wrap the larger piece, the Afikoman, in a napkin to wander in search of safety and freedom. be hidden later. Hold up the remaining, smaller piece.

Lift your plate, beneath which you will find a story. (Together, As One) This is the bread of affliction. All who are bent with hunger, come If you are moved to share yours, please do. and eat.

We return to the broken matzah, which so clearly can never be (Together, In Turns) repaired. We eat the smaller part, our bread of affliction, while the Throughout our history, violence and persecution have driven the larger half remains out of sight and out of reach for now. Later Jewish people to wander in search of a safe place to call home. tonight, only after we have relived the journey through slavery We are a refugee people. At the Passover seder, we gather to and the exodus from Egypt, will we find and eat the Afikoman, the retell the story of our original wandering and the freedom we bread of our liberation. found. But we do not just retell the story. We are commanded to imagine ourselves as though we, personally, went forth from — The HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) Seder Supplement Egypt – to imagine the experience of being victimized because of who we are, of being enslaved, and of being freed.

As we step into this historical experience, we cannot help but draw to mind the 65 million displaced people and refugees around the world today fleeing violence and persecution, searching for protection. Like our ancestors, today’s refugees

saying that a woman belongs on the bimah of a synagogue no more than an orange belongs on the Seder plate. That incident never happened! Instead, my custom had fallen victim to a folktale process in which my original intention was Tapuz subverted. My idea of the orange was attributed to a man, and my goal of affirming lesbians and gay men was erased. BLESSING FOR THE ORANGE Moreover, the power of the custom was subverted: By now, (Together, In Turns) women are on the bimah, so there is no great political courage in eating an orange, because women ought to be on the bimah. “In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came across a For years, I have known about women whose scientific Haggadah that had been written by some Oberlin students to discoveries were attributed to men, or who had to publish their express feminist concerns. One ritual they devised was placing a work under a male pseudonym. That it happened to me makes crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with me realize all the more how important it is to recognize how deep Jewish lesbians (“there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as and strong patriarchy remains, and how important it is for us to there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate” celebrate the contributions of gay and lesbian Jews, and all those was the idea). who need to be liberated from marginality to centrality. And Passover is the right moment to ensure At the next Passover, I placed an orange on our family’s seder freedom for all Jews.” plate. At an early point in the seder, when stomachs were starting to growl, I asked each person to take a segment of the orange, —Dr. Susanna Heschel, professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth make the blessing over fruit and eat the segment in recognition of gay and lesbian Jews, of widows, orphans, Jews who are adopted, interfaith couples and families, and all others who sometimes feel marginalized in the Jewish community. Bread on the seder plate brings an end to Pesach – it renders everything chametz. And it suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism. I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds Eat an orange slice, and spit out the seeds. And let us that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism. broaden Dr. Heschel’s tribute, to recognize all gay, lesbian, Strangely, I discovered some years ago that an urban legend was bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming , circulating: Strangers told me they placed an orange on their and queer people, both inside and outside the seder plate because of an incident in Miami Beach in which a man angrily denounced me when I gave a lecture, Jewish community.

THE FOUR QUESTIONS (Youngest Reader) Maggid THE TELLING OF THE TALE (Seder Leader) We have now come to the heart of the seder. This is the longest portion! Please, feel free to fortify yourself throughout, with wine or food.

