In the News  ||  Media Releases  ||  Events  ||  Jewish Life & Celebrations  ||  Newsletter

Jewish Life & Celebrations

Passover

The Liberated Haggadah: A Passover Celebration for Cultural, Secular and Humanistic Jews

To purchase a copy of The Liberated Haggadah, click here.


The Passover haggadah, excerpts of which appear below, was created by Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer and published by the Center for Cultural Judaism.

Welcome!

To read about The Liberated Haggadah, click here.

Welcome to our Passover Seder! Welcome to our Celebration of Life!

We are gathered this evening to celebrate and commemorate the defining legend of our people and our Jewish culture: the Exodus from Egypt and our liberation from slavery.

For generations and generations, our ancestors have gathered to recite this sage. Over time, what began probably as just a liturgical recitation developed into an elaborate banquet, styled on a Roman symposium, with a prescribed order – in Hebrew, seder – of rituals and readings. As this event became more elaborate, a special guidebook – known as the haggadah, or “retelling” – was developed to lead people through the re-enactment of this saga.

In Every Generation

Year in and year out, we have told our story. Why the repetition? Because each generation must discover freedom anew. Even if we were venerable sages and full of wisdom it would still be incumbent upon us to recount the Exodus from Egypt and the on-going saga and journey of our people. Every generation that inherits the victories of the past will not enjoy them unless it strives to understand, appreciate and cherish these deeds as though they themselves had fought for them.

In each generation, everyone must think of himself or herself as having personally left Egypt.

Contemporary Challenge

This story has enthralled the Jewish people for centuries and was embraced by Jewish culture collectively as our foundational event.

Why has it been so compelling? And why do we continue to cling to it even in the face of evidence to the contrary?

We tell the story because it is the first ever in recorded history to celebrate the idea that slaves could become free people.

We tell the story because it has inspired us in our darkest moments to hope for freedom renewed.

We tell the story because it teaches us to have compassion for all those who are still not free – because “we, too, once were slaves in Egypt.”

The Victory of Life

Neither Pharaoh nor Caesar nor Hitler could destroy our will to survive. The memories of destruction are matched by the joy of liberation and the experience of a good world.

We have endured slavery and humiliation. We have also enjoyed freedom and security. Our ancestors traveled the world in search of safety and liberty. We are here today because our ancestors never lost their hope.

Long ago, at this season, a people - our people - set out on a journey. Now, at this table, we, too, one human family, join that journey. We, too, shall go forth from degradation to joy.

Kiddush – The First Cup of Wine
The Cup of Freedom

Thousands of years ago, according to the legend of our people, our ancestors were slaves in the land of Egypt. In bitterness and in hardship they struggled to please their masters and win the precious opportunity of mere survival. Many died from the heat of work; others perished from the cold of despair.

The wine of Passover is the wine of joy, the wine of love, the wine of celebration, the wine of freedom:

Freedom from bondage and freedom from oppression
Freedom from hunger and freedom from want
Freedom from hatred and freedom from fear
Freedom to think and freedom to speak
Freedom to teach and freedom to learn
Freedom to love and freedom to share
Freedom to hope and freedom to rejoice
Soon, now, in our days, and forever.

Maggid – The Short Version

In the beginning, our ancestors came from a place called Aramea. From there they traveled to the land of Canaan and they made that new land their home.

Then there came a time of famine and some of our ancestors traveled to Egypt in search of food. The king of Egypt was called Pharaoh and he welcomed our ancestors, known as Hebrews, and let them share in his prosperity.

Generations passed and a new Pharaoh rose to power who was cruel to the Hebrews and enslaved them. He feared that the Hebrews would rise up against him. His advisers prophesied that the Hebrews’ future leader might not even be born yet. So Pharaoh decreed that all the Hebrew baby boys be drowned immediately although they were harmless and innocent.

Now this greatly terrified the Hebrews, and many decided to stop having children altogether. But along came a child named Miriam, who challenged her parents and said, “Pharaoh would kill only your sons, but you would sacrifice your daughters as well!?” Her parents heeded her words. Soon they gave birth to a baby boy, and, according to legend, they hid him in a basket in the bulrushes beside the river Nile to protect him from Pharaoh’s guards.

Pharaoh’s daughter found the Hebrew baby and defied her father’s order to have him drowned. She rescued him instead and said, “You will be my son,” and she gave him the name Moses which means "drawn out of the waters.”

Moses was accepted as a member of the royal family, but when he went among the Hebrews he felt strangely at home. Then the time came when Moses was ready to challenge Pharaoh. He demanded that Pharaoh set the Hebrews free. But Pharaoh refused, and his rule became even harsher. Moses tried diplomacy. Then he tried magic. Then he tried plagues. This seemed to work! But then Pharaoh hardened his heart and took back his permission to let the Hebrew people go.

Under the cover of darkness, Moses and his sister Miriam led the Hebrews out of Egypt and our people escaped to freedom. Legend tells us that they left in such haste that they didn’t have time for their bread to rise, which is why they ate unleavened bread in its place.

The Journey Continues

Our ancestors set down their roots in ancient Canaan, but after some time, enemies rose up and conquered them. Our people were then dispersed to many lands – to Babylonia and Assryria, to the Roman Empire and Greece, and later to Spain, Italy, and France, to Russia, Germany and Poland, to nations everywhere.

Some of our relatives eventually journeyed back to the land of Israel to establish a new state on that land. What started as a vision of dreamers became a reality of practical men and women who built a new nation.

Some of our forebears dreamt of freedom in America. They came to flee religious discrimination, political persecution, oppression, and economic hardship, from lands where the rulers and laws were often cruel and hateful to the Jews.

They came as refugees and survivors of the Holocaust. They have come, more recently, from the lands of the former Soviet Union to seek new beginnings and new opportunities for themselves and their families.

Never before in the history of our people had so many people traveled so far to find their liberty. Because of their foresight, we are here tonight to celebrate our freedom in a free land. Because of their determination, Passover celebrates their will to live.

One World – One People

The fate of every Jew is bound up with the fate of the Jewish people. And the destiny of the Jewish people cannot be separated from the destiny of all humanity. We cannot be fully Jewish unless we recognize that we are also fully human.

According to our legend, when Pharaoh prevented our ancestors from leaving Egypt freely he brought plagues on his land with his obstinate, heavy heart. We do not rejoice, however, over his downfall and defeat. We cannot be glad when any person needlessly suffers, even our enemies who would seek to destroy us. Even as we celebrate our freedom from slavery, we mourn the death of the innocent Egyptians and express sorrow over their destruction.

We are, after all, a world people. We live in many lands among many nations. Modernity has brought enormous comfort, convenience, and wealth – for many. But millions more live in poverty. They are afflicted with disease and malnutrition. They are victims of oppressive regimes and uncertain futures.

A multitude of social problems continues to plague the world. Whether close at home or in far-off lands, we all share in their effects and in the responsibility to overcome them.

We spill wine from our cups at the mention of each of these Contemporary Afflictions. We cannot allow ourselves to drink a full measure since our own lives are sobered by these ills, which darken our lives and diminish our joy:

AIDS
Drugs
Hunger
Illiteracy
Pollution
Poverty
Racism
Terrorism
Violence
War

Kiddush – The Second Cup of Wine
The Cup of Compassion

No one of us can survive alone. We must all learn to live together. Humanity is born of shared need and shared danger.

Passover celebrates freedom, the will to live, and the solidarity and strength of community.

(Drink the second cup of wine.)

Back to Passover

Back to Jewish Life & Celebrations