LET MY PEOPLE GO!
A short play for the seder
CAST: NARRATOR, JOSEPH, BENJAMIN, PHAROAH, ADVISOR, HEBREW 1, HEBREW 2, HEBREW 3, BOSS, BAT PHAROAH, MOSES, GOD, AARON (13 parts)
NARRATOR: Our story begins in the land of Egypt where Joseph, once a prisoner, is now the Pharaoh’s chief advisor.
JOSEPH: So how are things back in Israel?
BENJAMIN: Oy! Terrible. Our gardens and crops are dying. There is no rain this year. That is why we had to come down to Egypt!
JOSEPH: Well, don’t worry..life in Egypt is fantastic. Bongs in every house, no drinking age, ferarri's in the driveway, This is the most powerful nation on the planet!
BENJAMIN: Did you have rain this year? Are the gardens and crops doing well?
JOSEPH: We don’t have to worry about that. I’ve stored away a shit ton of food in giant warehouses. The Pharaoh will be able to feed the people for three years at least, even if we get no rain.
BENJAMIN: What does the Pharaoh think of us Hebrews?
JOSEPH: He loves me! And honestly who wouldn't lol. He welcomes the Hebrews into his land. Bring the entire family, it's a party.
Narrator: The Hebrews all moved to Egypt and had many children and lived a successful life. But after many years, after Joseph and his brothers had died, a new Pharaoh rose to power.
PHAROAH: Advisor, bring me the latest census report. I want to know all the people who I rule over!
ADVISOR: Yes, you’re Royal Highness. I have the numbers here.
PHAROAH: Let’s see..Nubians, Midians, yes, very good. Ooff...are there really that many Hebrews?
ADVISOR: Oh yes, your highness. Huge population growth. They're, um, getting busy. They are very strong workers.
PHAROAH: Do you think that might be a danger? Perhaps they will challenge my rule. What if they start asking to get their needs met?! You know how these workers are always complaining about the size of the rocks for the new Pyramids. I am worried that they will use their strength in numbers to rise up against me!
ADVISOR: Yes, you are right, we must do something to break their spirits.
PHAROAH: First, let us begin with something small. We’ll get them to make more bricks each day. If that doesn’t work, we’ll eliminate the fifteen-minute breaks. If that doesn’t break them, them I'll use harder measures and put them on HR3. If we can traumatize them, they'll be in perpetuating patterns that they will not be able to escape!
Narrator: The Hebrew workers struggled to keep up with Pharaoh’s demands.
HEBREW 1: My hands are killing me. And my back, oy! I can’t take this pace.
HEBREW 2: We can make a thousand bricks a day—but two thousand? Bruh. No team can work that hard! We’ll fall over!
HEBREW 3: Get back to work, the boss is coming!
BOSS: Efficiency, people! We have got to make 900 more bricks by sundown! Come on, let’s work faster!
HEBREW 1: We are working as fast as we can, boss.
BOSS: Listen, smart aleck, I’ve got a lot of pressure on my shoulders. If Pharaoh doesn’t get his bricks, I’m out of a job. I got a family to feed, too, you know. So get back down in the pit and start working!
HEBREW 2: We haven’t had a break all day!
BOSS: And you are not going to get one! Work!
HEBREW 3: You know what, boss; you have become a real pain in the ass!
BOSS: What’d you say?
HEBREW 3: You heard me.
[The BOSS walks over and pushes Hebrew 3 to the ground]
BOSS: Now get back to work before I get really angry!
Narrator: Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted a young Hebrew child. The child, Moses, was raised with the finest Egypt had to offer.
BAT PHAROAH: Here, sweetheart, raid the life lab snack drawer before your creative accelorator.
MOSES: I’m so excited about the cube this evening.
BAT PHAROAH: Your new robe looks lovely, dear. I just hope that the Pyramid is finished. Your grandfather has the workers working double time just to get the place finished before the great assembly.
MOSES: I heard that the Hebrews were complaining.