(Together, In Turns) When the founder of modern Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a special fire, say a special prayer, and the trouble would be averted. Later, when his disciple, the Rabbi Maggid of Mezritch, had occasion for the same reason to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: "Master of the Universe, listen! I cannot light the fire, but I know the place and I can say the prayer." Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save the Jewish people, would go into the forest and say: "I cannot light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place." Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his house, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am — Maxwell House Haggadah, Deluxe Edition (1964) unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and this must be sufficient.” — The Rheingold Family Haggadah (1994)

Fill the cups with wine a second time. 12

Once upon a time, our people went into exile. During a famine our THE EXODUS ancestor Jacob and his family fled to Egypt where food was (Together, In Turns) plentiful. His son Joseph had risen to high position in Pharaoh’s court, and our people were well-respected, well-regarded, and Slaves is what we were—slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. And wrested secure. free, were we, by the Lord God-of-Us, lifted out of that place in the mighty hand of an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One, Generations passed and our people remained in Egypt. In time, a blessed is He, had not taken our fathers out of Egypt, then what of new Pharaoh ascended to the throne. He found our difference us? We, and our children, and our children’s children, would be threatening, and ordered our people enslaved. enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. Were it that we were all learned In fear of rebellion, Pharaoh decreed that all Hebrew boy-children and all enlightened, all of us rich with old age and well versed in be killed. Two midwives named Shifrah and Puah defied his the Torah, still the obligation to tell of the Exodus from Egypt orders, claiming that “the Hebrew women are so hardy, they give would rest upon us. All who are expansive in their telling of the birth before we arrive!” Through their courage, a boy survived; Exodus from Egypt are worthy of praise. midrash tells us he was radiant with light. — The New American Haggadah, ed. Jonathan Safran Foer, trans. Nathan — The Velveteen Rabbi’s Haggadah for Pesach, assembled by Rabbi Rachel Englander Barenblat Either you will go through this door

THE LANGUAGE ISSUE or you will not go through. I place my hope on the water If you go through in this little boat there is always the risk of the language, the way a body might put of remembering your name. an infant

in a basket of intertwined Things look at you doubly iris leaves, and you must look back its underside proofed and let them happen. with bitumen and pitch, If you do not go through then set the whole thing down amidst it is possible the sedge and bulrushes by the edge to live worthily of a river to maintain your attitudes

only to have it borne hither and thither, to hold your position not knowing where it might end up; to die bravely in the lap, perhaps,

of some Pharaoh’s daughter. but much will blind you, much will evade you, — Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill , translated by Paul Muldoon (1994) at what cost who knows? The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. 13

— “Prospective Immigrants, Please Note,” by Adrienne Rich (1962)

After Pharaoh’s decree, Amram, one of the Israelites’ leaders, said to his wife: “Dear, there is only one solution. We mustn’t make any more babies, and we must tell our people to do the same. If no sons are born, no sons will be killed.”

His wife, Yochevet sighed, but his young daughter, Miriam cried, “No! You shall not do that! Pharaoh’s decree kills only the boys— your decree kills the girls as well. We will find another way.”

Amram and Yochevet and the other Israelites, listened to their daughter, and Jewish babies continued to be conceived and born. Miriam was five years old when she prophesied,” My mother is destined to bear a son who will save Israel.”

Ah Moses, now comes Moses…teeny-tiny baby boy, cute, but makes a lot of noise, “Whaa, whaa…” What can she do? If the baby is found, they will all be punished. The baby must be saved!

Miriam said to her brother, “Aaron, we must weave a basket of papyrus reeds,” and so they did. Smart young people. All night long they worked together. In the morning, tired, hopeful, the family took the new baby, kissed him all over, patted his tuchas, and tucked him in his basket.

He was found, and adopted, by Pharaoh’s daughter, who named him Moshe because from the water she drew him forth. She hired

his mother Yochevet as his wet-nurse. Thus he survived to adulthood, and was raised as a Prince of Egypt.

