Hunger

LEADER Each year, Jews across the world join with family, friends, neighbors, and community members to celebrate

the holiday of Passover with a symbolic meal called a seder. But why? What is behind this tradition?

Seder means “order.” The ordered rituals and symbols of the Passover Seder help us to tell the story of the

Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt.

[Leader holds up the Seder Plate and briefl y explains the ritual items and what they symbolize.]

For today’s seder we choose to recognize that while the Jewish people may be free, not everyone has cause

for celebration. Many people, even in a free society such as ours, are bound by the hardships and challenges

of their circumstances. We come together today with them in mind, determined to realize our vision of a day

when we will all be truly free from the oppression of hunger.

LEADER Let us honor this moment by joining together in song:

SONG: HINEI MAH TOV

הִנֵּה†מַה†טּוֹב†וּמַה†נָעִים

שֶבֶת†אַחִים†גַם†יָחַד.

Hineh mah tov u’ma-na’im shevet achim gam yachad.

How good it is for brothers and sisters

URCHATZ – HAND WASHING RITUAL

The washing of hands is a ritual of purifi cation. We symbolically “wash away” apathy or indi erence and

prepare ourselves to reignite our passion for justice and our commitment to ending hunger. Later, we wash our

hands again and say a blessing in preparation for the festive meal.

(The leader pours water — from a “washing cup” into a bowl — over each hand, symbolically washing the hands for all

those at the seder table. No blessing is recited at this time.)

We now enter the part of the seder that fulfills the mitzvah of reciting the Exodus story year after year. Why do we never tire of this?

בְּכָל-דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת-עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם

b'khol dor vador chayav adam lir’ot et atzmo keilu hu yatzah mimitzrayim,

In every generation, each person is obligated to see themselves as if they had participated in the Exodus from Egypt,

It is a call to empathy, to feel the suffering and redemption of our ancient ancestors as our own. 

It is also a command to to bring the story's meaning into our contexts, as we imagine ourselves being lifted out of despair and into freedom. This year, we face despair previously unseen in our lifetime: the reverberating trauma of October 7, ongoing war in Gaza, a thousand Israelis lost or in captivity, a thousand more displaced from their homes, tens of thousands of Gazan lives lost, the sanctity of each individual life superseded by the gross injustices of warmongering and nationalism.

The Talmud teaches us that whoever destroys one life has destroyed an entire world. In the same breath, we are told that whoever preserves one life has saved an entire world. When we despair over the sheer size of worldwide injustices, we must remind ourselves that we are obligated to use our voice and our actions tirelessly, no matter how small we think our impact may be.

Raise the glass of wine and say:

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְלָֽנוּ

V’hi she-amda l’avoteinu v’lanu.

This promise has sustained our ancestors and us.

The glass of wine is put down.