BAT PHAROAH: Complaining? Don’t worry about that. We take care of the needs of all our workers, dear. They are fed, given homes, and we give them a new pair of shoes each year. We are very generous. The only problem is that there are simply too many Hebrews. For that reason, we are cutting down their number. I know that it is sad that we have to kill off their baby boys, but we are really doing it for their own good.
MOSES: I know so little about the world. Someday I’d like to go out of the palace and see how they live.
BAT PHAROAH: They are not clean like us, dear. Especially the Hebrews. They throw garbage on the streets, they have horns growing out of their heads, and they run the media!
Narrator: One day Moses decides to sneak out of the palace, and see for himself the plight of the Hebrews.
HEBREW 1: I can’t work, today, I’m sick! And I hurt my arm yesterday lifting stones!
BOSS: I don’t want to hear excuses. This pyramid has got to be finished by Thursday! Today is Wednesday! So get moving!
HEBREW 1: I can’t work. Please, listen to me, have some compassion!
HEBREW 2: Give him a break, boss!
BOSS: Shut up!
HEBREW 3: Don’t get involved!
HEBREW 2: I’m tired of this, boss! My cousin there is hurt. He can’t work today. And he’s not working. So go tell Pharaoh that he’ll have to hire some more workers or this isn’t getting done!
BOSS: Shut up!
[Boss pushes Hebrew 2 to the ground.]
HEBREW 1: Stop it!
BOSS: I’m going to hurt you bad, you whiny Hebrew!
HEBREW 3: Stop! One of Pharaoh’s princes is coming!
MOSES: What is happening?
BOSS: I am going to give this man the beating he deserves, your honor! Watch this!
MOSES: No!
[Moses hits the Boss, who falls to the ground]
HEBREW 3: Oh no! What did you do to the boss? We’ll be blamed for this! We’ll be put on HR!
MOSES: What have I done? What have I done?
Narrator: Moses ran away to wilderness therapy where he is taken in by his therapist Yitro, and marries one of Yitro’s other clients Zipporah. One day, as Moses is taking care of yitro’s sheep, he stumbles across a burning bush.
GOD: Moses, Moses!
MOSES: Who is that? What is going on? What is happening?
GOD: It is me, the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
MOSES: AH A BURNING BUSH! Maybe i overdid it on the DMT microdose this morning.
GOD: You must go back to Egypt and stand up to Pharaoh! Then you will lead the people back to their homeland!
MOSES: Dude how will I do that? The people do not know me! I have no power now that I have run away!
GOD: I will be with you. Go to your sister, Miriam, and brother, Aaron, and stand up to Pharaoh!
Narrator: Moses returns to Egypt, with his wife and son, Gershom. Aaron and Moses approach Pharaoh.
PHAROAH: What do you want?
AARON: Hey uh Pharoah ummmmm... it's been fun but we're gonna bounce. We need to go outside of the city so that we can pray to God in our own way. And not to mention you have enslaved us uhhhh so we're gonna leave now.
PHAROAH: Why can’t you wait for the festival of the pyramids? Then your people will have a chance to celebrate with everyone.
MOSES: We do not wish to pray to your gods. We have one God, who is mightier than all of your gods.
PHAROAH: You must be joking. The gods have made Egypt a great nation. What has your God done for you?
MOSES: You’ll see what our God can do! And then you’ll give in to our demands!
PHAROAH: Don’t count on it, Hebrew!
Narrator: Pharaoh was a stubborn man. Even after plagues of blood, frogs, lice, disease, hail, and darkness, he would not let the Hebrews take a day off. It wasn’t until a disease struck and killed the first born of every Egyptian, that the Pharaoh changed his mind.
PHAROAH: Don’t you understand what is happening?
ADVISOR: No, your highness, I don’t know why our gods are not protecting us.
PHAROAH: Everything we did to the Hebrews is now happening to us!!!
ADVISOR: Maybe their God is powerful!
PHAROAH: Tell the police that are surrounding their neighborhood to let them go.
