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+ | ====== Tikkun Passover 2009 Supplement in Plain Text ====== | ||
+ | Some folks have had problems with the font size on the 2009 Passover Supplement. The original is from [[http:// | ||
+ | --- // | ||
+ | ^{{people: | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | A Passover Seder | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Haggadah Supplement | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | For Ethically Sensitive Jews and our non-Jewish allies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | (You don’t have to be Jewish to create or attend a Seder—or to adopt | ||
+ | the approach to spiritual reality embodied in this text). | ||
+ | |||
+ | by Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun Magazine and Rabbi, Beyt | ||
+ | Tikkun Synagogue (which meets in both S.F. and Berkeley. More info: | ||
+ | www.beyttikkun.org) | ||
+ | |||
+ | This text is not meant to be a replacement for but a supplement to the | ||
+ | traditional Haggadah. Feel free to make copies of this to use at any | ||
+ | seder you attend, or to transform this in ways that work best for you! | ||
+ | |||
+ | AS WE SIT AT THE SEDER TABLE: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Seventy-eight percent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama in 2008, | ||
+ | and a majority of non-Jewish Americans joined them. The message was | ||
+ | clear: • end the war in Iraq and let our troops come home • end the | ||
+ | war on the poor and the environment • stop favoring the rich and | ||
+ | corporate interests. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Our Seder celebrates the first liberation struggle of our people, | ||
+ | overcoming slavery and proclaiming to the world that the “way things | ||
+ | are” is not the only way things can be. In the face of oppression, we | ||
+ | proclaimed to the Pharoah’s empire that there is a God (YHVH) who is | ||
+ | the Force of Healing and Transformation in the world—the force that | ||
+ | makes possible the transformation from “what is” to “what ought to | ||
+ | be.” | ||
+ | |||
+ | At our Seder tonight we celebrate the steps we’ve taken toward | ||
+ | liberation. We look at where we are as a people and as human beings in | ||
+ | our struggle to build a world of freedom and peace for all. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We rejoice together at the election of an African American as | ||
+ | President! | ||
+ | |||
+ | But we are concerned about the outcome of the global meltdown of our | ||
+ | economic and political system. We are now experiencing the results of | ||
+ | decades of materialism and selfishness. Too many Americans closed | ||
+ | their eyes to the suffering of those who have been living in poverty, | ||
+ | even in the midst of American affluence. Now the suffering is | ||
+ | spreading to the rest of us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The American economic system can create prosperity, but also | ||
+ | cultivates greed, fraud, and a selfish “looking-outfor- number-one” | ||
+ | mentality. This offends Jewish values, and has hurt our souls—even if | ||
+ | we ignored these spiritual and psychic costs while the system was | ||
+ | providing material goodies for many of us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The media, corporations, | ||
+ | translate our spiritual and intimacy needs into consumption. This | ||
+ | worked for some but produced alienation, loneliness, widespread | ||
+ | emotional depression and a huge global anger at our society from | ||
+ | others around the world. With individualism tearing down communities | ||
+ | and teaching the ethos of “looking out for number one,” some people | ||
+ | even turned to various religious fundamentalisms as a way to resist | ||
+ | the global ethos of capitalism. These fundamentalisms cannot be | ||
+ | defeated by our insistence on the value of democracy and human | ||
+ | rights—not unless we simultaneously recognize and address what has | ||
+ | been appealing in these old-time religions: their insistence that | ||
+ | there is a hunger for meaning and purpose in life that cannot be | ||
+ | achieved by material accumulation or endless new technologies, | ||
+ | that people hunger for loving community and connection to the mystery | ||
+ | and majesty of the universe as much as for money or power or sexual | ||
+ | conquests. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We do not want a return to the economic arrangements of the past few | ||
+ | decades. The false equation of “progress” with the accumulation of | ||
+ | material goods and endless new technologies produced a global | ||
+ | environmental crisis as an orgy of consumption destroyed much of the | ||
+ | life support system of the planet. Only a fundamental transformation | ||
+ | of the ethical and spiritual foundation of our economic and political | ||
+ | order can save humanity and the planet in the 21st century. Developing | ||
+ | this new vision is the task for spiritual progressives from every | ||
+ | religious background. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many progressive Jews are finding the ethical and spiritual foundation | ||
+ | for this transformation in the Jewish tradition. Jewish values support | ||
+ | generosity, caring for others, and loving the stranger, while | ||