— The Dancing with Miriam Haggadah: A Jewish Women’s Celebration of Passover

THE FIRST WATER IS THE BODY (EXCERPTS) MIRIAM’S CUP (Together, In Turns) The Colorado River is the most endangered river in the United We turn now to the first of our empty cups on the seder table. States—also, it is a part of my body. This is Miriam’s Cup. I carry a river. It is who I am: ’Aha Makav. Water played a vital role in Miriam’s life from the very beginning, This is not metaphor. watching over the infant Moses on the Nile, through her When a Mojave says, Inyech ’Aha Makavch ithuum, we are saying triumphant crossing of the Red Sea. She led the Israelites in our name. We are telling a story of our existence. The river runs song and dance at the shores of the Red Sea, transforming what through the middle of my body. should have been a terrifying escape into a celebration of freedom. The rabbis attribute to Miriam the Israelites’ most ~ precious gift: the well that traveled with them throughout their The Spanish called us, Mojave. Colorado, the name they gave our wandering in the desert. Filled with waters of life, Miriam’s well river because it was silt-red-thick. was a source of strength and renewal to all who drew from it. Natives have been called red forever. I have never met a red When she died, it disappeared with her. native, not even on my reservation, not even at the National — excerpts from the Dancing with Miriam, Velveteen Rabbi’s , and Hillel of Greater Museum of the American Indian, not even at the largest powwow MetroWest New Jersey haggadahs in Parker, Arizona.

I live in the desert along a dammed blue river. The only red Until the 1990s, Miriam’s name had never appeared in a Passover people I’ve seen are white tourists sunburned after being out on haggadah. the water too long. Tonight, we fill Miriam’s cup with water from our own glasses, so ~ that it will never be empty. In doing so, we honor not just Miriam, ’Aha Makav is the true name of our people, given to us by our but all women whose voices have gone unheard across our Creator who loosed the river from the earth and built it, into our histories and communities. living bodies.

Translated into English, ’Aha Makav means the river runs through Pass Miriam’s Cup around the table, and pour water from the middle of our body, the same way it runs through the middle of our land. your own cup into hers. This is a poor translation, like all translations.

In American minds, the logic of this image will lend itself to surrealism or magical realism—

Americans prefer a magical red Indian, or a shaman, or a fake Indian in a red dress, over a real native. Even a real native carrying the dangerous and heavy blues of a river in her body. What threatens white people is often dismissed as myth. I have never been true in America. America is my myth.

A phrase popular or more known to non-natives during the Derrida says, Every text remains in mourning until it is translated. Standing Rock encampment was, Water is the first medicine. It is When Mojaves say the word for tears, we return to our word for true. river, as if our river were flowing from our eyes. A great weeping, Where I come from we cleanse ourselves in the river. Not like a is how you might translate it. Or, a river of grief. bath with soap. I mean: the water makes us strong and able to But who is this translation for? And will they come to my move forward into what is set before us to do with good energy. language’s four-night funeral to grieve what has been lost in my We cannot live good, we cannot live at all, without water. efforts at translation? When they have drunk dry my river will they If we poison and use up our water, how will we cleanse ourselves join the mourning procession across our bleached desert? of these sins? The word for drought is different across many languages and ~ lands. To thirst and to drink is how one knows they are alive, and The ache of thirst, though, translates to all bodies along the same grateful. paths—the tongue and the throat. No matter what language you speak, no matter the color of your skin. To thirst and then not drink is . . . ~ ~ We carry the river, its body of water, in our body. If your builder could place a small red bird in your chest to beat as your heart, is it so hard for you to picture the blue river hurtling ~ inside the slow muscled curves of my long body? Is it too difficult How can I translate—not in words but in belief—that a river is a to believe it is as sacred as a breath or a star or a sidewinder or body, as alive as you or I, that there can be no life without it? your own mother or your lover? ~ If I could convince you, would our brown bodies and our blue A river is a body of water. It has a foot, an elbow, a mouth. It runs. rivers be more loved and less ruined? It lies in a bed. It can make you good. It remembers everything. The Whanganui River in New Zealand now has the same legal ~ rights of a human being. In India, the Ganges and Yamuna rivers now have the same legal status of a human being. Slovenia’s If I was created to hold the Colorado River, to carry its rushing constitution now declares access to clean drinking water to be a inside me, how can I say who I am if the river is gone? national human right. While in the US, we are tear-gassing and What does ’Aha Makav mean if the river is emptied to the rubber-bulleting and kenneling natives who are trying to protect skeleton of its fish and the miniature sand dunes of its dry silten their water from pollution and contamination at Standing Rock in beds? North Dakota. We have yet to discover what the effects of lead- If the river is a ghost, am I? contaminated water will be on the children of Flint, Michigan, who have been drinking it for years. Unsoothable thirst is one type of haunting. ~ ~