Narrator: That night, Moses, spoke to the people.
MOSES: Put on your sandals, we will not have time to bake the bread for tomorrow! Tonight we will leave Egypt, and set out for a new land! Our children, and our children’s children will remember this night! They will tell the story of how we stood up to Pharaoh, and how God helped us to be free!
AARON: Let all who are hungry come and eat!
Narrator: And thus ends our little play
From Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown: Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was asked, "what do we most need to do to save our world?" His questionnaire is probably expected him to identify the best strategies to pursue, but Thich Nhat Hanh answer was this: "we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the earth crying."
When we are vulnerable, we do not hide our suffering. We let it be expressed, so that it can move and be alchemized.
At this point in the seder, we take the parsley and dip it into salt water so that we can remember the taste of the tears of the Hebrews in slavery. Tonight, as we experience our liberation, we do not avoid the tears. We allow ourselves to feel the pain of slavery as well as the exhilaration of redemption.
We say the blessing together:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree ha-adama.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who creates the fruits of the earth.
We now must ask ourselves, how does Egypt feel? To explore this, we are borrowing from a method from Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, from a practice called "Open Sentences on Honoring our Pain." Answer the prompt to the person next to you: When I see what's happening in our world, what breaks my heart is…
Our first cup of "wine" will be in the world of Atzilut. This is the world of emanation. What is emanating? The light of the infinite/without end- ha'or ein sof. It is the nothingness and everythingness of everything that ever is, was, or will be, all existing simultaneously. This is where we identify as divine energy, and the ego is completely dissolved; the "you" that you think you are disappears completely, and our self-identity vanishes. Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank describes Atzilut as "beyond identifying as a separate self, perform and channel as the light of God would. You are being completely your own Being, spontaneous and daring, but without self-consciousness; without comparing; and without neediness."
In spiritual circles, this state of being has been used to erase the pain of diverse groups. We will not do that tonight. We need to experience this state so that we can feel the truth of the all-pervasiveness of divinity. In the words of the Ba'al Shem Tov, "God's glory fills the whole Earth." When we sit mindfully in that truth of divinity being in every place, as we travel down thought each world into the kingdom, we can better see the divinity in diversity and care more authentically about collective liberation.
KIDDUSH
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine.
SHEHECHEYANU
The shehecheyanu is the blessing whenever doing something for the first time that year. Shehecheyanu means "we are alive". It is a statement of recognizing time and appreciating the current moment, expressing gratitude to a higher power for new and unusual experiences or possessions.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam,
she-hechiyanu v’key’manu v’higiyanu lazman hazeh.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who has kept us alive,
raised us up, and brought us to this happy moment.
DRINK THE FIRST GLASS
This year, we need to be liberated from something, and Passover comes to teach us that now is the time. We need a new beginning. So, what is our new beginning this year? What is the change we need to make in the rhythm of our lives that will allow us to be liberated from the enslavements that we are currently in? For some of us, it is getting out of jail, for others, it is getting sober, yet for most of us, we have to look deeper inside of ourselves to see how our souls are still imprisoned. Most of us are unable to hear the call of liberation because we believe the lies of our intellects and our emotions, that there is nothing wrong with us that _______ would not fix. Passover comes to remind us that many of our enslavements are still unknown to us. In the story of our people, we had to be forced to see our enslavement by Pharaoh, when he made us get our own straw and still make the same number of bricks. All of us have to be forced to see our enslavements. The question for us is: Are we willing to leave our Egypt? Are we willing to move without a known destination?
Most of us only go on journeys when we know the destination. This journey of liberation and to freedom has no exact road map. We will never get “there” because as soon as we think that we have achieved our place, we will lose it. Human nature is to rest on our laurels, finding our place in the world is only the beginning. The hard part is growing and maintaining our place and our unique work in our corner of the world. In order to “See ourselves as if we came out of Egypt and add to the story,” as the Haggadah tells us to do, we have to first write our own story.
