Interactive Haggadah

The Essence of Passover

(Excerpted from The Family Seder, Prepared by Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch)

All are seated around the table, and the leader, or one of the participants, reads the following introduction:

The Essence of Passover

"Passover has a message for the conscience and the heart of all mankind. For what does it commemmorate? It commemorates the deliverance of a people from degrading slavery, from most foul and cruel tyranny. And so it is Israel's -- nay, God's protest against unrighteousness, whether individual or national.  Wrong, it declares, many triumph for a time, but even though it is perpetuated by the strong on the weak, it will meet with its inevitable retribution at last." (Morris Joseph: Judaism as Creed and Life)

Although we, who mouth the words and recite the ritual, are reliving an epoch which is peculiar to Jewish history, the drama that is Passover is no longer ours alone.  Its enactment is not confined only to the dining rooms of our own homes; it has been embraced by the world at large, and is continually being reenacted on the stage of mankind by all who seek avenues to assert their condemnation of oppression and tyranny, by all who labor in the vineyard of the Lord searching for freedom and peace.

Although it is the Pharaoh of old who is the tyrant of the Haggadah, it is not he alone of whom we speak tonight.  We speak this evening of other tryants and other tyrannies as well. We speak

Of the tyranny of poverty

    And the tyranny of privation,

Of the tyranny of wealth

    And the tyranny of war,

Of the tyranny of power   

    And the tyranny of despair,

Of the tyranny of disease

    And the tyranny of time,

Of the tyranny of ignorance

    And the tyranny of color.

To all these tyrannies do we address ourselves this evening.  Passover brands them all as abominations in the sight of God.

With Thomas Jefferson we say: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind."

And with Abraham Lincoln we affirm: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.  Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

The spirit of Passover, although created of the flesh and sinew of Judaism, belongs to all mankind.  "since the Exodus," said Heinrich Heine, "freedom has spoken with a Hebrew accent." Today it speaks in the language of all men.

Primo Levi poem: Passover

Tell me: how is this night different
From all other nights?
How, tell me, is this Passover
Different from other Passovers?
Light the lamp, open the door wide
So the pilgrim can come in,
Gentile or Jew;
Under the rags perhaps the prophet is concealed.
Let him enter and sit down with us;
Let him listen, drink, sing and celebrate Passover;
Let him consume the bread of affliction,
The Paschal Lamb, sweet mortar and bitter herbs.
This is the night of differences
In which you lean your elbow on the table,
Since the forbidden becomes prescribed,
Evil is translated into good.
We will spend the night recounting
Far-off events full of wonder,
And because of all the wine
The mountains will skip like rams.
Tonight they exchange questions:
The wise, the godless, the simple-minded and the child.
And time reverses its course,
Today flowing back into yesterday,
Like a river enclosed at its mouth.
Each of us has been a slave in Egypt,
Soaked straw and clay with sweat,
And crossed the sea dry-footed.
You too, stranger.
This year in fear and shame,
Next year in virtue and in justice.

-- Primo Levi, April 9, 1982

(excerpted from The Schocken Passover Haggadah
Edited by Nahum N. Glatzer
Schocken Books. New York. 1996)

Who Knows Thirteen?

Who knows thirteen?I know thirteen.Thirteen are God's attributes;
Twelve, the tribes of Israel;
Eleven, the stars in Joseph's dream;
Ten are the commandments;
Nine are the months of childbirth;
Eight are the days before circumcision;
Seven are the days of the week;
Six are the sections of the Mishnah;
Five are the books of the Torah;
Four are the matriarchs;
Three are the patriarchs;
Two are the tablets of the covenant;
One is our God, in heaven and on earth.