We think of our bodies as being all that we are: I am my body. This THE EXODUS thinking helps us disrespect water, air, land, one another. But water is not external from our body, our self. (Together, In Turns) My Elder says: Cut off your ear, and you will live. Cut off your hand, And now, we return to our story… you will live. Cut off your leg, you can still live. Cut off our water: we Although a child of privilege, as Moses grew he became aware of will not live more than a week. the slaves who worked in the brickyards of his father, the Pharaoh. The water we drink, like the air we breathe, is not a part of our When he saw an overseer mistreat a slave, he struck the overseer body but is our body. What we do to one—to the body, to the and killed him. Fearing retribution, he set out across the desert water—we do to the other. alone. ~ Many years, Moses stayed away. He married Zipporah and had Toni Morrison writes, All water has a perfect memory and is forever children. He tended flocks in the wilderness. Life across the River trying to get back to where it was. Back to the body of earth, of Jordan was good, and yet he never forgot Egypt and the people flesh, back to the mouth, the throat, back to the womb, back to enslaved there under Pharaoh. the heart, to its blood, back to our grief, back back back to when One day, while grazing his flock and gazing out on the vastness of we were more than we have lately become. the desert, he envisioned a bush that burned and burned and did Will we soon remember from where we’ve come? The water. not burn up. And he heard a voice, saying to him what he And once remembered, will we return to that first water, and in knew to be true—that the people in his memories were his own doing so return to ourselves, to each other, better and cleaner? people. That he should return to them. And that, together, they would find a way to be free. Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?

— Natalie Diaz, 2017 Please direct your attention to “Passover: A Rhapsody” https://youtu.be/BRWNrk7FxG4

THE TEN PLAGUES (Together, In Turns) We turn now to the shank bone on our seder plate, which represents the special lamb sacrifice made in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem for the Passover holiday. It is called the pesach, from the Hebrew word meaning “to pass over,” because God passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt when visiting plagues upon our oppressors. The idea of justice embodied in our story is direct and unquestioned—punishment for punishment, murdered children for murdered children, suffering for suffering. The people of Egypt suffered because of their own leader, who is in part set-up by an angry God eager to demonstrate his own superiority. In our story, all of this was necessary for freedom. Jews have been troubled by this for generations and generations, and so, before we drink to our liberation, we mark how the suffering diminishes our joy, by taking a drop of wine out of our cup for each of the ten plagues visited on the people of Egypt. We will not partake of our seder feast until we acknowledge that our freedom was bought with the suffering of others. So that the next sea-opening is not also a drowning; So that our singing is never again their wailing. So that our freedom leaves no one orphaned, childless, gasping for air. — The Love and Justice in Times of War haggadah

With the naming of each plague, dip your finger into your glass, and dot your plate, until all ten dots circle its rim. (You can also use your spoon, if you prefer.)

