Passover is one of the many holidaysJewish people celebrate to help themremember the importance of G_d in
their lives. We see the animals, the oceans,the rivers, the mountains, the rain, sun, theplanets, the stars, and the people andwonder how did all these wonderfulthings come into being?
Jews believe the force we call G_d created the entire universeand everything in it. Jews feel G_d is all seeing and knowingand although we can't see Him, He is everywhere and ineveryone. We understand that when G_d began to create therewas nothing but G_d and that time, as we know it, had nomeaning. Because of the creation we are able to track time andcelebrate Passover every year at the same time based on thelunar calendar used by our ancestors.
We feel G_d gave people a conscience hoping it would helpus decide right from wrong, to do our best tomake good choices, to try to help others, nothurt others, and to try to make right thewrongs we have done to others. The ritualsthat make up the Jewish holidays helpremind us how thankful we are for how much
we have accomplished with G_d's help and how grateful weare to G_d for everything we have and everything we are.
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The Jewish people have long memories and work toremember the good things that have happened as well as thebad so we can learn from the experience of our ancestors.
The Story
Today we tell the story of Passover. It is a story thatJewish people have told every year for more than 3,000years. It is a very personal story and applies to each of
us as if we were the people who lived it so long ago.
It is a story never to be forgotten. It is astory every Jewish father and mothersare required to teach all of theirchildren and their children’s children.
I will tell it in a way that we, who donot speak Hebrew, will understand andwithout a great deal of ritual.
To help us remember what happened to us and our ancestorsso long ago, our parents taught us, as we teach you, that thereare five things that must be done each Passover:
1.We must eat Matzah.
2. We must tell the story of the Exodus.
3. We must drink four cups of wine or grapejuice that we call the fruit of the vine.
4. We must eat morror – the bitter herbs.
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5. We must recite the Hallel – praise to G_d.
First, we fill a cup of wine or grape juice and bless the drinkby saying:
“Praised art Thou, Adonai our G_d, Ruler ofthe Universe, Creator of the fruit of thevine.”
Drink the first cup.
A long time ago – more than 3,000 years – the Jewish peoplewere slaves in Egypt. The ruler ofEgypt was called the Pharaoh and heand his soldiers were very mean to theJews. The Egyptians didn’t pay theJews for their work. They made themwork so hard they would drop fromexhaustion. When the Jews didn’t do
what, the Pharaoh wanted they were beaten or killed.
A man named Moses was sent by G_d to convince the Jewsthat they shouldn’t put up with such terrible treatment andshould no longer be slaves. Moses went to the Pharaoh andsaid:
“Let my people go.”
Pharaoh refused.
When Pharaoh refused to set the Jews freefrom slavery G_d sent terrible punishmentsto the Egyptian people, called plagues, toconvince the Pharaoh to let the Jews go free.
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Every year at this time wecelebrate the holiday ofPassover (Pesach inHebrew) to help all Jewsremember how bad it was tobe slaves, how grateful weare to G_d that we are freeand to always try to
remember not to be mean to others like the Pharaoh was to uswhen we were slaves in Egypt.
Treating people like we would want to be treated is the bestway the world can be a place of peace and happiness. Webelieve if we try to be good people, G_d will want to continueto help and protect us.
Pharaoh did not listen to Moses. He refused to let the Jewishslaves go because he needed them to help Pharaoh buildmonuments and grow his crops. To convince Pharaoh G_dsent ten plagues to punish the Egyptians because their Pharaohwas evil and would not listen.
We don’t celebrate the suffering of the Egyptians since allpeople are children of G_d, even those whobelieve they are our enemies. So we spilldrops of wine from our cups at the mentionof the ten plagues and feel sorry for theEgyptians who had to suffer such terriblepunishments because their leader would notlisten to G_d. One drop for each:
• Blood – the Nile river ran with blood.
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• Frogs – jumped everywhereand annoyed all Egyptians.
• Gnats who swarmed and bitthe Egyptians, even thePharaoh.
• Flies made everything dirty.
• Cattle disease caused their animals, the source of theirfood, to die.