+ | rejecting the extreme individualism, | ||
+ | accompanies the dominant ethos of American society. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At our Seder tonight we challenge Western societies to adopt specific | ||
+ | economic programs that flow from these Jewish values: • A National | ||
+ | Bank that gives loans without charging interest • A legal system based | ||
+ | on the “obligation to care” for each other, not just look out for | ||
+ | “number one” • An economy that prescribes a sabbatical year for | ||
+ | everyone (the same year—the whole society taking off one year to not | ||
+ | produce, but instead to focus on what we as a human race want to | ||
+ | accomplish in the next six years) • A Global Marshall Plan as an | ||
+ | extension of the Torah’s notion of a tithe • Single payer universal | ||
+ | health care • Unrestricted immigration • Protection of workers’ | ||
+ | rights. | ||
+ | troubling reality. Within our own community these wonderful Jewish | ||
+ | ethical values have too often been ignored. Too many prominent Jews | ||
+ | have followed the narrow path of self interest. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Similarly, Israel, which describes itself as “the State of the Jewish | ||
+ | people,” has failed to embody the highest values of the Jewish | ||
+ | tradition in the way that it treats our brothers and sisters the | ||
+ | Palestinians. The human rights violations and the slaughter of | ||
+ | Palestinians in Gaza, the seizing of Arab lands, the imprisonment of | ||
+ | thousands of Palestinians without trial and the revelations by Israeli | ||
+ | soldiers themselves of acts of brutality in Gaza and the West Bank are | ||
+ | not isolated incidents. They are not the product of evil | ||
+ | soldiers. They are the inevitable consequence of imposing and | ||
+ | enforcing occupation. | ||
+ | is the worst human rights violator on the planet! The U.S. role in | ||
+ | Iraq, the genocide in Darfur, the repression of Buddhism in Tibet, and | ||
+ | the extremes of repression in Iran and several Arab states are moral | ||
+ | outrages of equal or greater proportion. Nor do we excuse the human | ||
+ | rights violations and terrorism perpetrated by Hamas. Every act of | ||
+ | violence against civilians must be vehemently opposed. | ||
+ | Seder table, and again on the High Holidays, we affirm that our | ||
+ | special responsibility as Jews is to look critically at our own | ||
+ | individual and communal behavior. It would be hypocritical to | ||
+ | celebrate the freedom achieved from slavery while ignoring the ways | ||
+ | that we as Americans and/or as Jews and/or as supporters of the state | ||
+ | of Israel have been acting as Pharaoh to the Palestinian people. | ||
+ | must not let our long history as victims of oppression or our anger at | ||
+ | God for not having saved us from the Holocaust become the foundation | ||
+ | for adopting the religion of our enemies: the religion that says that | ||
+ | we can only trust in our power, our army, our ability to wipe out our | ||
+ | enemies. This false God, parading under the title of “being | ||
+ | realistic, | ||
+ | Jewish compassion, generosity, and caring for others. | ||
+ | of surviving as Jews is to challenge that religion of violence and | ||
+ | domination and affirm instead the possibility of a world ruled by the | ||
+ | logic of love and generosity. When we were utterly degraded as slaves, | ||
+ | we experienced God as the power that was there redeeming us into | ||
+ | freedom and sacred service. Now it is we who are powerful, and when | ||
+ | our Jewish community aligns with the use of power in heartless and | ||
+ | cruel ways against another people we feel deep grief. Our Torah says: | ||
+ | “When you come into your land, do not oppress the stranger. Remember | ||
+ | that you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The Torah commands us | ||
+ | positively: “Thou shalt love the stranger.” | ||
+ | |||
+ | We must use our Seder to begin a conversation about how to create a | ||
+ | broad social movement for peace, justice, and ecological | ||
+ | sanity. President Obama needs to hear from those who are not trapped | ||
+ | in the “inside-the-beltway” logic that dominates the national media | ||
+ | and our national political leadership. If we do not make fundamental | ||
+ | changes in our economic system and in our approach to foreign policy, | ||
+ | we may find ourselves in deeper despair this time next year. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Tonight at our Seder we will tell heroic stories of the past, but we | ||
+ | must never imagine our past suffering gives us a moral pass to ignore | ||
+ | the ethical distortions of the present moment. Our Seder must help us | ||
+ | plan a way to transform the present. But we must do so with a strong | ||
+ | dose of compassion, both for our own people and for the Palestinian | ||
+ | people. We have co-created the current mess. We have both suffered | ||
+ | from so much post-traumatic stress that sometimes people on both sides | ||
+ | of this struggle fail to recognize the humanity of the other. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As Jews, we must challenge our own people’s distorted vision and blend | ||
+ | that challenge with deep love and caring, not just chastisements. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Americans of every faith can make a huge contribution to this process | ||