Dayeinu (Together, In Turns) The name of this beautiful prayer is Dayenu, which means “it would have sufficed” or “we would have been satisfied.” Perhaps “grateful” would be a better translation. Dayenu is the song of our gratitude. A Jew defines himself by his capacity for gratitude. A Jewish philosopher was once asked, “What is the opposite of nihilism?” And he said, “Dayenu,” the ability to be thankful for what we have received, for what we are. The first prayer a Jew is expected to recite upon waking up expresses his gratitude for being alive. This holds for all generations, and surely for ours. For each of us, every day should be an act of grace, every hour a miraculous offering. — Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon by Elie Wiesel, by Elie Wiesel

We say “Dayeinu” as one.

where some people work two and three jobs to feed their children, and others don’t even have a single, poorly paid job? Do you live in a community in which the rich are fabulously rich, and Koreich the poor humiliated and desperate? Do you live among people who worship the golden calves of obsessive acquisitiveness, (Seder Leader) among people whose children are blessed by material We have now told the story of Passover. . . but wait! We’re not abundance and cursed by spiritual impoverishment? Do you live quite done. There are still some symbols on our seder plate we in a place in which some people are more equal than others? In haven’t talked about yet. America, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is nearly twice as high as it is for whites. Black people are five times as First. the maror, the bitter herbs which represent the bitterness of likely to be incarcerated as whites. Infant mortality in the black oppression. As we taste it on our tongues, we acknowledge that community is twice as high as it is among whites. no one people have a monopoly on pain and oppression. The only America is a golden land, absolutely, and for Jews, it has been an way to liberation is to educate ourselves about the struggles of ark of refuge. But it has not yet fulfilled its promise. The same is the past – and to learn that our pain is ultimately inseparable from true for that other Promised Land. Jewish citizens of Israel have the oppression experienced by all peoples. median household incomes almost double that of Arab citizens and an infant mortality rate less than half that of Arabs. Israel Pass the maror, and spread it on some matzah!. represents the greatest miracle in Jewish life in two thousand years—and yet its promise is also unfulfilled. Traditionally, this is the point in the seder when we are reminded: The seder marks the flight from the humiliation of slavery to the In every generation, one must see oneself as if one had personally grandeur of freedom, but not everyone has come on this journey. experienced the Exodus from Egypt. Now, we add sweetness to our Some might say it is impossible to love the stranger as much as sorrow, by combining the maror with the charoset, placed we love our own kin—but aren’t we still commanded to bring between two pieces of matzah: the symbol of freedom. everyone out of Egypt? — excerpts from the Jewish Voice for Peace and The Wandering is Over haggadahs — Jeffrey Goldberg, in The New American Haggadah Pass the charoset, and add it to your matzah and maror. (Together, As One) With a blessing, we lift our wine, our symbol of liberation: Let us But who can say we’ve actually left? “Wherever you live, it is dedicate ourselves to securing freedom from oppression for all probably Egypt,” Michael Walzer wrote.3 Do you live in a place people.

Drink the second cup of wine!

3 “First, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt; second, that there is a better place, through the wilderness. There is no way to get from here to there except by joining a world more attractive, a promised land; and third, that the only way to the land is together and marching“. — Michael Walzer, Exodus and Revolution (1985)

Shulchan Oreich IT’S TIME TO EAT!

Return to your seats with the Afikoman.

(Together, In Turns) Two years ago, on April 29th, 2016, the Tucson chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace held a Passover seder, in Ambos Nogales, on both sides of the border. Afterwards, some of the participants Tzafun recorded their reflections: As it had been for generations, International Street/Calle FINDING THE HIDDEN AFIKOMAN Internacional, became one broad boulevard again for a few hours on Friday. 45 people from human rights groups across the region sat (Seder Leader) at long tables opposite one another celebrating a latter-day border version of the Passover story. The street, reminiscent of today’s Earlier, during Yachatz, we hid a piece of matzah called the Bethlehem and neighborhoods of Jerusalem, is now an extended Afikoman. The Seder cannot officially end until we have found it, vacant stretch of dirt strewn with bits of garbage and divided by a the bread of our liberation, and everyone has had a taste. In this 25-foot wall with houses and gardens on either side. Border Patrol way, the afikoman will help us conclude the ritual and become officers, surveillance towers in the distance, stood guard at the top whole again. of a hill on the US side and occasionally rumbled by in their landrovers and 4x4s. The wall construction of heavy rusted raw steel slats allowed us to view one another during the ceremony. But we Ready…Set…Go! Find the Afikoman! had been forbidden in a negotiated agreement with US Customs and Border Protection from actually passing any items through the slats. “Bienvenidos a la frontera,” I said. “Welcome to the border; bruchim habayim l’gevool.” Because in some ways we did feel we were standing at the border not only of the US and Mexico, but also of Israel and Palestine. Driving the hour and fifteen minutes down from Tucson, conversation in my vehicle turned to the Elbit Systems surveillance towers that were out of sight, this most sophisticated border technology developed in Israel and then implemented here.