Now, recall what was possible for you when you stepped outside of your narrow place, what we talked about during the Marror and Korech. What is the life script that you were created to live? What is your TRUE script? Let's take a moment of silence, then we will enter our final share of the night.
Passover is the time that makes us look at our lives and see if we are living the lives that are truly ours, the life that makes us add our own unique part to the repair of the world, the life that makes our corner of the world a little better in the way that only we are uniquely qualified to do. Only by owning and telling our TRUE stories can we truly experience redemption and liberation.
- Adapted from “A Haggaddah For Spiritual Recovery”, Beit T’Shuvah
It is true that the Egyptians placed back-breaking labor upon us, but our tradition reveals that there is more to the story. Our Sages tell us that originally Pharaoh made a call for volunteers to join in a public project of city building. In other words, the Jewish people were not forced to show up at first. They responded voluntarily. However, when they wanted to leave, the taskmaster suddenly appeared and told them that they could not. This pattern is not unfamiliar to us. Many of us can recall a time when our drug of choice was something we could "take or leave" as we pleased. Or that the pain of the world just "isn't a big deal." However, there came a day when we wanted to stop using recreational substances, or wanted to end the pain of the world, and realized that there was so little that our hands could do alone. At this point, only dedication to ourselves in our community could restore the power of transformation.
What was, if any, the moment that you realized you were a slave to something? That your participation was no longer voluntary?
The Haggadah tells us that the Egyptians enslaved the Jews “with crushing labor.” What was uniquely crushing about the labor the Jews were forced to engage in? Our tradition tells us that the cities the Jewish people were forced to build were built upon swampland. Every day they would toil their utmost, and the next morning they would return to the worksite only to find that everything that they had built the previous had sunk into the ground. Therefore, what was so crushing was not the degree of hard work but its inherent pointlessness. No matter how hard they worked, their work was ultimately unproductive. For many, who work towards social change, progress can feel like this. We make strides, and then we have a new president and all of the work that we've done is immediately erased. It can feel pointless. Main lament that nothing has happened and nothing can change. But is that because that statement is true, or is that because we need a new home for the work? The Hebrews were trying to build within a crumbling system, and their work was futile. But when they escaped from Egypt, they built a nation, divinely lead.
The Splitting of the Sea is one of the most emblematic miracles in Jewish history; yet, it is also one of the most misunderstood. If the purpose of splitting the sea was merely so the Jewish people could escape the oncoming Egyptian armies, there are so many other ways that God could have saved them. Why did God specifically choose to split the sea? (God doesn't do a miracle for naught.) Kabbalistic teachings explain that the dry land and the sea are symbolic of the material world and the spiritual world, respectively. Everything on dry land is readily apparent to us—just as the material world is easy to see. That which is submerged beneath the water is hidden from our view—just as spiritual reality cannot be seen with our physical eyes. The Splitting of the Sea, therefore, represents removing the cover that obscures our view of spirituality, allowing us to see the hidden spiritual truths as clearly as we are normally able to see the material. It's important for us to realize that the Exodus was not merely a process by which we gained freedom from our oppressors. It was also, and perhaps even more so, a process through which we uncovered our true potential and finally encountered our true selves. Each of us experiences "sea-splitting moments," where the spirituality that was concealed deeply within is suddenly revealed and is as plain to see as the physical. Indeed, we might say that this revelation of our deepest self is the entire point of the enslavement and ensuing Exodus. If we would have merely left our taskmasters and gained freedom without uncovering the deepest spiritual truths within ourselves, our exodus would be profoundly lacking. In simple terms that we can relate to, this means that recovery is about so much more than just the freedom from drugs, alcohol, and other destructive behaviors, and sacred activism is more than just the steps we take towards a brighter future in the name of the divine. This work is about revealing inner spiritual powers that had been hidden within and would otherwise have never become known to us. It is from that place of renewed experiential, doughy knowing of the self that we can be effective in transformation.
LET MY PEOPLE GO!