+ | by challenging the dominant vision in the West about how to achieve | ||
+ | “homeland security”—namely through domination and power over | ||
+ | others. Our Torah, and almost every other major religious and | ||
+ | spiritual tradition, teaches a different message: that security can | ||
+ | best be achieved through generosity, caring for others, and love. This | ||
+ | revolutionary message must be given teeth, which is why we at Tikkun | ||
+ | Magazine and Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in the Bay Area have formed the | ||
+ | interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives and launched a campaign | ||
+ | for a Global Marshall Plan that would have the U.S. and other advanced | ||
+ | industrial societies dedicate between 2–5% of our Gross Domestic | ||
+ | Product each year for the next twenty to once and for all end global | ||
+ | poverty, homelessness, | ||
+ | health care, and to repair the global environment (details on this | ||
+ | plan and on how to join us are at | ||
+ | www.spiritualprogressives.org). Rather than attempt to rebuild an | ||
+ | economic system that has been destroying the environment and | ||
+ | encouraging an ethos of selfishness, | ||
+ | progressives is to build a new global economy based on ancient | ||
+ | spiritual values of love, kindness, generosity and caring equally for | ||
+ | the well-being of everyone on the planet. That this kind of miracle | ||
+ | can happen, that what everybody thought was impossible can suddenly | ||
+ | become possible, because there is a power in the universe that is the | ||
+ | power of love and transformation, | ||
+ | and what we are seeking to enliven within ourselves by creating this | ||
+ | Seder. We see that beyond the self, beyond family and country, we are | ||
+ | part of the unfolding and evolution of consciousness in the universe, | ||
+ | and we celebrate and recommit ourselves to that Force of Healing and | ||
+ | Transformation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | So let’s now close our eyes. Can you see the universe and your place | ||
+ | in it? Affirm now your role as partner with God in the healing and | ||
+ | transformation of all that is. The Seder can also be a time to do | ||
+ | “tikkun” (to heal and transform parts of ourselves and our society). | ||
+ | |||
+ | KIDDUSH | ||
+ | |||
+ | We are gathered here tonight to affirm our continuity with the | ||
+ | generations of Jews who kept alive the vision of freedom in the | ||
+ | Passover story. For thousands of years, Jews (and our non-Jewish | ||
+ | allies) have affirmed this vision by participating in the Passover | ||
+ | Seder. We not only remember the Exodus but actually relive it, | ||
+ | bringing its transformative power into our own lives. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Hebrew word for Egypt, mitzrayim, means “narrow straits.” | ||
+ | Traditionally, | ||
+ | state, the “narrow place” of confusion, fragmentation, | ||
+ | disconnection. Liberation requires us to embrace that which we have | ||
+ | been taught to scorn within ourselves and others, including the | ||
+ | split-off parts from our own consciousness that we find intolerable | ||
+ | and that we project onto some “evil Other.” The Seder can also be a | ||
+ | time to reflect on those parts of ourselves. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Israel, according to the Torah, left Egypt with “a mixed multitude.” | ||
+ | The Jewish people began as a multicultural mélange of people attracted | ||
+ | to a vision of social transformation. What makes us Jews is not some | ||
+ | biological fact, but our willingness to proclaim the message of those | ||
+ | ancient slaves: (Say Together) The world can be changed, we can be | ||
+ | healed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blessing over the first cup of wine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | KARPAS | ||
+ | |||
+ | The saltwater on our table traditionally represents the tears of the | ||
+ | Israelite slaves. The green vegetables we dip in the water suggest the | ||
+ | possibility of growth and renewal even in the midst of grief. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The greens on the table also remind us of our commitment to protect | ||
+ | the planet from ecological destruction. | ||
+ | on what we may “realistically” accomplish in today’s world, we must | ||
+ | refocus the conversation on what the planet needs in order to survive | ||
+ | and flourish. We must get out of the narrow place in our thinking and | ||
+ | look at the world not as a resource, but as a focus for awe, wonder, | ||
+ | and amazement. We must reject the societal story that identifies | ||
+ | success and progress with endless growth and accumulation of | ||
+ | things. Instead we will focus on acknowledging that we already have | ||
+ | enough; we need to stop exploiting our resources and instead care for | ||
+ | the earth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dip the greens in saltwater and say your own personal blessings for | ||
+ | the earth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | FOUR QUESTIONS: THE ADULT VERSION | ||
+ | |||
+ | Discuss as a group or in pairs at the Seder table: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Egypt, mitzrayim in Hebrew, comes from the word tzar: the “narrow | ||
