From Narrow Places to Expansive Possibilities: Local Matanot Lilith UnSeder & Universal Resources
Toronto's UnSeder invitation & liberation resources for everyone, everywhere
Highlights of This Post:
For Toronto locals: Invitation to our in-person Matanot Lilith UnSeder on Saturday, April 12 (1st night of Passover)
For everyone, anywhere:
Four essential Passover questions for personal reflection or card reading
"Sea Crossing in the New Paradigm" - a reimagining of the Exodus story for today
Sacred Connection Calls - Schedule a complimentary 30-minute session
"Free Your Passover Seder" one-on-one mentorship sessions
As the spring unfolds and we approach the first day of the Hebrew month of Nissan – one of Judaism's four new years! – I find myself drawn once again to the powerful themes of Passover: liberation, renewal, and the journey from narrow places to expansive possibilities. This season marks our entry into both spring and the Passover season, a time of profound transformation in the natural world and in our spiritual lives.
For Toronto Locals: Join Our In-Person UnSeder
I'm excited to invite you to join me for a Matanot Lilith (Gifts of the Night) UnSeder on Saturday, April 12, the first night of Passover – a feminist, queer-affirming, and earth-based journey through the Passover storytelling tradition at my home in Toronto!
This isn't your traditional Seder. For many years, I've developed an "off-book" approach to the Passover ritual, using the traditional Haggadah's framework as a guide while creating a more organic, conversational experience. Rather than reading from a fixed text, we use the Table of Contents of the Haggadah as our roadmap and create our own oral tradition through sharing, discussion, and collective meaning-making. Our UnSeder liberates the ancient ritual from the bonds of the printed page, allowing the story to breathe and evolve as we bring our full selves to the telling.
What makes our UnSeder different?
We progress through the ritual at a leisurely pace, with plenty of time for meaningful conversation
We start eating at Karpas and continue noshing throughout the evening – no one goes hungry waiting until midnight for dinner!
We welcome your favorite readings and songs to be shared and unpacked together
We create space for diverse views and feelings – your full humanity is welcome at our table
In my family, Passover has always been about going beyond the traditional narrative. My father would create a social justice Haggadah each year, cutting and pasting from various sources – first literally with scissors and glue sticks, later with photocopiers, and eventually digitally – to create something uniquely relevant to our time and community. His sources included folk songs like "The Times They Are a-Changin'," traditional and contemporary poems and prayers, and even Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. My brother deepened this practice by teaching me to tell the WHOLE story, including the uncomfortable parts where our ancestors, having escaped oppression, went on to displace others from their homes.
Over the years, my approach to Passover has been further enriched by teachers from the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, feminist Jewish scholars, earth-based spiritual practitioners, and contemporary liberation movements who have shown me ways to weave ancient wisdom with present-day consciousness. This tapestry of influences shapes our UnSeder experience.
A Sacred Space for Your Whole Self
Matanot Lilith gatherings create spaces where tradition and innovation dance together, where darkness reveals its gifts, and where rest and celebration fuel our work for justice.
Have you ever sat in a religious gathering feeling that crucial parts of yourself needed to be hidden or diminished? Perhaps your queerness, your feminist perspective, your love of Israelis AND Palestinians, your neurodivergence, or your desire for more embodied spiritual practice?
Our UnSeder welcomes your whole, authentic self – no fragmenting required.
Food That Nourishes Body and Soul
Our meal will be a beautiful mix of catered dishes from Meals from Nancy (including both meat and vegan options) and potluck contributions. The catered food will be made with kosher-for-Passover ingredients, though not prepared in a kosher-for-Passover kitchen.
We offer sliding scale pricing options, including a potluck discount for those who prefer to bring food to share. All the food is for everyone and no one will be turned away for lack of funds – for free tickets, please see the coupon code on the One Table registration page.
For full details and to register, visit our One Table listing.
For Everyone, Anywhere: Passover Resources and Connection
Whether you're in Toronto or anywhere else in the world, whether you celebrate Passover or simply resonate with its themes of liberation and renewal, the following offerings are for you.
The heart of Passover lies in its invitation to place ourselves within the story of transformation. In 2022, when unexpected illness led me to cancel my seder with friends and celebrate a solo "UnSeder," I reflected that this wasn't diluted Judaism, but distilled Judaism – capturing the essential questions that have animated this holiday for millennia.