Response from the 32 attendees, mostly Christian or non-affiliated as well as several Jews and at least one converso, at our tables was often intense and emotional. Parallels with the present situation of the emptying out of villages and regions in Mexico and the northern triangle of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and the flight and

liberation of the Jews from slavery in the Exodus story were easily drawn. Most participants had not known of the seder ritual, though all knew of the Last Supper, which we presented as partial context. All resonated greatly with the Haggadah remonstrations to remember that “we were all once slaves in Egypt” and that we are bound to repeat the story from one generation to the other. Our Haggadah’s message that “No one is truly free if others are not also free?/Nadie está verdaderamente libre si otros no están tambien libres” brought continuous vigorous affirmation. The border wall itself and border militarization (both here in the US/Mexico borderlands and in Israel/Palestine) feel like a plague that so many must learn to live with and to resist, in order to live. The wall in some ways felt overpowering, but knowing that compassion and speaking truth to power can bring down walls, it also felt like something temporary that will eventually come down when enough join us in peaceful, nonviolent struggle. I look forward to when you can join us and we may all sit at one big table, no walls between us.

— Reflections on JVP-Tucson’s Cross-Border Bilingual Solidarity Seder (2016)

Reunite the middle matzah.

(Together, As One)

No more walls! No más muros!

Eat the afikoman!

Ha’Carah Bareich THE CONSCIOUS RECOGNITION OF GRACE THOSE NOT COMPLETELY SEEN Fill the cups with wine a third time.

(Together, In Turns) ELIJAH’S CUP (Together, In Turns) THANKS It is tradition to pour a cup for the Hebrew prophet Elijah, whose Listen roots also lie in resistance. For millennia, Jews have opened the with the night falling we are saying thank you door for him and offered him wine, inviting him to join their seders, we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings hoping that he would bring with him a messiah to save the world. we are running out of the glass rooms Fill Elijah’s cup with wine, and open the door. with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you . . .

But the tasks of saving the world—once ascribed to prophets, — W.S. Merwin, 1926 messiahs and gods—must be taken up by us mere mortals, by common people with shared goals. Working together for progressive change, we can bring about the improvement of the Tonight, we hold fast to the belief that people and our actions world, tikkun olam—for justice and for peace, we can and we can change the world. We hold close the stories of resistance, must. from Ferguson to Sacramento, Cabeza Prieta to Altar, from Warsaw to Nablus. People and communities are building and In keeping with this vision of a more just and peaceful world, we changing and creating as acts of resistance in the struggle against asked each of you to bring your own symbol to add to the seder oppression. Let us drink the third cup of wine to them. table. These objects, texts, or memories can help us to shine a light on those “not completely seen” – and by revealing them, — The Love and Justice in Times of War haggadah

bring us closer to the world we all are waiting for, and working towards. (Together, As One) With a blessing, we raise our glasses, our symbol of resistance:

We now each share our symbol. to those who fight for freedom and life!

Who would like to go first? Drink the third cup of wine! 24

Praise those who tear down walls and climb fences. Praise Letters from Prison. Praise those who say yes. Praise the bound notebook and what is within. Praise Legal Aid attorneys. Praise kitchen-table conspiracies. Hallel Praise insomnia. Praise our hunger. Praise days SONGS OF PRAISE we are the bread. Praise farmers’ markets.

