April 18, 2024
Here are some poems you may include this year during your passover Seder or beyond.
At my seder table,
I learned that some stories need to be told more than once
to make us stop, gather together and tell it aloud
though we have heard it many times before
so we remember.
Every spring, we read the same story of our exodus from Egypt
but it is never the same twice.
Every spring, someone is missing for work, move, illness or death.
Every spring, there’s a new mood or geo-political incident.
The annual retelling is like the sharing of all hard stories,
never told the same way twice.
never heard the same way twice.
It is a crossing over a desert of shifting sand
that allows us to see something that we hadn’t before
as if for the first time.
As we sit at our Seder table tonight to celebrate the Exodus of our ancestors from slavery in Egypt,
The words “Let My People Go” resonate in the depths of our souls.
Our hearts are with our Israeli brothers and sisters who have been kidnapped by Hamas.
The bitter taste of Maror is on our tongues, our tears are in the salt water.
On this night of freedom we cannot rejoice until every soul heartlessly held captive is released.
Help us, God, to bring them home.
Fill Israel’s leaders with the strength, the wisdom and the power
to negotiate the release of the hostages who are waiting and praying for deliverance.
Until that day, watch over the hostages, God.
Let them know they are not alone, and not forgotten.
Fill them and their families with courage, perseverance, strength
and hope for the blessed day of freedom that is coming.
We pray the seas will part, the hostages will walk free,
and we will welcome a new time of peace for Israel!
On that day we will sing a new song to You, O God, Who frees the captives,
A song of rejoicing and gratitude.
May that day come soon.
Amen.
The key to Passover is a belief in rebirth, a belief that tomorrow can be better than today; a knowing that we each have a critical part to play in the unfolding of hope.
Freedom begins with open eyes and ears and hearts.
Seas will part, answers will come, cures will emerge,
New ways of believing will sprout up and take root,
A universal love that mirrors God’s love for every living creature
And for our world.
In the book of Exodus we are told that Pharaoh’s sorcerers were able to replicate the plague of frogs. The only difference between Moses and the sorcerers was: only Moses could remove the plague. When the sorcerers witnessed Moses reverse the plague they cried out: “This is the hand of God.”
The truth is, it doesn’t take any great supernatural powers to bring about a plague.
We all have the power to destroy life and to destroy the earth and our atmosphere.
But it does take great holy powers to reverse a plague, to heal the sick, to heal our planet, to heal hatred and war.
The Healing Hand of God acting through us is what will save us and lead us
from constriction to wide open spaces,
from fear to faith,
from darkness to light,
from worry to peace of mind,
from economic hardship to abundance,
from war to peace.
Let us raise a glass and drink a Cup of Praise to the Soul of Souls who fills us with the power to end all of this world’s plagues.
And let us say, Amen.