These four questions can serve as powerful prompts for reflection, whether through journaling, meditation, or divination practices like tarot or oracle cards. Set aside some quiet time as we approach this season of renewal to explore:
Four Questions for Your Passover Journey
(Perfect for journaling or a card reading practice)
Where have you felt stuckness, narrowness, or bondage in the past year? (Where is your Mitzrayim—your narrow place?)
Where have you felt expansiveness or what expansiveness are you moving towards? (What is your Midbar—your wilderness of possibility?)
What remnants, patterns, or parts of yourself are you leaving behind to move forward freely? (What are you willing to let go of in order to cross the sea?)
What dream or vision are you evolving towards? (What is your Tzion—your destination of hope?)
These questions invite us to personalize the ancient Exodus narrative and find ourselves within it – moving beyond abstract concepts to discover how liberation manifests in our own lived experience. The journey from slavery to freedom isn't just historical; it's happening within each of us, right now.
Reimagining Our Crossing: A New Way Forward Together
One of the most dramatic moments in the Exodus story is the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. In the traditional telling, the Israelites find themselves trapped between Pharaoh's army and the sea – a seemingly impossible situation with no way forward.
In 2020, I channeled a different vision of this pivotal moment, one that speaks to our contemporary needs:
"We are journeying... And finally, I'm finally learning this new way, this way called Freedom! I take with me what I need: Drums. Easy Food. My community. And when I think: Ah, I'm finally out! I find myself between a rock and a hard place. Or maybe between an army of Egyptians and the sea... And it feels like this sea of Unknowing is a great chasm that may be impossible to cross."
But then comes the revelation:
"The new way is to stand at that shore and open our eyes. And look to your left. And look to your right. And look behind you. Look at all these faces. And realize no one does it alone, EVER. We are not being called to step forward alone anymore...We have to do it together."
This vision—where no one drowns, where we all make it safely to the other side, where we "arrive and arrive wave after wave after wave and hand by hand pulling each other up into the new world of our dreams"—represents the heart of my belief in liberation work. It offers a template for a web of mutual support where we lift each other up and ensure no one is left behind.
Watch the full "Sea Crossing in the New Paradigm" video on YouTube
Creating Your Own Sacred Connection
Sacred Connection Calls: I'm offering a limited number of complimentary 30-minute sessions for anyone who:
Feels spiritually disconnected from traditional Jewish spaces that don't embrace your full identity
Is navigating spiritual life as a queer and/or polyamorous person
Struggles with religious traditions that seem at odds with your feminist or earth-honoring values
Desires rituals that honor your whole self without compromising who you are
These moments of transition are the perfect time to realign with what truly nourishes you and explore how your spiritual practice might better reflect your authentic values and lived experience.
→ Book your Sacred Connection Call
"Free Your Passover Seder" Mentorship: One-on-one support to co-create a Seder that feels aligned with your values and needs. Whether for online or at-home Seders, for your community, your young kids or teens, or grandparents, I will provide you with resources and advice to make this Seder feel easy and meaningful.
→ Learn more and book your session
Holding Hope in Complicated Times
In this era of rising fascism, anti-semitism, transphobia, and deepening polarization within our communities and families, the ancient Passover story speaks with renewed urgency. Our freedoms - hard-won over generations - feel increasingly precarious. The sea before us seems wider, the armies at our backs more threatening.
Aligned with The Chapter 9 Project from The Shalom Center, I believe our liberation doesn't require others' destruction. Our perceived enemies don't have to drown for us to be free. We can rewrite these narratives together, even when we don't all agree. Our stories and our tables may hold complication and contradiction. But with intention and care, they will also hold hope and reminders of our connection to each other - the opportunity to always start again, try again, love again, and free everybody along the way.
May this season of liberation bring us collective courage to face these challenging times. May we find the strength to cross the sea together, supporting one another as we journey toward the more just world we know is possible.
Beyond this Passover season, our work of creating liberation-centered community continues. Women are always welcome to join our new and full moon red tent circles, and everyone is invited to subscribe to the Matanot Lilith calendar on Luma to be notified when new events go live and are open for registration.
With love and devotion,
Kohenet Annie