+ | place,” the constricted place. In what way are you personally still | ||
+ | constricted? | ||
+ | being, a manifestation of God’s love on earth? Are you able to | ||
+ | overcome the ego issues that separate us from each other? Can you see | ||
+ | the big picture, or do you get so caught in the narrow places and | ||
+ | limited struggles of your own life that it’s hard to see beyond your | ||
+ | personal struggles? What concrete steps could you take to change that? | ||
+ | 2. Do you believe that we can eventually eradicate wars, poverty, and | ||
+ | starvation? Or do you believe that no one really cares about anyone | ||
+ | but themselves, and that we will always be stuck in some version of | ||
+ | the current mess? Or do you think that such a belief is itself part of | ||
+ | what keeps us in this mess? If so, how would you suggest we spread a | ||
+ | more hopeful message and deal with the cynicism and self-doubt that | ||
+ | always accompanies us when we start talking about changing the world? | ||
+ | 3. What experiences have you had that give you hope? Tell about some | ||
+ | struggle to change something—a struggle that you personally were | ||
+ | involved in—that worked. What did you learn from that? 4. When the | ||
+ | Israelites approached the Sea of Reeds, the waters did not split. It | ||
+ | took a few brave souls to jump into the water. Even then, the waters | ||
+ | rose up to their very noses, and only then, when these brave souls | ||
+ | showed that they really believed in the Force of Healing and | ||
+ | Transformation (YHVH), did the waters split and the Israelites walk | ||
+ | through them. Would you be willing to jump into those waters today—for | ||
+ | example by becoming an advocate for nonviolence or for the strategy of | ||
+ | generosity and the Global Marshall Plan? Would you go to speak about | ||
+ | this to your elected representatives? | ||
+ | coworkers? To your family? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Tell the story of the Exodus, and identify the Pharaohs in your life | ||
+ | today. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blessing over the second cup of wine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We are descended from slaves who staged the first successful slave | ||
+ | rebellion in recorded history. Ever since, our people has kept alive | ||
+ | the story of liberation, and the consciousness that cruelty and | ||
+ | oppression are not inevitable “facts of life,” but conditions that can | ||
+ | be changed. Because God makes possible the tikkun (healing and | ||
+ | transformation) of the world, reality is enough. Dayenu—it is enough. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THREE SYMBOLS OF PASSOVER | ||
+ | |||
+ | PESACH (the Bone or for vegetarians, | ||
+ | includes a symbol of the ancient Passover sacrifice, which was brought | ||
+ | each year to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew word for sacrifice is | ||
+ | korban, which comes from the root meaning “near” or “close.” What | ||
+ | could bring you closer to your highest spiritual self? | ||
+ | |||
+ | MATZAH: The Torah tells us that the Israelites had to take the | ||
+ | uncooked dough with them, “For they had prepared no provisions for the | ||
+ | way.” Symbolically, | ||
+ | for liberation comes, we must seize it, even if we do not feel fully | ||
+ | prepared-indeed, | ||
+ | at all. If you had to jump into such a struggle tomorrow morning, | ||
+ | what would you have to leave behind? The current global economic | ||
+ | meltdown may be precisely such a moment. Are you ready to leave the | ||
+ | slavery of our current economic system? | ||
+ | |||
+ | The matzah also stands in contrast to chametz (Hebrew for the | ||
+ | expansive yeast that makes bread rise), which symbolizes false pride, | ||
+ | absorption in our individual egos, and grandiosity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | MARROR (the Bitter Herbs): The suffering of the Jews in Egypt has been | ||
+ | matched by thousands of years in which we were oppressed as a | ||
+ | people. Our insistence on telling the story of liberation and | ||
+ | proclaiming that the world could be and should be fundamentally | ||
+ | different has angered ruling elites. These elites often tried to | ||
+ | channel against the Jews the anger that ordinary people were feeling | ||
+ | about the oppression in their own lives. But Jews are not the only | ||
+ | ones to have suffered oppression and violence. We think of the | ||
+ | genocide against native peoples all around the world, including in the | ||
+ | United States. We think of the enslavement of Africans, and the | ||
+ | oppression of Armenians, homosexuals, | ||
+ | others. Yet, tonight it is appropriate for us to focus also on the | ||
+ | suffering of the Jewish people, and to affirm our solidarity with | ||
+ | victims of anti-Semitism through the ages. Anti-Semitism still | ||
+ | persists in our own time in the use of double standards in the | ||
+ | judgment of Jews, in acts of violence against Jews, and in refusing to | ||
+ | acknowledge the history of Jewish suffering as equal to the suffering | ||
+ | of other victims of oppressive social regimes in Christian, Muslim, | ||
+ | and some secular societies, as well. Meanwhile, we Jews need to | ||
+ | acknowledge the ways that such suffering has at times distorted our | ||
