Tefillat Ha’Derekh from Montgomery Alabama 

Written by Rabbi Nina H. Mandel during the T’ruah delegation to the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, January 26-28, 2020

Bo
Bo el Par’oh
Come after the oppressor
Join the trouble
Muster your strength
Gird your loins

Mobilize your anger
Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt
Watch for bias
Cry out for truth
Soften your hardened heart
Embrace your neighbor
Persist, persist, persist

Ad matai? Until when?
Until there is no longer fear of justice;
Race is no longer predictive of wrongful conviction;
Poverty is no longer criminalized;
Children no longer receive life sentences.
Recommit, recommit, recommit
Until the institutions built by oppression are dismantled;
White supremacists no longer fuel antisemitism and racism;
Our diversity is embraced, not feared.
Until, until, until

May our eyes and hearts remain open as they are today,
Fired by the sights and stories of injustice.
And may this holy community continue to be a source of support and wisdom,
As we kumu, tze’u
Get up and go out to face the oppressor.
Bo.

At the end of the seder, we pour—but do not drink—a fifth cup for Elijah the prophet, who symbolizes the coming of salvation.

Jointly we can bring salvation; change is coming, but it is not yet here. We come together at Passover to connect our separate stories into the story of new freedom. We must cross the wilderness of change before we can enter a promised land of greater justice, greater freedom, greater peace, and deeper healing.

Next year in a Jerusalem rebuilt with justice!

Leshanah haba’a biYerushalayim hab’nuyah!

Racism is implicitly and explicitly embedded in American society’s structure and culture. It is a pervasive virus that seeps into all aspects of our lives, including our Jewish community. It’s what motivated a mob of Chasidic Jews to harass me in front of my home for carrying a Torah scroll because it was too far fetched for a black man carrying a Torah to be a fellow Jew. It’s what continues to marginalize Jewish people of color, making even holy Jewish spaces like synagogues intolerable for many.

Every year we recall the Israelite experience of oppression, redemption and the recurring commandment to care for those in society that remain oppressed, such as the stranger, the orphan and the widow. These memories and values are key to embodying anti-racism through concrete acts of care and shifting access to power, which is critical to actualizing our true multi-racial community in its fullest glory.

-- Yehudah Webster, Community Organizer, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

Hamotzi thanks God for bringing bread from the earth. This bread results from a partnership between God and humanity: God provides the raw materials and people harvest, grind, and bake. So too must we remember that combating human trafficking requires partnerships: among survivors, allies, lawyers, social workers, law enforcement, diplomats, people of faith…the circles of involvement are ever-expanding.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ.

Blessed are You ETERNAL our God, Master of time and space, who brings forth bread from the earth.