• Boils – sores grew painfully all over the bodies of theEgyptians.
• Hail – fell in the desert to hurt the people.
• Locusts that ate all their crops.
• Darkness in daytime that scared them all.
• Finally, the first born sons of the Egyptians were killed.
The first born children of the Jews werepassed over by marking their door postswith blood from a sacrifice.
Pharaoh refused each time Moses askedhim to set the Jews free until the tenthplague. The last plague was so horriblethat Pharaoh relented and the Jewishslaves were set free.
They all quickly walked out of Egypt.
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Pharaoh changed his mind after the Jewsleft and sent his soldiers to bring the slavesback.
G_d protected the Jews as they left. G_dcaused the waters of a sea to part so theJews could walk across on dry landwithout even getting their shoes wet. Afterall the Jews crossed the water came back
and drowned the Egyptians who were chasing them. The Jewswere free and continued walking to the land promised to themby G_d.
Escaping from Egypt gave theJewish people their freedom. Weshould remember today that beingfree means more than just not beingslaves. It means we can be free touse our minds to think and try to dothe best we can to be as good aperson as we can be and to thank G_d for setting us free.Being free means we can live as we please, work at whatmakes us feel accomplished and choose those who will lead usas a people and nation.
Because the Jews Moses led out of Egypt had been slaves forso long they had not learned to thinkfor themselves about what was rightand wrong or what was good and bad.G_d recognized this and caused themto wander before reaching thepromised land for 40 years and gave
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them laws to follow so they could think and work as free menand women.
The Ten Commandments
While the Jews walked through the desert on their wayto the land promised to them Moses went up toMount Sinai, an important and historically holy
place, and came down with a stone on which G_d helped himwrite rules to live by called the TenCommandments.
These are rules that we still live byand have been incorporated in thelaws of every country where Jewsand others who read the Bible thatwe call the Torah in Hebrew live.
They are:
• I am the Lord your G_d. You shall have no other G_dsbefore me.
• You shall not make for yourself an idol.
• You shall not take the name of the LORD your G_d invain.
• Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
• Honor your father and mother.
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• You shall not murder.
• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not bear false witness againstyour neighbor.
• You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall notcovet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor hisfemale servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anythingthat is your neighbor's.
Every year we remember the freedomand rules G_d gave our ancestors and us by saying “Dayenu.” “Dayenu” means “it is sufficient” or“it is enough.” We say it becausewe understand that any one of thethings He gave us would havesatisfied us, but he gave them all to us. So we say “Dayenu”tothe following:
• G_d brought us out of slavery in Egypt,
• G_d sent us manna in the desert so we would not starve,
• G_d ordained the Sabbath so we hadone day of rest a week,
• G_d brought us to Mount Sinai,
• G_d gave us the Ten Commandmentsand the Torah at Mount Sinai,
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• G_d led us to Israel,
• G_d gave us the temple.
For all these things we say“Dayenu” it is enough.
All these things were given and that is why we celebratePassover every year.
There are many ways to tell this story, depending on who islistening.
Why Is this Night Different from AllOther Nights?
[The youngest person at the Seder should read thesequestions]
Why do we eat only matzoh on Pesach?
Matzoh reminds us that when the Jews left theslavery of Egypt they had no time to bake theirbread. They took the raw dough on their journeyand baked it in the hot desert sun into hardcrackers called matzoh.
On all other nights we eat many kinds ofvegetables and herbs .... Why do we eat bitterherbs, maror, at our Seder?
Maror reminds us of the bitter and cruel way the
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Pharaoh treated the Jewish people when they wereslaves in Egypt.
On all other nights we don't usually dip one foodinto another.... Why do we dip our foods twicetonight?
We dip bitter herbs into Charosetto remind us how hard the Jewishslaves worked in Egypt. Thechopped apples and nuts look like
the clay used to makethe bricks used in building the Pharaoh'sbuildings.
We dip parsley into salt water. Theparsley reminds us that spring is here andnew life will grow. The salt water reminds
us of the tears of the Jewish slaves.