A short play for the seder
CAST: NARRATOR, JOSEPH, BENJAMIN, PHAROAH, ADVISOR, HEBREW 1, HEBREW 2, HEBREW 3, BOSS, BAT PHAROAH, MOSES, GOD, AARON (13 parts)
NARRATOR: Our story begins in the land of Egypt where Joseph, once a prisoner, is now the Pharaoh’s chief advisor.
JOSEPH: So how are things back in Israel?
BENJAMIN: Oy! Terrible. Our gardens and crops are dying. There is no rain this year. That is why we had to come down to Egypt!
JOSEPH: Well, don’t worry..life in Egypt is fantastic. Bongs in every house, no drinking age, ferarri's in the driveway, This is the most powerful nation on the planet!
BENJAMIN: Did you have rain this year? Are the gardens and crops doing well?
JOSEPH: We don’t have to worry about that. I’ve stored away a shit ton of food in giant warehouses. The Pharaoh will be able to feed the people for three years at least, even if we get no rain.
BENJAMIN: What does the Pharaoh think of us Hebrews?
JOSEPH: He loves me! And honestly who wouldn't lol. He welcomes the Hebrews into his land. Bring the entire family, it's a party.
Narrator: The Hebrews all moved to Egypt and had many children and lived a successful life. But after many years, after Joseph and his brothers had died, a new Pharaoh rose to power.
PHAROAH: Advisor, bring me the latest census report. I want to know all the people who I rule over!
ADVISOR: Yes, you’re Royal Highness. I have the numbers here.
PHAROAH: Let’s see..Nubians, Midians, yes, very good. Ooff...are there really that many Hebrews?
ADVISOR: Oh yes, your highness. Huge population growth. They're, um, getting busy. They are very strong workers.
PHAROAH: Do you think that might be a danger? Perhaps they will challenge my rule. What if they start asking to get their needs met?! You know how these workers are always complaining about the size of the rocks for the new Pyramids. I am worried that they will use their strength in numbers to rise up against me!
ADVISOR: Yes, you are right, we must do something to break their spirits.
PHAROAH: First, let us begin with something small. We’ll get them to make more bricks each day. If that doesn’t work, we’ll eliminate the fifteen-minute breaks. If that doesn’t break them, them I'll use harder measures and put them on HR3. If we can traumatize them, they'll be in perpetuating patterns that they will not be able to escape!
Narrator: The Hebrew workers struggled to keep up with Pharaoh’s demands.
HEBREW 1: My hands are killing me. And my back, oy! I can’t take this pace.
HEBREW 2: We can make a thousand bricks a day—but two thousand? Bruh. No team can work that hard! We’ll fall over!
HEBREW 3: Get back to work, the boss is coming!
BOSS: Efficiency, people! We have got to make 900 more bricks by sundown! Come on, let’s work faster!
HEBREW 1: We are working as fast as we can, boss.
BOSS: Listen, smart aleck, I’ve got a lot of pressure on my shoulders. If Pharaoh doesn’t get his bricks, I’m out of a job. I got a family to feed, too, you know. So get back down in the pit and start working!
HEBREW 2: We haven’t had a break all day!
BOSS: And you are not going to get one! Work!
HEBREW 3: You know what, boss; you have become a real pain in the ass!
BOSS: What’d you say?
HEBREW 3: You heard me.
[The BOSS walks over and pushes Hebrew 3 to the ground]
BOSS: Now get back to work before I get really angry!
Narrator: Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted a young Hebrew child. The child, Moses, was raised with the finest Egypt had to offer.
BAT PHAROAH: Here, sweetheart, raid the life lab snack drawer before your creative accelorator.
MOSES: I’m so excited about the cube this evening.
BAT PHAROAH: Your new robe looks lovely, dear. I just hope that the Pyramid is finished. Your grandfather has the workers working double time just to get the place finished before the great assembly.
MOSES: I heard that the Hebrews were complaining.
