An analysis of the "Pour out Your Wrath" incantation to understand the propriety of it's inclusion at the most climactic moment of the Seder, and some suggestions for alternatively authentic replacements.
This year our Seder will be different from other years. For the first time in many of our lives it will be a Leil s\Shimurim,, a night of concern, uncertainty, fatigue and confusion. Let us follow the advice of the Rabbis to see ourselves as though we too are leaving our Egypt.
Preparing for our Passover Seder we continue our exploration of the Kibbutz Haggadah with a visit to the Shittim Institute on kibbutz Beit Hashita in Northern Israel. Machon Shittim has the largest collection of Kibbutz Hagadot and an archive of close to a million texts which constitute Yahadut Yisraeli; Israeli Judaism.
We continue our exploration of the many faces of the Torah as reflected in the Kibbutz Haggadot written at the rebirth of the Jewish People in the Promised Land of Israel.
Parshat Vayikra - Vayikra is a call to action. In every generation we are admonished to imagine ourselves overthrowing the Pharaoh of our day. Today we’ll survey haggadot that take this challenge and re-imagine the Haggadah for their time. We challenge our Israeli brothers and sisters to join this tradition and write today's Hagaddah.
Parshat Beshalach - The Torah declares that the Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt "Hamushim" חֲמֻשִׁ֛ים , a word related to the number five. According to many commentaries this word implies that only some of the Israelites left Egypt and that they were armed and ready to fight. As divisions begin to surface within the ranks of the Israelites, we raise our hand to identify and call out the birth of Jewish sectarianism.
Parshat Ki Tavo - As we approach the high prayer season we trace the evolution of the oldest prayer preserved in the Torah. The First Fruits Declaration, a once iconic prayer made by a farmer on Shavuot; the Harvest Festival. We see how this prayer was censored, repurposed and reinterpreted up until today and wonder what license it provides to us.
Parshat Barmidbar - We visit with a man called Nachshon ben Aminadav with only a insignificant walk-on role in the text of the Torah but an iconic presence in Jewish religious and secular culture and mythology
"You shall not oppress a stranger, ... having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt" and the motif of loving the stranger is not found in the Haggadah unless we follow the advise of the Mishnah and read the parsha until the end...
Passover at a time of Corona: What the biblical provision for celebrating a second Passover, a month after the actual Passover teaches us about celebrating Passover under extenuating circumstances.
An analysis of the "Pour out Your Wrath" incantation to understand the propriety of it's inclusion at the most climactic moment of the Seder, and some suggestions for alternatively authentic replacements.
Why does the prohibition of owning or benefiting from Hametz (leavened bread) not appear in the Haggadah? We explore different suggestions such as simple male chauvinism or the schism with Christianity and suggest some alternative texts which would address this glaring oversight.