Dear Friends –
We are back! Another year has passed…Spring has returned…And now Passover and the Seder lie ahead of us.
Once again, I invite you to feast on the resources available on our Sinai website. If you are reading this message, you’ve already arrived at the website. Look down the left column of your screen and you’ll see materials that can enrich your holiday enjoyment and knowledge. If you have little children at your Seder, we have material for you. If your Seder is mainly an adult affair, we have resources for you. If you are political, non-political, poetic, athletic, family-oriented, or just plain “you” oriented, there is something for you at this site.
Check out the introductory materials I’ve prepared back to 2014.
And consider some of the following for this year in particular.
Rabbi Shapiro
Refugees
Back in 2016, I made some materials available. That early link is to the left of this page.
For updated ideas to fit into your Seder, follow this link from HIAS…The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Fifty Years – Martin Luther King Jr.
Believe it or not, fifty years has passed since the assassination of Dr. King. He was murdered on April 4, 1968 only about a week before that year’s Seder. Dr. King was actually planning to attend the Seder of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
At the Shapiro Seder this year, we are going to honor the memory of Dr. King and his hope for a better world just before we open the door for Elijah.
We will be reading the following excerpt from a speech by Dr. King.
You may also want to consider all or part of it for your satyr.
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We still have a long, long way to go before we reach the promised land of freedom.
Yes, we have left the dusty soils of Egypt, and we have crossed a Red Sea that had for years been hardened by a long and piercing winter of massive resistance, but before we reach the majestic shores of the promised land, there will still be gigantic mountains of opposition ahead and prodigious hilltops of injustice...
Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice.
Let us be dissatisfied until those who live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security.
Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home.
Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.
Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.
Let us be dissatisfied until men and women...will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin.
Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, “White Power!” when nobody will shout, “Black Power!” but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power.
Dr. King, August 16, 1967 at the Annual SCLC Convention, Atlanta
Wise Quotes
Here is another possible discussion focus. At the Shapiro Seder this year just after we read about the four children, I am going to suggest that we all take a look at some other “wise” comments from various Jews. I will distribute the quotes below and invite those present to choose or comment on one or more of the quotes that seems particularly relevant this year.
“If you believe breaking is possible, believe fixing is possible.” Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber
“Man’s life depends on the trees of the field.” Adapted from Deuteronomy 20:19
“Silence, remains inescapably, a form of speech.” Susan Sontag
“When I marched for civil rights in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” Abraham Joshua Heschel
“There is nothing more whole than a broken heart.” Menachem Mendel of Kotzck
“A human being is like a letter of the alphabet: to produce a word, it must combine with another.” Benjamin Mandelstamn
“The heroic hours of life do not announce their presence by drum and trumpet.” Benjamin Cardozo
“It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it.” Rabbi Tarfon from Pirke Avot 2:21
“From every human being there rises a light.” Baal Shem Tov
“Most of the things worth doing in the world were declared impossible before they were done.” Louis Brandeis
“A community is too heavy to carry alone.” Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:10
Israel at 70!!
1948 – 2018
Israel turns 70 in only a few weeks. Perhaps you will want to mention that at your Seder. If you are so inclined, photocopy the words to Hatikvah and sing the song. If you are so inclined, ask one or two people who have been to Israel to talk about their feelings and memories and highlights of the experience. Get creative.
When you do the Kiddush over the first cup of wine, perhaps that will be the place where you mentioned Israel’s birthday and everyone together wishes Israel..L’CHAIM.