BAT PHAROAH: Complaining? Don’t worry about that. We take care of the needs of all our workers, dear. They are fed, given homes, and we give them a new pair of shoes each year. We are very generous. The only problem is that there are simply too many Hebrews. For that reason, we are cutting down their number. I know that it is sad that we have to kill off their baby boys, but we are really doing it for their own good.
MOSES: I know so little about the world. Someday I’d like to go out of the palace and see how they live.
BAT PHAROAH: They are not clean like us, dear. Especially the Hebrews. They throw garbage on the streets, they have horns growing out of their heads, and they run the media!
Narrator: One day Moses decides to sneak out of the palace, and see for himself the plight of the Hebrews.
HEBREW 1: I can’t work, today, I’m sick! And I hurt my arm yesterday lifting stones!
BOSS: I don’t want to hear excuses. This pyramid has got to be finished by Thursday! Today is Wednesday! So get moving!
HEBREW 1: I can’t work. Please, listen to me, have some compassion!
HEBREW 2: Give him a break, boss!
BOSS: Shut up!
HEBREW 3: Don’t get involved!
HEBREW 2: I’m tired of this, boss! My cousin there is hurt. He can’t work today. And he’s not working. So go tell Pharaoh that he’ll have to hire some more workers or this isn’t getting done!
BOSS: Shut up!
[Boss pushes Hebrew 2 to the ground.]
HEBREW 1: Stop it!
BOSS: I’m going to hurt you bad, you whiny Hebrew!
HEBREW 3: Stop! One of Pharaoh’s princes is coming!
MOSES: What is happening?
BOSS: I am going to give this man the beating he deserves, your honor! Watch this!
MOSES: No!
[Moses hits the Boss, who falls to the ground]
HEBREW 3: Oh no! What did you do to the boss? We’ll be blamed for this! We’ll be put on HR!
MOSES: What have I done? What have I done?
Narrator: Moses ran away to wilderness therapy where he is taken in by his therapist Yitro, and marries one of Yitro’s other clients Zipporah. One day, as Moses is taking care of yitro’s sheep, he stumbles across a burning bush.
GOD: Moses, Moses!
MOSES: Who is that? What is going on? What is happening?
GOD: It is me, the God of your ancestors, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
MOSES: AH A BURNING BUSH! Maybe i overdid it on the DMT microdose this morning.
GOD: You must go back to Egypt and stand up to Pharaoh! Then you will lead the people back to their homeland!
MOSES: Dude how will I do that? The people do not know me! I have no power now that I have run away!
GOD: I will be with you. Go to your sister, Miriam, and brother, Aaron, and stand up to Pharaoh!
Narrator: Moses returns to Egypt, with his wife and son, Gershom. Aaron and Moses approach Pharaoh.
PHAROAH: What do you want?
AARON: Hey uh Pharoah ummmmm... it's been fun but we're gonna bounce. We need to go outside of the city so that we can pray to God in our own way. And not to mention you have enslaved us uhhhh so we're gonna leave now.
PHAROAH: Why can’t you wait for the festival of the pyramids? Then your people will have a chance to celebrate with everyone.
MOSES: We do not wish to pray to your gods. We have one God, who is mightier than all of your gods.
PHAROAH: You must be joking. The gods have made Egypt a great nation. What has your God done for you?
MOSES: You’ll see what our God can do! And then you’ll give in to our demands!
PHAROAH: Don’t count on it, Hebrew!
Narrator: Pharaoh was a stubborn man. Even after plagues of blood, frogs, lice, disease, hail, and darkness, he would not let the Hebrews take a day off. It wasn’t until a disease struck and killed the first born of every Egyptian, that the Pharaoh changed his mind.
PHAROAH: Don’t you understand what is happening?
ADVISOR: No, your highness, I don’t know why our gods are not protecting us.
PHAROAH: Everything we did to the Hebrews is now happening to us!!!
ADVISOR: Maybe their God is powerful!
PHAROAH: Tell the police that are surrounding their neighborhood to let them go.
