By reciting the Haggadah, Jews give their children a sense of connectedness to Jews throughout the world and to the Jewish people throughout time.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt"l, The Chief Rabbi’s Haggadah (Essays), p. 2

anyway chag pesach sameach from our extremely half-arsed seder (drinking red wine with the patio door open and a spare glass on the table. elijah can come chill if he wants).

prepping for next week :-)

pogtopia hagaddah....

Other notes of insanity from the "JVP Haggadah":

Adonai elohenu melekh ha-olam is translated differently literally every time it appears. First it's "spirit of freedom" then it becomes "the source" and "the eternal determiner of the universe" and "the one who sustains all life". Y'all. It's the same phrase in every blessing. Jews would know this. Pick one translation and stick with it!

Wine is typically a symbol of joy in the Seder-- it's often a joy for our liberation from Egypt. However, I've also seen it represented as joy despite the hardships and captivity many of us still face. JVP does away with all of that and dedicates each glass of wine to a different theme: Education, solidarity, boycotting Israel, and community. Wine is a symbol of joy in Judaism because drinking four glasses of Maneshewitz in a night gets you drunk. The symbolism is inherent to the wine itself. I don't see how getting shitfaced helps you boycott Israel.

Yachatz is fully gutted. The Hagaddah is supposed to detail how and why you break the matzah-- you can't just break it! There's symbolism and meaning to breaking specific pieces and creating an Afikomen. JVP says fuck an Afikomen, everybody just breaks a cracker and thinks about systematic oppression. They try to (incorrectly) address the Afikomen issue later, but it's nonsensical at that point because we never made one to begin with.

There is no Maggid. There's a section called Maggid, which includes a single verse from what I'm almost certain is the Christian Old Testament, not the Torah. There's no story. It literally just goes Bible Verse > Shitting on Israel > Four Questions > Plagues. They literally took out the longest and most important part of the Seder. I'm not shocked that they couldn't figure out a way to make the story of Exodus seem anti-Zionist, but still...

There's no Chad Gadya. Instead, you're supposed to go around the table, wish each other good night, and ask what they learned. This might actually be an interesting way to further involve attendees in the Seder if there were... you know... a Maggid. There's nothing to take away from this because there's zero substance. The story wasn't told. It's just there to force attendees to verbally shit on Israel before they're allowed to leave.

I'm sure there are other major issues with it; feel free to add them if you find any. I'm just personally still too baffled by the stupidity of it all to go through it a second time.

Passover is the Jewish festival of freedom.

Israel has 133 hostages, alive and dead, still held in captivity. I'm grateful for each one released, but as long as some of our people, Jews and non-Jews alike, are hostages, we all are. Also, yesterday alone, Israel saw no less than 6 terrorist attacks (attempted or thwarted) with zero casualties, and I'm grateful no one got hurt, but what kind of freedom do we have, when this is our daily reality, and it's not even recognized?

At the end of every Passover Seder, for 2,000 years now, Jews have concluded the holiday feast with, "Le'shana ha'baa bi'Yerushalayim (לשנה הבאה בירושלים)," next year in Jerusalem.

(here's a Passover Hagaddah from Casablanca, in Morroco, with this phrase and a drawing of the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem -)

Passover is the festival of freedom, the story of a nation breaking its bonds of enslavement, it's a story of emancipation, and as such, it is a beacon of hope and a reminder that freedom is possible for all those who yearn for it. That's why slaves in the US south adopted this language, and expressed their hopes for freedom through the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

But the story doesn't end as soon as the Israelites have left Egypt, it doesn't end in the desert. Achieving freedom is a process. That ancient story demonstrates that, but we have other, more recent examples. Jews liberated from the Nazi camps were still re-living the horrors of the Holocaust every night, if not more often than that. The hostages who have been released from their captivity at the hands of murderous, rapist Hamas terrorists are still working to recover. Freedom is a process. And in the story of the exodus from Egypt, which Jews have been re-telling annually for thousands of years, guiding our thoughts and understanding of what our freedom is, the story doesn't end when our ancestors left Egypt. The final note of the story defines our freedom as only being fully achieved after going through the journey in the desert, the process, when we are once more living freely in our ancestral, promised land, when we return to our holy city. And no matter where we live, we express this idea in Hebrew, our native, ancestral language.

(here's another Passover Hagaddah, this one from 1940's Cairo, in Egypt of all places, with this same phrase -)

Poet Amnon Ribak (whose career was originally in hi-tech before he started delving into what his Judaism means to him) once wrote, "Every man needs some sort of an Egypt, to deliver himself from its house of slaves, to leave in the middle of the night into a desert of fears, to walk straight into the waters and see it parting in front of him." He takes the Jewish exodus and turns it into a metaphor for personal challenge and growth. And how does he finish this poem? (my emphasis) "Everyone needs an Egypt, and a Jerusalem, and one long journey to remember forever through the feet."