The Four SonsAt Passover we speak of "four sons"— one who is wise, one who iswicked, one who is simple, and onewho does not know to ask. Each ofthese sons phrases his question aboutthe Seder in a different way. The
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answer to all of the sons, regardless of how theirquestion is asked is that we commemorate theexodus from Egypt to remember – and never repeat– being held as slaves anywhere and to obey G_dby being good people who are deserving of hisgifts.
To commemorate – remember – that we weresaved from slavery, we now drink the second cupof wine after saying:
Praised art Thou, G_d, King of theUniverse, Creator of the fruit of the vine.
The Symbols of Passover
These are the symbols of Passoverthat we review each year so that if enemies everagain try to do to us what the Egyptians did toour ancestors the symbols will never fail toinspire us with new courage. The symbols ofPassover will strengthen our faith in G_d.
The shank bone reminds us how lambs were sacrificed to askG_d for help and to remember that Jewish children werespared by marking the Jewish houses withthe blood from the bone so G_d knewwhich house to pass over. The tenthplague killed Egyptians and spared us.
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This is the matzah that reminds us how,since we left Egypt quickly, our ancestorshad to take along unleavened dough sincethere wasn’t time for the bread to rise.
This is the bitter herb that reminds us howbitter the Egyptians made the lives of our ancestorsin Egypt.
It is our duty to utter thanks to G_d who performedthese wonders for our ancestors, and because ofthem, for us.
Wash hands
We all now wash our hands and eat the Matzah saying first:
Praised art Thou, our G_d, ruler of the universe who has madeus better by asking us to wash our hands.
And,
Praised art Thou, our G_d, who brings forth bread from theearth.
Dip the Bitter Herbs in Salt Water
Then we taste the bitter herb after praisingG_d who commanded us to eat the bitterherb.
Praised art Thou, our G_d, who commandedwe eat the bitter herb.
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We place an egg on the Seder Plate tocommemorate the holiday offering which wasoffered in the Holy Temple on the 14th of Nissan,and eaten during the Seder. In addition to its roleon the Seder plate the egg serves another purposeat the Seder. Before the beginning of the mealpart of the Seder, we eat the egg because an egg alsorepresents our mourning of the destruction of the HolyTemple.
The egg is eaten as an appetizer before the meal –immediately after the Matzah and bitter herbs sandwich.
NOW WE EAT THE MEAL.
Before we started reading the story ofthe Passover I hid a piece of Matzahcalled the Afikomon. The youngest heremust find it. Go search now. Bring it tome and we accept the Afikomon for all ofus to remember our hope is our children
who help us to find what is lost and to bring together what isbroken.
At every Passover dinner there is an empty seat for Elijah theProphet, please open the door to let him in and hope he drinksthe extra cup of wine we have left for him.
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Open the door to let Elijah come in.
It is time to drink the third cup of wine aftersaying:
Praised art Thou, our G_d, King of the Universe, Creator ofthe fruit of the vine.
Drink the Third Cup
It is G_d’s wish that all people might enjoy theblessing of liberty. So we ask the spirit of Elijah,since he promised he will turn the hearts ofparents to their children and the hearts of childrento their parents, to join us. May Elijah’s spiritenter this house and renew our hope. Mayhumanity live in peace. May our hearts be unitedin G_d’s service and will.
You Are My G_d and I Will Praise You.You Are My G_d and I Will Extol You.Praise G_d Who Is Good, Whose SteadfastLove Is Eternal.
Now we drink the fourth cup of wine after saying:
Praised art Thou, our G_d, King of theUniverse, Creator of the fruit of the vine.
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Drink the Fourth Cup
This is the end of the Seder.
Once again we have told the tale of theJewish people’s liberation from slavery. Withpraise we have called upon the name of G_d.
May He who freed us from Pharaoh foreverbreak all of the ties of oppression. May G_dhasten the day when wars are ended. Let us
pray that all people be freed from violence and from wrong,and united in an eternal agreement of mutual love, willcelebrate with us a universal Passover in the name of theG_d of Freedom.
