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The Family Haggadah |
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| Book: Hardcover | 7.08 x 9.01in | 80 pages | ISBN 9780670883417 | 01 Feb 1999 | Viking Children's | 5 - AND UP years |
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Now family members of all ages can participate in the Seder celebration with this traditional yet contemporary guide to the Passover ritual dinner. Illustrated step-by-step guidelines make participation a meaningful, hands-on experience for children and adults alike, no matter what the level of observance or understanding.
If you are uncertain about how, why, or whether to create your own family Seder, here is all the help you need: from recipes and ritual platters to advice on involving children before and during the Seder; from stories and songs?with music?to spiritual quests and questions. The Family Haggadah will help you turn your Seder into a true celebration, full of singing, dancing, joy, and drama, and will enrich the ritual of the Passover Seder for years to come.
WHAT MAKES THIS HAGGADAH DIFFERENT?
The Family Haggadah invites families with children to experience the story of the Exodus as if it is actually happening to them. In order to accomplish this-to enhance the vibrant, highly sensory feeling that "you are there"-the story of the Exodus is told in the present tense.
The Family Haggadah deliberately avoids sexist, patriarchal, or militaristic language, usage, or customs. The Four Sons are now the Four Children. God is described as neither male or female, but as a Being of limitless creativity and power. The retelling of the Passover story pays attention to the extraordinary women-Shifruh and Puah, the midwives; Yochaved, Miriam, Thermutis (Pharaoh's daughter)--and many, nameless other strong women without whom the Exodus never could have happened. The Seder ritual, while rich in tradition, also introduces the important new feminist tradition of Miriam's Cup-inviting participants to honor this important female prophet as well as the women in their own lives who help heal and repair the world. A little about the impetus behind this labor of love:
Because I did not grow up in an observant Jewish family and continue to reclaim my religious and spiritual identity a step at a time (I am presently preparing to become a Bat Torah at B'Nai Jeshurun at age 54), I wrote this book over a period of seven years as a way of coming to understand more about the meanings of Pesach, then share my discoveries with my children. The prospect of beginning to learn how to create Passover for my own family was both enormously exciting and deeply terrifying. That's why I wrote the book that I wanted to read. My hope is that The Family Haggadah will be helpful to all the parents like me who need information, inspiration, and the spiritual confidence to risk creating family Seders bearing their own unique marks.
I hope that you will find The Family Hagaddah worthy of your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ellen Schecter
HERE IS A TASTE OF THE TEXT:
The Exodus
And now it is time to leave: time for our Exodus. Take a bite of matzah; then close your eyes and see.
Look: the moon is a round white circle. It pours bright silver through the open window. Listen: the fire snaps in the quiet. Everyone is sleeping. There is a sudden rush of wind or wings.
And now screams pierce the quiet. They are the cries of the Egyptian fathers and mothers as they discover their firstborn children-dead.
We hear a knock at the door. Voices call softly through the dark: "Hurry! Pharaoh says he will let us go. But we must leave now. No time to pack clothes or toys, no time to prepare food. No time to bake bread, or even let the dough rise. We must escape quickly, before Pharaoh changes his mind again."
We run through the shadows, clutching each others' hands to stay together. We can still see the full moon glowing in the hot black sky. The sad cries of the Egyptians still ring in the distance. We stumble along as quickly as we can, rushing through the night with all the other Israelite families in a
quiet, frightened parade. There are thousands and thousands of us.
We walk all night, and it seems the night will never end. Our legs ache. The sand rubs blisters on our toes. Our stomachs growl for food. Our mouths are dry and full of dust.
The sun rises, burning hot. We're too tired to take one more step. We have to stop for a short rest. The children are crying for food; even the grown-ups are exhausted and hungry.
Soon the desert is hot as an oven. We all help mix flour and water for bread. There's no time to let it rise, so we put it on the scorching rocks to bake quickly in the sun.
It's time to walk again before there's time to eat, but we're so hungry we eat
on the run. The sun-baked matzah is the best bread we ever tasted. Even though it's dry and flat; even though it crumbles in our mouths; even though it's mixed with desert sand and the dust of the road, it is the bread of freedom.
By day and by night we cross the blazing desert. But we are never alone and we never lose our way. For God leads us by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire.
And just when we know we cannot take another step, we smell salt. We hear waves on the sand. The Sea of Reeds glitters before us, stretching farther than our eyes can see.
But what's that pounding above the sound of the surf? Horses? Soldiers? Yes: Pharaoh has changed his mind one last time. And now more than six hundred chariots appear at the edge of the sky-soldiers coming to take us back into slavery. We are caught between the soldiers and the sea.
"Oh, God, help us!" we cry. And God hears us, and saves us, with signs and with wonders. The Angel of God, who is leading us, moves behind us. The pillar of fire moves between the army of Israel and the army of the Egyptians and keeps them apart all through the night.
Now, as we watch, God makes the east wind blow the waters of the sea apart. The sea splits before us.
Now there is a path right through the middle of the water: a wide, dry pathway we can follow to freedom. But is it safe? How can we be sure the sea won't crash down and drown us?
We hold each other tight. We can see the moonlight turning the wet sand to silver where the waters part. We can see the moonlight blazing on the glassy walls of the frozen sea, still as stone on both
sides of the path. We can hear Pharaoh's chariots thunder closer. We know it is time.
Now! Quickly! We step on the path in the middle of the sea; we run as fast as we can into the moonlit miracle. And the hand of God holds back the water till we reach the other side. But look: Pharaoh's horses, soldiers, and chariots are right behind us, charging toward us on the path through the sea. Is it too late? Will they catch us-and kill us?
Now the hand of God lets the waters go. The sea crashes down on the horses, soldiers, and chariots; it swallows them up. They sink like stones.
It is over. It is only beginning. We are safe. Moses sings a Song of Praise and the men join him. Miriam jingles her tambourine, leaping and singing, leading the women in a joyful dance of praise and celebration.
Miriam's Cup: A New Tradition
We can pause here after our song and celebration to observe a new tradition with many old meanings. Think back to the story we are telling tonight and remember: There would be no Exodus, no Passover, no Seder, no freedom without the many brave women who played crucial roles in the Passover drama. There would be no Exodus without Shifrah and Puah, the midwives who refused to follow Pharaoh's orders to drown newborn Israelite boys; without Yocheved, who hid her baby, Moses, for three months, then built him a little boat so he could sail safely down the River Nile; without Pharaoh's daughter, Thermutis, who defied her father, the king of all Egypt, when she rescued an Israelite child and drew Moses from the water.
And, last but not least, the Exodus never could have happened without Miriam the prophet, who predicted the birth of Moses; who brought her mother to Pharaoh's daughter; who led the singing and celebration after our safe crossing through the Sea of Reeds. Legend also tells us that Miriam found the wells that kept us alive during the forty years we wandered in the wilderness before we came into the Promised Land. Reader Let us read the following words aloud together:
Everyone Our tradition teaches that all of us must work together to end slavery, find freedom, and create a better world. In this spirit, let us each pour some water from our glasses to fill Miriam's Cup. Let us now dedicate this cup of water to the memory of Miriam, to the women and the waters of our Exodus, and to the women in our own lives who help heal us and repair our world. You can say their names aloud if you like.
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