Here's the poem composed as a song (composing poems is an Israeli tradition. And while we're at it, this is a reminder that the biggest center of original Jewish culture and art in the world today is Israel):

This Passover, we will be remembering and re-telling the story of our ancestors' exit from Egypt, we will collectively yearn for Jerusalem again, we will do our best to learn from this ancient story as if each of us has been personally delivered from Egypt, we will cherish the freedoms that we have, and keep in mind the ones we still have to fight for, first and foremost the literal freedom of our hostages. Please, if you celebrate Passover, consider leaving an empty chair at your Seder table for all the people who are not yet free.

And may we all have a happy and meaningful Pesach! <3

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

Let's talk about The Wicked Son ™️ (not to bring Passover Seder discussions to Tumblr but oh well)

I always found the speed at which the father cuts off the Wicked Son from his Jewish heritage concerning. Like it is one question that he asks and the father is like, "well you're no longer a real Jew and G-d would let you die while he saves the rest of us" which I find really quite .... Odd.

The implication that those who aren't super connected to their Jewish heritage and history should be fully cut off from it, instead of being educated and being able to make an informed decision is worrisome. Also the fact that the implication of the story is that these are literally kids... Maybe the 16 year old doesn't quite understand things because they're still a child????

Anyway, I'd love to hear other people's opinions on this one!

Also, in my hagaddah, the Wise Son also says "what are the testimonials, statutes and always Hashem has commanded you". Again, the says "you". Hashem has "commanded you", not commanded him. So why does his father not also "set his teeth on edge" as he does with the wicked brother? It's blatant favouritism 🤣🤣

I decided to recreate my favorite part of the hagaddah using objection.lol.

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְלָנוּ. שֶׁלֹּא אֶחָד בִּלְבָד עָמַד עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ, אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם.

"And She is the One who stood for our forefathers and for us. For it wasn't just one alone that stood over us to exterminate us, but in every generation they stand over us to exterminate us, and the Holy One Blessed be He saves us from their hands"

[From the Pesach Hagaddah]

I know things are looking pretty grim right now, but remember that our ancestors have faced similar situations and nevertheless we have survived. We are unbreakable, in every generation there have been those that have sought to exterminate us, and we are still here today. We may be few in numbers, we may be outnumbered, but we are strong. Our existence is a miracle, whether you believe in miracles or not, and we are stronger together.

i was reading something about pesach and misread "when we eat the hagaddah" instead of "when we read the haggadah" and i was so fucking confused. thought i had somehow missed a paper eating tradition

i saw a post saying that the jvp hagaddah was clearly written by goyim and they showed an example of a mistranslation in it as proof and i saw it and had the immediate very clear reaction of "oh that translation isn't written by goyim/people who don't understand hebrew. the reason it's incorrect is that it's written by a reconstructionist"

A special #Feathersday for #ChagPesachSameach: The Bird's Head Hagaddah c. 1300, the oldest surviving illuminated Ashkenazi Passover Haggadah, named for its depiction of Jewish human figures with bird heads. In this scene they're baking matzo!

The Birds’ Head Haggadah South Germany c. 1300 Scribe: Menahem Handwritten on parchment; dark brown ink & tempera; square Ashkenazic script H: 27; W: 18.2 cm Israel Museum, Jerusalem B46.04.0912

"The name of this early Passover Haggadah derives from its depiction of human figures with pronounced birds’ heads. The enigmatic practice of drawing bird and animal heads in place of human faces is found in other Ashkenazi manuscripts of the 13th and 14th centuries and has been interpreted in various ways.

This is the first illustrated Haggadah known to be produced as an entity separate from the prayer book. It contains depictions with ritual and textual themes: the preparation of matzah and the various blessings over wine and food recited during the Seder; biblical scenes like the gathering of the manna or the giving of the Torah; and messianic images such as the rebuilt Jerusalem."

help my rabbi is rewriting taylor swift songs to fit the plot of the hagaddah and vashti is getting down to this sick beat

Whenever I eat a gluten free bagel my brain immediately recites that poem from my childhood hagaddah that’s like “This is the poorest, the driest of bread/It crinkles and crumbles all over our beds”

When I was little my grandparents would come for pesach and we would go to the zoo, get into a line, and take a picture. And we have the picture at a bunch of different ages.