Narrator: That night, Moses, spoke to the people.
MOSES: Put on your sandals, we will not have time to bake the bread for tomorrow! Tonight we will leave Egypt, and set out for a new land! Our children, and our children’s children will remember this night! They will tell the story of how we stood up to Pharaoh, and how God helped us to be free!
AARON: Let all who are hungry come and eat!
Narrator: And thus ends our little play
From Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown: Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh was asked, "what do we most need to do to save our world?" His questionnaire is probably expected him to identify the best strategies to pursue, but Thich Nhat Hanh answer was this: "we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the earth crying."
When we are vulnerable, we do not hide our suffering. We let it be expressed, so that it can move and be alchemized.
At this point in the seder, we take the parsley and dip it into salt water so that we can remember the taste of the tears of the Hebrews in slavery. Tonight, as we experience our liberation, we do not avoid the tears. We allow ourselves to feel the pain of slavery as well as the exhilaration of redemption.
We say the blessing together:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree ha-adama.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who creates the fruits of the earth.
We now must ask ourselves, how does Egypt feel? To explore this, we are borrowing from a method from Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, from a practice called "Open Sentences on Honoring our Pain." Answer the prompt to the person next to you: When I see what's happening in our world, what breaks my heart is…
Our first cup of "wine" will be in the world of Atzilut. This is the world of emanation. What is emanating? The light of the infinite/without end- ha'or ein sof. It is the nothingness and everythingness of everything that ever is, was, or will be, all existing simultaneously. This is where we identify as divine energy, and the ego is completely dissolved; the "you" that you think you are disappears completely, and our self-identity vanishes. Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank describes Atzilut as "beyond identifying as a separate self, perform and channel as the light of God would. You are being completely your own Being, spontaneous and daring, but without self-consciousness; without comparing; and without neediness."
In spiritual circles, this state of being has been used to erase the pain of diverse groups. We will not do that tonight. We need to experience this state so that we can feel the truth of the all-pervasiveness of divinity. In the words of the Ba'al Shem Tov, "God's glory fills the whole Earth." When we sit mindfully in that truth of divinity being in every place, as we travel down thought each world into the kingdom, we can better see the divinity in diversity and care more authentically about collective liberation.
KIDDUSH
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, borei p’ree hagafen.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who creates the fruit of the vine.
SHEHECHEYANU
The shehecheyanu is the blessing whenever doing something for the first time that year. Shehecheyanu means "we are alive". It is a statement of recognizing time and appreciating the current moment, expressing gratitude to a higher power for new and unusual experiences or possessions.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam,
she-hechiyanu v’key’manu v’higiyanu lazman hazeh.
We praise God, Spirit of Everything, who has kept us alive,
raised us up, and brought us to this happy moment.
DRINK THE FIRST GLASS
This year, we need to be liberated from something, and Passover comes to teach us that now is the time. We need a new beginning. So, what is our new beginning this year? What is the change we need to make in the rhythm of our lives that will allow us to be liberated from the enslavements that we are currently in? For some of us, it is getting out of jail, for others, it is getting sober, yet for most of us, we have to look deeper inside of ourselves to see how our souls are still imprisoned. Most of us are unable to hear the call of liberation because we believe the lies of our intellects and our emotions, that there is nothing wrong with us that _______ would not fix. Passover comes to remind us that many of our enslavements are still unknown to us. In the story of our people, we had to be forced to see our enslavement by Pharaoh, when he made us get our own straw and still make the same number of bricks. All of us have to be forced to see our enslavements. The question for us is: Are we willing to leave our Egypt? Are we willing to move without a known destination?
Most of us only go on journeys when we know the destination. This journey of liberation and to freedom has no exact road map. We will never get “there” because as soon as we think that we have achieved our place, we will lose it. Human nature is to rest on our laurels, finding our place in the world is only the beginning. The hard part is growing and maintaining our place and our unique work in our corner of the world. In order to “See ourselves as if we came out of Egypt and add to the story,” as the Haggadah tells us to do, we have to first write our own story.
