As you prepare to celebrate PassoverPassover is a major Jewish holiday that commemorates the Jewish people's liberation from slavery and Exodus from Egypt. Its Hebrew name is Pesakh. Its name derives from the tenth plague, in which God "passed over" the homes of the Jewish firstborn, slaying only the Egyptian firstborn. Passover is celebrated for a week, and many diaspora Jews celebrate for eight days. The holiday begins at home at a seder meal and ritual the first (and sometimes second) night. Jews tell the story of the Exodus using a text called the haggadah, and eat specific food (matzah, maror, haroset, etc). with your loved ones, here’s a new reading for your SederLit. Order. The festive meal conducted on Passover night, in a specific order with specific rituals to symbolize aspects of the Exodus from Egypt. It is conducted following the haggadah, a book for this purpose. Additionally, there an ancient tradition to have a seder on Rosh Hashanah, which has been practiced in particular by Sephardi communities. This seder involves the blessing and eating of simanim, or symbolic foods. The mystics of Sefat also created a seder for Tu B'shvat, the new year of the trees. to call attention to an urgent struggle for freedom today. AJWS’s Seder reading, “An Exodus in Our Time: A Reflection on the Rohingya Crisis,” calls upon the Jewish community to help stop the horrific ethnic cleansing taking place today against the Rohingya people of Burma. You can find a downloadable and printable version below.
AJWS has also published A Global Justice Haggadah: Next Year in a Just World, designed to inspire thoughtful reflections and conversation about the meaning of Passover today.
Learn more about American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and their Passover resources here.
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