My dad used to play with us catch

My brother and I used to go to temple bat and eat at Ken's and finish doing our homework until my mom was done teaching. And sometimes still we go to Ken's

Pesach in my family growing up: second hand stores, jeans with sequins, smell of coffee and vanilla. Lincoln Park zoo every year, yaakov David, hagaddah- my grandfather would put on kippah, matzo with cream cheese and jelly. Chutzpah, taking walks in the park. Crossword puzzles, the van, chitty chatty bang bang, jewel Osco, doctor browns, corned beef and potatos, BBQ, cards, afikoman present, big red cups of coffee with their name on it, hagaddah that has wiked crossed out and wrote, egg soup, absolutely positively yes, vanilla perfume and shimmery eyeshadow rollerb

פסח בילדות שלי

כשהייתי קטנה, סבא וסבתא שלי תמיד היו באים עלינו לחג פסח. הם היו באים בוואן גדול וכבר הייתי יכולה להריח את סבתא שלי- מא. Pa would come and give me a big bear hug, an ma would put her hands on both sides of my face and kiss me, and tell me that she loves me. כשהייתי מתעוררת, הייתי מריחה קפה מהמכונה, סבתא שלי הייתה עושה איפור שלה בבוקר- אייליינר, מסקרה, משו מבריק על העיניים, שפתון, שמן בושם בריח של וויניל. היינו הולכים ליד שנייה שהיא מוצאת גיינסים עם נצנצים או חולצות עם פרפרים או נצנצים. היא הייתה לובשת סווטשרט עם רוחסן בצבע נייבי או אפור חולצה עם קצת נצנצים וג'ינס יפה וגרביים לבנים ונעליים של ניו בלאנס או נייק אבל לבן. הציפורניים שלה היו תמיד עשוי אקרילי פרנצ ארוך. אף פעם לא ראייתי את הציפורניים האמיתיים שלה. אחר כך היינו הולכים לגול אסקו- סופר לקניית אוכל. הייתי נשארת בוואן עם ,אחי וסבא שלי וסבתא הייתה הולכת לקניות. היינו בחנייה במקום הכי רחוק שאפשר מהרכבים האחרים. הוא היה שם את הכסא שלו במקום של נהג הכי אחורה שאפשר ואיפשהו בין צופה בסרט או יושן. ראינו chitty chitty bang bang. היינו מאחורה, והיא תמיד הייתה בכיסא באמצה עם פרווה על הכיסא שיהיה לה נעים וחם, ועם משקפיים ועיטון ועט לעשות את החלק של משחקי מילים. היא תמיד כתבה עם אותיות גדולות.

She would buy meat chicken, hamburger buns, diet coke, doctor browns, disposable big red cups. They'd go to dunkin before I'd get up and have coffee cups already with their names on them so they'd know what to reuse. We'd go to Lincoln Park zoo and take a picture at the same place eery time. It was on a bridge where ud see behind the Chicago skyline. My grandfather would be taking the picture on his disposable camera that you'd need to spin the dile to take the next picture, ud get like fifteen pictures. He always used those cameras and then later send the camera in to get the photos. It was a time when you'd take one picture and then deal. It didn't matter if I blinked, you wouldn't know. You took the picture and moved on. The sun was always in our eyes no matter what, and there was always a picture of us waving. Sometimes my beothers friends would come with us, it didn't matter who was there, we always took that picture. During the seder I'd sing the questions because I was the youngest. I would get one day to tell all the stuff I'd learned and my brother would get the next day. We'd always eat dinner at around 5/6 and by the seder no one was starving. Since second grade I'd use the hagada from second grade because it had a song that my grandfather loved. Every year he'd wait for me to get to the song before he considered the night accomplished. We'd get through the whole seder, my mom would read most of it, my grandmother would repeat a lot of it quietly to herself but I could always hear cuz I sat in between her and my father. Egg soup was something that came from my great grandmother from the women's side, and I always thought it was funny that it was most important to my dad and grandfather. Because they loved my great grandmother. Every day of pesach I'd wake up, and on the way to the bathroom I'd hear everyone talking at the table in the kitchen and smell the coffee and get excited that I had another day with ma and pa and that the day started already. I'd rush downstairs and my grandfather would spread cream cheese and jelly on matzo and them with his finger Write a d for dalya. It would be on paper towels on place Mats. After lunch we'd play a game called chutzpah. It's a Yiddish version of monopoly and the only game my mom will actually play. My granmother never played, she'd do crossword puzzles while sitting in the sun with her feet up near a cup of coffee with her name on it- either ma or honey which is what everyone in her life called her except her children and grandchildren. This game We'd also play every year. My grandfather would check what time was an hour and half from then, and say that by this time, we're done and whoever has the most money wins. We'd never play by the rules, we'd always make up our own. My grandfather would be banker or help me be banker and everyone would laugh at me for my money being a mess. We'd go on walks by the park next to our house all the time. Go to the playground. Take matzo to the river by my house where there's a garden and river and feed ducks. We'd sit on the steps by the river and throw matzo into the river for them. My grandmother could sit there forever but my grandfather wanted to walk