Great big Peysakh blog 2006

Thoughts

At the Radical Torah Project, David Seidenberg provides a fascinating account of why the charoset isn't explained in the Haggadah. Here's Radical Torah's full pesach list, including a few nice Haggadah pdfs.

David Kelsey at Jewschool provides a great listing of progressive Haggadahs, highlighting the laziness of progressive "Jews" who want everything nice and ideologically easy - Jogo calls this "the PC makeover of Passover". Here's an extract from Kelsey's kvetch:

The Kibbutz Haggadah is perfect for so many of us, because nothing screams “fresh” and “my generation” quite like the glorification of the Labor-Zionist kibbutz movement’s glory days. But there is also the Feminist Haggadah, which offers additional rituals around Miriam’s Cup (because there isn’t ever enough weird shit cluttering the Seder table), an ancient tradition (estimated around 1976 A.C.E.) replete with preferred gender neutral blessings, perfect for the entitled American Jewess who can’t spell her own name in Hebrew but still knows everything gender sensitive person uncomfortable with the basic structure and laws of the Hebrew language.

But there is a false assumption with such an expectation. Pesach has never been about being comfortable, neither spiritually nor physically. How many of us actually look forward to Pesach? The preparation alone is a nightmare. We eat this unleavened “bread” which wreaks havoc on our digestive system. There are frequently people at the table we would not usually elect to spend hours upon hours with. The Haggadah and the Passover story itself are replete with stories of vengeance, destruction, and massive collateral damage inflicted by God himself. Many Jews were killed during the plague of darkness for the sin of having their spirits broken by slavery, and so were the lower classes of Egyptians who had little say in the policies of a brutal despot. But for some, what is more of a problem are the animal sacrifices, which the name of Pesach itself references. How do we get around that one? It’s easy, at least for readers of the Walt Disney Vegetarian Haggadah which makes a big fat Tikkun Olam with the “liberated lamb.”

Zachary prepares for a passover in China.

For the Christians out there, here's a nice Passover sermon from Ministrate.

Remember you were a stranger

Jewlicious: Because we were slaves (Avadim Hayinu):

In Exodus 12:11 we are instructed to eat the Passover meal “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand”–in complete identification with the slave, with the moment before freedom, with the possibility of redemption and the willingness to carry out that redemption ourselves.

But this teaching has been lost on many. Instead of girding our loins or preparing our staff, many Jews come together for lavish banquets and talk about freedom without recognizing that, for many, freedom does not exist. How can we truly say that we “remember what is like to be a slave in the House of Pharaoh” when there are currently slaves not only in the House of Pharaoh, but also in our own backyards in Israel (and America)?

Hence, this piece on sex slavery in Israel (more here). (More links: TFHT, ProtectionProject, Free the Slaves, iAbolish.)

The Head Heeb on the Palestinian diaspora and Darfur refugees forced to fight in Chad's civil war. Social Action have a haggadah for Darfur from AJWS. The Religious Action Centre also have a Darfur Passover project (more here).

And remember too the strangers in America - the immigrants being criminalized by House Bill HR 4437 the "Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act".

Full Social Action passover listing here.

Eats

Here's a great listing of Passover recipes.

Music

The wonderful Richard Silverstein has some great Passover music links and mp3 files. My favourite is Max Helfman. Click these indexes for more: exodus haggadah passover seder jewish music passover music.

Aviva provides some lyrics of Arbeter Ring (Workers Circle) passover songs in Yiddish. (Here's her Yiddish directory.)

"Judaism.com is offering the Digital Haggadah. Free downloads of these MP3 files of essential excerpts from the Passover Haggadah", both Sephardi and Ashkenazi.

Neo-Hasid has a wav file of a lovely Stolner hasidic Passover nigun.

General Resources

Jewschool provides a massive Passover link list. Shalom Centre has loads more.

Two nice Haggadahs: Velveteen Rabbi and the Open Source Haggadah, which allows you to construct your own perfect Haggadah.





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Tags: Judaism, Jewish, Passover, Pesach, Music, Darfur
mp3, Religion, Israel, Torah, Sudan