Praise Hannah Senesh, and quantum physics. Praise Schrödinger and his cat. Praise jumping in. Fill the cups with wine a fourth time. Praise talking snakes. Praise history & run-on sentences. Praise what are the odds? Praise purposeful wandering. Praise the best minds of any generation. Praise Nat Turner. (Together, In Turns) Praise Emma Gonzales. Praise enough is enough. Praise Walt Whitman and the self. Praise the body’s PRAISE THE CONTRARY AND ITS DEFENDERS wild intelligence. Praise ACT UP and Vagina Monologues. Praise rising up. Praise unlawful assembly. Praise getting satisfaction. Praise Gertrude Stein. Praise the road of excess and the palace of wisdom. Praise cross-dressing. Praise untouchables, Praise glass houses. Praise the hand that cradles the stone. partisans and riffraff. Praise slackers. Praise those Praise refusal of obedience. Praise the young on Raamses Street. who talk back. Praise sympathy for the devil. Praise Galileo. Praise acceleration. Praise the oldest profession. Praise mothers of the disappeared. Praise bombshells and en masse. Praise mothers of the found. Praise mothers not yet mothers. Praise sit-down strikes. Praise outside agitators. Praise not looking away. Praise realists and Cubists. Praise Red Emma. Praise her pistol and praise her restraint. Praise prohibitionists & remorse. Praise hitting your head Praise living your life. Praise Joan of Arc. against the wall. Praise giving peace a chance. Praise wayward daughters. Praise their wayward sons. Praise conspiracies. Praise free elections. Praise the power of indulgence. Praise Selma, Alabama and early voting. Praise mutiny. Praise Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. Praise the nail Praise backyard whiskey and those who cook with ﬁre. and the printing press. Praise the First Amendment. Praise Ruth Bader Ginsburg . Praise her admirers. Praise free verse. Praise yellow sunﬂowers. Praise Kahlo and Kollwitz and Streisand. Praise Earhardt. Praise red wheelbarrows and transcendental leanings. Praise those who remember what they are told to forget. Praise illicit beauty. Praise the poets of Guantanamo. Praise the poets of Aleppo. Praise the noisy streets.

Praise agnostics. Praise what we are not supposed to praise. Praise the electrical storm and the still small voice. Zayit Praise all the proverbs of hell. Praise those who see it coming. Praise those who do it anyway. BLESSING FOR THE OLIVE Praise whatever happens next.

(Together, In Turns) (Together, As One) JERUSALEM L’chaim! On a roof in the Old City Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight: The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy, Drink the fourth cup of wine! The towel of a man who is my enemy,

To wipe off the sweat of his brow.

In the sky of the Old City A kite. At the other end of the string, A child I can’t see Because of the wall.

We have put up many flags, They have put up many flags. To make us think that they’re happy. To make them think that we’re happy.

— Yehuda Amichai, 1963 (translator unknown)

Pass and eat the olives.