Now, recall what was possible for you when you stepped outside of your narrow place, what we talked about during the Marror and Korech. What is the life script that you were created to live? What is your TRUE script? Let's take a moment of silence, then we will enter our final share of the night.
Passover is the time that makes us look at our lives and see if we are living the lives that are truly ours, the life that makes us add our own unique part to the repair of the world, the life that makes our corner of the world a little better in the way that only we are uniquely qualified to do. Only by owning and telling our TRUE stories can we truly experience redemption and liberation.
- Adapted from “A Haggaddah For Spiritual Recovery”, Beit T’Shuvah
It is true that the Egyptians placed back-breaking labor upon us, but our tradition reveals that there is more to the story. Our Sages tell us that originally Pharaoh made a call for volunteers to join in a public project of city building. In other words, the Jewish people were not forced to show up at first. They responded voluntarily. However, when they wanted to leave, the taskmaster suddenly appeared and told them that they could not. This pattern is not unfamiliar to us. Many of us can recall a time when our drug of choice was something we could "take or leave" as we pleased. Or that the pain of the world just "isn't a big deal." However, there came a day when we wanted to stop using recreational substances, or wanted to end the pain of the world, and realized that there was so little that our hands could do alone. At this point, only dedication to ourselves in our community could restore the power of transformation.
What was, if any, the moment that you realized you were a slave to something? That your participation was no longer voluntary?
The Haggadah tells us that the Egyptians enslaved the Jews “with crushing labor.” What was uniquely crushing about the labor the Jews were forced to engage in? Our tradition tells us that the cities the Jewish people were forced to build were built upon swampland. Every day they would toil their utmost, and the next morning they would return to the worksite only to find that everything that they had built the previous had sunk into the ground. Therefore, what was so crushing was not the degree of hard work but its inherent pointlessness. No matter how hard they worked, their work was ultimately unproductive. For many, who work towards social change, progress can feel like this. We make strides, and then we have a new president and all of the work that we've done is immediately erased. It can feel pointless. Main lament that nothing has happened and nothing can change. But is that because that statement is true, or is that because we need a new home for the work? The Hebrews were trying to build within a crumbling system, and their work was futile. But when they escaped from Egypt, they built a nation, divinely lead.
The Splitting of the Sea is one of the most emblematic miracles in Jewish history; yet, it is also one of the most misunderstood. If the purpose of splitting the sea was merely so the Jewish people could escape the oncoming Egyptian armies, there are so many other ways that God could have saved them. Why did God specifically choose to split the sea? (God doesn't do a miracle for naught.) Kabbalistic teachings explain that the dry land and the sea are symbolic of the material world and the spiritual world, respectively. Everything on dry land is readily apparent to us—just as the material world is easy to see. That which is submerged beneath the water is hidden from our view—just as spiritual reality cannot be seen with our physical eyes. The Splitting of the Sea, therefore, represents removing the cover that obscures our view of spirituality, allowing us to see the hidden spiritual truths as clearly as we are normally able to see the material. It's important for us to realize that the Exodus was not merely a process by which we gained freedom from our oppressors. It was also, and perhaps even more so, a process through which we uncovered our true potential and finally encountered our true selves. Each of us experiences "sea-splitting moments," where the spirituality that was concealed deeply within is suddenly revealed and is as plain to see as the physical. Indeed, we might say that this revelation of our deepest self is the entire point of the enslavement and ensuing Exodus. If we would have merely left our taskmasters and gained freedom without uncovering the deepest spiritual truths within ourselves, our exodus would be profoundly lacking. In simple terms that we can relate to, this means that recovery is about so much more than just the freedom from drugs, alcohol, and other destructive behaviors, and sacred activism is more than just the steps we take towards a brighter future in the name of the divine. This work is about revealing inner spiritual powers that had been hidden within and would otherwise have never become known to us. It is from that place of renewed experiential, doughy knowing of the self that we can be effective in transformation.
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