Passover is Coming
A Seder and new resources for the ritual that guides us from sorrow to joy
Hi!
Passover is my favourite holiday. My dad used to cut and paste a social justice Haggadah (the book we follow through the ritual of meal and storytelling at the Passover Seder meal). First with scissors and glue sticks, then a photocopier, and later, through my and then my brothers’ hands on a keyboard with a giant word document. Every year, all my siblings and the same group of family friends (totalling about 23 people) would gather around my dad’s table to celebrate this holiday. Our Haggadah included folk songs, provocative questions, a poem about inclusion by our late friend who founded a summer camp for kids of all abilities and whatever else felt relevant and alive to my dad and his community of lifelong friends and family.
At my mom’s seder, we always had people of multiple faiths and backgrounds with us. And when I got to start leading, I introduced a practice of inviting everyone at the table to share where they have felt stuck or enslaved in their life this year and where they have felt free. My brother taught me not to stop the story when the Hebrews left Egypt and to name the atrocities committed by our ancestors when they claimed the land they were taught was their birthright. He taught me to tell the WHOLE story. Including the parts we are ashamed of or uncomfortable with.
Passover for my family, has always been about the stories that need telling and the questions that need asking. (Something about apples and trees, right?)
This year, I will be leading a Matanot Lev | Gifts of the Heart Passover UnSeder. Aligned with my family’s legacy, our Haggadah won’t be only one book or reading that we read from cover to cover. It’ll be our stories, and our most and least favourite parts on and off the page. These days, I am Queering everything and for me (such a Gemini!), that starts with language. So inspired by Beit Toratah, we’ll play with gender in the language of the text. What happens to our story when the male characters switch genders and become female or nonbinary? What happens when Mitzrayim (the narrow place) becomes Mitzorot (the sorrowful place)? And we’ll sing each song and ask each question through the lens of our contemporary, feminist values. We can sing and tell the words of our ancestors while also holding ourselves accountable for how we live them in alignment today. Our discomfort and our joy will have a voice.
And in a post October 7th world, our grief will have a voice, too. Aligned with the Chapter 9 project, our (perceived) enemies won’t have to die for us to be free (link is to my video, Sea Crossing in a New Paradigm). We will rewrite the narrative together. And we may not all agree. So our story and our table may be full of complication and contradiction. But God/dess/xx willing, it will also be full of hope. And reminders of our connection to each other everywhere and the opportunity to always start again, try again, love again, and free everybody along the way.
If you are local to Toronto and want to join in this live, in-person experience on Monday, April 22 (1st night), read more and sign up here.
I will also be co-leading a Shabbat of Passover Chanting and Kavanot service at the Danforth Jewish Circle on Saturday, April 27 with Kohenet Sandralaya Ruch and Tamar Geraci. Join us!
Here are a few more resources to help you have a meaningful and aligned Passover experience this year:
My Passover Sets Me Free post from last year with details about how I navigate food, more from my family’s seders, a poem about the moon and a link to Beit Toratah Passover art.
Connect with the Full Moon and Jewish moon teachings with At The Well’s special Supplement.
All Four Are One from Bayit Building Jewish by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, a reading to acknowledge a spectrum of perspectives at the table about Israel/Palestine.
This Broken Matzah The Bayit Passover Supplement for a post Oct 7 world
A whole lot more resources for your own cut and past Haggadah on Haggadot.com
If you prefer videos to text, here are some Passover intention setting meditations
Wishing all who celebrate a meaningful, liberatory and hopeful Passover.
xo,
Annie