(Together, In Turns) The olive tree is one of the first plants mentioned in the Torah and Nirtzah remains among the oldest species in Israel/Palestine. It is a universal and ancient symbol of hope and peace—and, sadly and more recently, of the destruction of Palestinian olive trees by CONCLUSION Israeli settlers and the Israeli army. An olive on our seder plate (Seder Leader) reminds us to ask, as Rabbi Brant Rosen, co-chair of the Jewish Here concludes the Passover seder, in accordance with its rules, Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council writes, “How will we, as Jews, all its laws and dictums. We have drunk the wine, and tasted the bear witness to the unjust actions committed in our name? Will special foods. We have read and talked and sung. these olives inspire us to be bearers of peace and hope for Palestinians — and for all who are oppressed?” Just as we were fortunate enough to make this seder, so may we be fortunate enough to do it again. And we are not alone in asking. Traditionally, this is when we would say: In the 1st century BCE, Hillel the Elder asked three central questions to guide Jewish practice: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” (Together, As One) His prompts resonate to this day, encouraging us to act Next year in Jerusalem! immediately and forcefully for others as we would for ourselves. Many Jewish organizations claim that the Jewish people are supposed to feel an unwavering connection to Israel; that Israel is (Together, In Turns) homeland to all Jews and no one else; and that due to increasing The Haggadah saves the most demanding call for this final anti-Semitism throughout the world, we ought to champion the moment. “Next year in Jerusalem,” we declare, sometimes State of Israel regardless of its policies. Yet, Israel’s illegal military nervously, sometimes self-consciously, often ambivalently. Think occupation of Palestinian territory is wholly unjustifiable. A moral about it: We can achieve in less than a day what it took our catastrophe, it desecrates Jewish principles and creates a daily ancestors forty years to do—move to Israel and become citizens nightmare for Palestinians, from home demolitions to endless of a Jewish state. checkpoints to the imprisonment of children like Ahed Tamimi. This call was, for most of the Passovers of Jewish history, a This Passover, we say: Enough. We cannot spend another year messianic aspiration; Jerusalem was an unachievable goal. Things remembering our biblical Exodus without confronting the Israeli have changed. Zionism has made it possible for us to do what Occupation that oppresses so many today. We must extend our Moses could not. community’s tradition of fighting for liberation and social justice to And yet: Does “Next year in Jerusalem” mean that we are actually a commitment to ending the Occupation and holding our supposed to make aliyah, tomorrow? The comfortable answer is: institutions accountable for their reprehensible actions or No, absolutely not. The uncomfortable answer is: Yes. shameful inaction. Together, we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors — courageous leaders who, even under the most trying Imagine having the ability to commune with your distant and circumstances, summoned the strength to speak truth to power. downtrodden ancestors, in their scattered shtetls and ghettos. We must talk honestly about the plight of Palestinians. In order to truly liberate ourselves and build a thriving, joyous Jewish community, we must actively fight to liberate all peoples. — Abby Saul and Marissa Cohen, Swarthmore students, 2018 27

woman Martziano, Karl

From

Marx,

right to left:

from the Sarajevo Haggadah

Jacob Israël de Haan,

You happily inform them that yes, for the first time since the Leslie Feinberg,

Romans ethnically cleansed Israel, a Jewish state exists.

They are overwhelmed with joy, and ask: “What is like to live Juliano Mer Khamis, Shulamit

there?”

And you answer, “Well, I wouldn’t actually know.” Theodore Bikel,

[. . .]

But “Next year in Jerusalem” also has a spiritual meaning. The Adrienne Rich,

word itself, Jerusalem, comes from the same root as “shalom”

which is usually translated as “peace” but actually means

“wholeness.” Goldman,Emma

Saul Alinsky,

Jerusalem is the symbol of peace and wholeness, the destination Aloni,

of the Messiah, the holiest place on earth, the purest expression

of the profound Jewish belief that the world will one day be a Alexander Ber

better place.

Pauline Ronit Elkabetz,

It is this idea of Jerusalem for which we reach.

When we reach it—and we will, for that is the core Jewish belief— Newman, there will be no more need for seders and haggadot: We will live kman,

in a world in which the poor are fed and sheltered and the sick

Daniel Boyarin, Reuven

healed; in which the Jews are accepted as a free people; in which Allen Ginsberg,

no one is persecuted or enslaved.

Until that day arrives, we will continue to gather around the Abergel,

Passover table, to remind ourselves, and each other, of the work

Judith Butler,

we must do. Baruch Spinoza,

Hannah So, what are you going to do?

— Jeffrey Goldberg, in The New American Haggadah (2016)

Arendt,

Matilda Robbins,

Tali Fahima,

Sabato Morais,

Abbie

Rosa Luxemberg,

Amira Hass,

Fin Hoffman,

Talal Assad, Saadia