PASSOVER READINGS COMPILED BY RABBI ANDREA GOLDSTEIN

The Ten Plagues

We are about to recite the Ten Plagues. As we call out the words, we remove ten drops from our overflowing cups, not by tilting the cup and spilling some out, but with our fingers. This dipping is not food into food. It is personal and intimate, a momentary submersion like the first step into the Red Sea. Like entering the mikvah.

We will not partake of our Seder feast until we undergo this symbolic purification, because our freedom was bought with the suffering of others.

As we packed our bags that last night in Egypt, the darkness was pierced with screams. Our doorposts were protected by a sign of blood. But from the windows of the Egyptians rose a slow stench: the death of their first born.

Shechina, soften our hearts and the hearts of our enemies. Help us to dream new paths to freedom. 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.

Dayeinu
It would have been enough to bring us through the Red Sea, enough to give us the Torah and Shabbat, enough to bring us into the land of Israel.

While we count on each of these blessings as if it would have been enough on its own, we know that more was given, and more is promised.

From singing Dayeinu we learn to celebrate each landmark on our people=s journey yet never to confuse these way stations with the final, redemptive destination which requires our participation. Because it is not yet Dayeinu; there is still so much to do in our work of repairing the world.

If we speak truthfully about the pain, joys and contradictions of our lives, Dayeinu.

If we listen to others with sensitivity and compassion, Dayeinu.

If we challenge the absence of women in traditional texts, in chronicles of Jewish history and in the leadership of our institutions, Dayeinu.

If we continue to organize, march and vote to affirm our values and convictions, Dayeinu.

If we fight sexism, racism, homophobia and economic injustice where we live, work and study, Dayeinu.

If we volunteer our time and our money, Dayeinu.

If we break the silence about violence against women and children in the Jewish community and in the world, Dayeinu.

If we teach our students and children to pursue justice with all their strength, Dayeinu.

If we care for the earth and its future as responsibly as we care for those we love, Dayeinu.

If we create art, music, dance and literature, Dayeinu.

If we realize our power to effect change, Dayeinu.

If we bring holiness into our lives, homes, communities, Dayeinu.

If we honor our visions more than our fears, Dayeinu, v'lo dayeinu.

IT WILL, AND WILL NOT BE, ENOUGH.

And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another's will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the need of many
And then all will share equally in the earth's abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life's creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.
- Judy Chicago

* This year we are slaves.
What can these words mean?
We were slaves because yesterday our people were in slavery, and memory makes yesterday real for us.
We are slaves because today there are still people in chains around the world and no one can be truly free while others are in chains.
We are slaves because freedom means more than broken chains. Where there is poverty and hunger and homelessness, there is no freedom; where there is prejudice and bigotry and discrimination, there is no freedom; where there is violence and torture and war, there is no freedom.
And where each of us is less than he or she might be, we are not free, not yet.
And who, this year, can be deaf to the continuing oppression of the downtrodden, who can be blind to the burdens and the rigors that are now to be added to the most vulnerable in our midst?
If these things be so, who among us can say that he or she is free?
(Leonard Fein, founder of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, 1985).

* We Cried Out ~ The Power of a Groan
THE HASSIDIC Rebbe or Gur says:
The sigh, the groan and the crying out of the children of Israel from the slavery was the beginning of redemption. As long as they did not cry out against their exile they were neither worthy nor ready for redemption. (Menachem HaCohen).

* Pacifist Interprets the Midnight Plague
Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares
(Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, early Zionist and pacifist, 1869-1931)
* Far For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night@ (Ex. 12:12) ~ I and not an intermediary.  @ Now obviously the Holy One, blessed be He, could have given the children of Israel the power to avenge themselves upon the Egyptians, but He did not want to sanction the use of their lists for self-defense even at that time. At that moment they might merely have defended themselves against evil-doers, but in the end defenders become aggressors.

* It came to pass at midnight @ (Ex. 12:29) The Holy One, blessed by He, took great pains to remove Israel completely from any participation in the vengeance upon the evil-doers, to such an extent that they were not permitted even to see the events. For that reason midnight, the darkest hour, was designated as the time for the deeds of vengeance, and the children of Israel were warned not to step outside their houses at that hour.

*...None of you shall go out of the door of their house until the morning ... that there not be in your midst the plague of the destroyer @ (Ex. 12:22-23).
The language itself is very precise. Your abstention from any participation in the vengeance upon Egypt will prevent the plague of vengeance from stirring the power of the destroyer which is in you yourselves.

Swords into Plowshares
In the days to come,
The mount of the Lord's house
Shall stand firm above the mountains
And tower above the hills;
Many peoples shall go and say: ACome,
Let us go up to the mount of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob,
That God may instruct us in Divine ways,
And that we may walk in God's paths.
For Torah shall come forth from Zion,
The word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Thus God will judge among the nations
And arbitrate for many peoples,
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning shears.
Nation shall not take up
Sward against nation;
They shall never again learn war (Isaiah 2).