+ | consciousness and made it hard to fully grasp the pain others feel. We | ||
+ | must evolve A GLOBAL JUDAISM that compassionately embraces the Jewish | ||
+ | people and all other peoples. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE MEAL | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Haggadah says, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” | ||
+ | Traditionally, | ||
+ | the hungry, but also offering spiritual sustenance to those in | ||
+ | need. Both must go hand in hand. We live in a society of unprecedented | ||
+ | wealth, yet we turn our backs on the hungry. Even the supposedly | ||
+ | liberal and progressive political leaders are unwilling to champion | ||
+ | any program to seriously address world hunger and homelessness. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is also a deep spiritual hunger that must be fed. Though the | ||
+ | cynical proclaim that “those who accumulate the most toys win,” our | ||
+ | tradition teaches that money, power, and fame cannot sustain us. Our | ||
+ | spiritual tradition teaches us to be present to each moment; to | ||
+ | rejoice in all that we are and all that we have been given; to | ||
+ | experience the world with awe, wonder, and radical amazement; and to | ||
+ | recognize that we already have enough and are enough. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Not just during the Seder, but also at every meal, it is incumbent | ||
+ | upon us—the Jewish tradition teaches—to talk words of Torah, to study | ||
+ | some section of our holy books, or to in other ways make God feel | ||
+ | present at our table. Try this every night as you eat: bring God and | ||
+ | God’s message of love, generosity, peace, social justice, ecological | ||
+ | sanity, and caring for others into every meal that you eat. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Enjoy the meal. Following the meal, say a blessing expressing thanks | ||
+ | to God for the food and by expressing a commitment to do what you can | ||
+ | to redistribute food on this planet so that everyone will have | ||
+ | enough. Drink the third cup of wine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | WELCOMING THE POSSIBILITY OF THE MESSIANIC AGE | ||
+ | |||
+ | We open the door for Elijah—the prophet who heralds the coming of the | ||
+ | Messiah and a world in which all peoples will coexist | ||
+ | peacefully—acknowledging the Image of God in one another. To deny the | ||
+ | possibility of fundamental transformation, | ||
+ | past oppression, or to build our religion around memories of the | ||
+ | Holocaust and other forms of suffering is to give the ultimate victory | ||
+ | to those who oppressed us. To testify to God’s presence in the world | ||
+ | is to insist on shifting our focus from pain to hope, and to dedicate | ||
+ | our energies to transforming this world and ourselves. (All together | ||
+ | recite): We still believe in a world based on love, generosity, and | ||
+ | openheartedness. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now let us build together a communal vision of what messianic | ||
+ | redemption would look like. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Close your eyes and let some picture of this appear in your | ||
+ | minds. Then, open your eyes and share with others | ||
+ | |||
+ | your picture of the world we want to build together. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blessing over the fourth cup of wine. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sing songs of liberation! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Want to be part of a Judaism that shares the values articulated in | ||
+ | this Haggadah supplement? You can: | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | 1. JOIN Beyt Tikkun Synagogue. Come to our annual retreat and/or High | ||
+ | Holiday services. There may even be a few remaining seats at our (2nd | ||
+ | night) Passover Seder April 9 at the Noe Valley Ministry in S.F. if | ||
+ | you join as members. Details at www.BeytTikkun.org. 415-575-1432 | ||
+ | 2. Come to our course, GLOBAL JUDAISM: A re-introduction to a Judaism | ||
+ | of Love and Generosity. | ||
+ | May 1 to Sun. afternoon May 3. Details at www.beyttikkun.org | ||
+ | 3. Subscribe to Tikkun Magazine at www.tikkun.org If you are not | ||
+ | Jewish but wish to bring these values into your Christian, Muslim, | ||
+ | Buddhist, or other spiritual communities, | ||
+ | but not religious) atheist please join our interfaith Network of | ||
+ | Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org | ||
+ | |||
+ | q YES! I’ll help you spread this message. I’ll send a tax deductible | ||
+ | donation of | ||
+ | |||
+ | q $1,000 q $500 q $300 q $180 q $120 q $80 q $50 q $25 q | ||
+ | Other________________ | ||
+ | |||
+ | or I’ll enclose my credit card info and you can bill it for | ||
+ | $____________one time; or $____________each | ||
+ | |||
+ | month for one year. Or, I’ll call your office at 510-644-1200 to | ||
+ | donate that way. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Tikkun & Beyt Tikkun Synagogue | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2342 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704 510-644-1200 Shul@tikkun.org | ||
+ | 1021 Sanchez, San Francisco, CA 94114 415-575-1432 | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | </ |