Offered in connection with Allied in the Fight: Jews, Blacks and the Struggle for Civil Rights, January 19 March 25, 2018. Sunday, April 29, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm All Saints Catholic Church 4051 N. 25th Street Join Jewish Museum Milwaukee to break bread (or in this case matzah) with members of Milwaukee s African American and Jewish communities. Explore common ground and the universal pursuit of freedom at a ritual meal that has become a bridging tradition in cities across the nation at this post-passover event. Freedom Seders bring together African Americans and Jews to eat, discuss, and celebrate the shared values of justice and liberation both cultures find in the Exodus story. ADULTS $10 STUDENTS (18 AND UNDER) $5 RSVP DEADLINE: THURSDAY, APRIL 19 NO WALK-INS SPONSORED BY Eileen and Barry Mandel, Jewish Community Relations Council, Hours Against Hate, Barbara Stein, Social Action Committee of Congregation Emanu-El B ne Jeshurun, Voices for Justice Committee of Congregation Shalom, Congregation Shir Hadash, Congregation Sinai, Ralph and Margaret Hollmon, Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha Included with the program: A kosher meal, ritual seder plate food to share, and a customized Haggadah to take home. Jewish Community Relations Council For more info and registration call (414) 390-5730 or visit JewishMuseumMilwaukee.org. 1360 N. Prospect Avenue Milwaukee, WI 53202 (414) 390-5730 jewishmuseummilwaukee.org
What to Expect at a Passover Seder BY: RABBI DEBBIE STIEL So you're going to a Passover seder at someone's house? Wonderful! Here are some things to know before you go. What's a seder? The seder, a festive holiday meal, actually means "order." It is called this because the meal is done in a certain order which takes us from slavery to freedom. The Haggadah - which means "the telling" - is the book used at the Passover seder. The Haggadah explains the foods on the seder plate, recounts the highlights of the Exodus, and includes songs, prayers, questions and vignettes. How serious is this? Seders are meant to be low-key and fun. Questions are welcome and a lighthearted spirit is in order. After all, we are celebrating that we are not slaves anymore. At the seder we can rejoice, take our time, and ponder the questions of freedom and service to God. Many people recline at the seder to celebrate being free. Why is the Exodus from Egypt so important for Jews? Because of the Exodus, the idea of enslavement formed a permanent impression on our collective consciousness. This, coupled with continuing admonitions in the Bible to take care of the less fortunate, has led us to be a people perennially concerned with world injustices and the disenfranchised. The Exodus is our archetypal story of God as Deliverer and Redeemer. Here we learn that injustices can be fought and that we can draw strength from God. With this expulsion from Egypt we became a people (no longer just a family group) on a symbolic as well as physical journey. Here we start our journey to Sinai where we will receive the Ten Commandments. We leave Egypt to serve God and to head toward the Promised Land. Learn more about the history of Passover. What should I wear? Ask your hosts whether guests will be dressing casually or in more dressy attire. What should I bring? Ask your hosts what you can bring for the seder, or for the dinner. Your host might ask you to bring the hard boiled eggs, the kosher horseradish, a vegetable dish, grape juice or kosher-for- Passover wine. If they don't specify what to bring, it is still nice to bring kosher-for-passover candy or chocolates (found in many grocery stores at this time of year), flowers, or wine (the bottle must say it is kosher for Passover). Remember, if you are preparing a dish, it cannot contain any flour or grain (wheat, barley, rye, spelt or oats) or it must say that it is kosher for 1
Passover on the box. What do I say when I arrive? You can say Gut yontif (Good Holy Day), Happy Passover, or Chag Sameach (Happy Festival). What's on the big plate? You will see the seder plate with the symbolic foods, and three matzot (plural of matzah) wrapped up together. There are several explanations for the three matzot - the simplest is that two matzot are reminders of the double amount of manna that Jews in the desert collected on Shabbat and holidays, and one matzah is used for the breaking of the matzah in the seder. Whose wine cup is in the middle of the table? There will be a cup of wine that is filled for Elijah the prophet. There is a tradition that Elijah visits every Jewish home on Passover to witness the celebration, and perhaps to bring us this time into a messianic age (a time of peace and freedom for all). Two more recent customs can include putting a cup of water on the table to remind us of Miriam's well that traveled with the Israelites in the desert, and putting an orange on the seder plate. What's going on? Usually there is one person who is the leader of the Seder. This person will usually ask people to read various parts of the Haggadah. The good news is that the Haggadah is written to take us through the seder in the proper order. You don't have to memorize anything ahead of time. Remember that four cups of wine (or grape juice) will be drunk to remind us of the four promises of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7. You can drink just a little each time! How about a preview? Here's the basic order of most seders: Kadesh: The Kiddush blessing marking the holiness of this day and candles are lit, too, to mark the beginning of the holiday. When the seder falls on a Friday night, this Kiddush is recited for Passover and Shabbat. When the seder falls on a Saturday night, we continue with a special version of Havdalah. Urchatz: A ritual washing of the hands (not found in some Reform Hagaddot). Karpas: Eating a vegetable (often parsley) dipped in saltwater; with this step we combine the hopefulness of Spring (represented by the vegetable) with the tears of slavery (the salt water). Yachatz: Breaking of the middle matzah; we remember the brokenness that slavery represents. Maggid: The telling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. This story begins with the youngest person at the seder asking the Four Questions (Mah Nishtanah), and don't worry; if you're the youngest and Hebrew isn't your area of expertise, you're off the hook! These questions provide the impetus for telling why this night is different from all other nights. Rachtzah: Washing of the hands a second time, done with a blessing since you are going to eat more substantial food. 2
Motzi: The recitation of the blessing before eating (leavened or unleavened) bread Matzah: A special blessing said before eating matzah at the seder Maror: Eating the bitter herbs to taste the bitterness of slavery. Korech: Eating a sandwich of matzah and bitter herbs in fulfillment of Numbers 9:11. Then we eat a sandwich of matzah, maror, and charoset (a sweet chopped dish usually made with apple, nuts, cinnamon and grape juice) Shulchan Oruch: Eating the dinner, which traditionally includes matzah ball soup, hard boiled eggs, gefilte fish, meat and vegetables, and macaroons. Tzafun: A piece of the matzah that had been broken earlier has been hidden. This piece, known by the Greek word afikoman, is now found and eaten before the seder can continue. Often the kids are sent to look for it. This is one of several ways that the compilers of the hagaddah entertain the kids. Finding the afikoman symbolizes a move from brokenness toward healing. The afikoman (now the matzah of freedom) is supposed to be the last thing you eat on this evening. Barech: The recitation of the Birkat HaMazon, the grace after meals. Hallel: The recitation or singing of Psalms of praise. Nirtzah: A prayer that God accept our service; as our ancestors have for hundreds of years, we end our Seders with the words "lashana haba'a b'irushalayim!" - Next year may we be in Jerusalem! With these joyful words we hope to join with all Jews in a peaceful Jerusalem and we remember to keep working to make the world a better place. Chag Sameach! Have a wonderful holiday! 3
Six Parts of the Seder Plate Beitzah: The Roasted Egg is symbolic of the festival sacrifice made in biblical times. It is also a symbol of spring - the season in which Passover is always celebrated. Chazeret: Lettuce is often used in addition to the maroras a bitter herb. The authorities are divided on the requirement of chazeret,so not all communities use it. Since the commandment (in Numbers 9:11) to eat the paschal lamb "with unleavened bread and bitter herbs" uses the plural ("bitter herbs") most seder plates have a place for chazeret. Zeroa: The Shankbone is symbolic of the Paschal lamb offered as the Passover sacrifice in biblical times. Some communities use a chicken neck as a substitute. Vegetarian households may use beets. Charoset: Apple, nuts, and spices ground together and mixed with wine are symbolic of the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build Egyptian structures. There are several variations in the recipe for charoset. The Mishna describes a mixture of fruits, nuts, and vinegar. Karpas: Parsley is dipped into salt water during the seder. The salt water serves as a reminder of the tears shed during Egyptian slavery. The dipping of a vegetable as an appetizer is said to reflect the influence of Greek culture. Maror: Bitter Herbs (usually horseradish) symbolize the bitterness of Egyptian slavery. The maror is often dipped in charoset to reduce its sharpness. Maror is used in the seder because of the commandment (in Numbers 9:11) to eat the paschal lamb "with unleavened bread and bitter herbs".
Haggadah, In Search of Freedom: Exploring Common Ground Passover Haggadah (3/9/2009) For the 14th year, the Milwaukee Area Jewish Committee s African- American-Jewish Task Force held its annual African- American Jewish Seder. The seder has been led in synagogues, university libraries, senior centers, Jewish homes for the elderly, but never in a church. Until this year, when 130 people came together at All Saints Catholic Church this past Sunday to celebrate. In a recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Harriet McKinney MAJC executive director said, For some people, every seder is an African-American seder. I followed up with McKinney yesterday, and she told me that her daughter, Shahanna, first made this point when she co-lead the seder in the past. McKinney remembered her daughter s words as a critical point, one that deserved and required repeating. For people to understand that there are people of color for whom the traditions and experiences of the seder that day were, and are, the norm. For some people, this is the first time they ve had a chance to celebrate this ritual with a huge number of people who look like they do, said McKinney. Often the experience for a lot of African heritage Jews, is that it is usually, mostly European heritage Jews at a seder. Now they are having a seder with 60 or 70 people that look like they do, want to celebrate with them, and include a mix of Jewish and non-jewish allies. McKinney also told me that the seder has long been attended by local and state politicians. This year, they were joined by representatives from the office of U.S. Senator Russell Feingold, Congresswoman Gwen Moore from Wisconsin 4th Congressional District with one of her sons, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson and Circuit Court Judge Charles Kahn. Each year, the Haggadah is written and changed to incorporate different actions and current events. For the last number of years, the seder included a special action for Darfur, including a display photographs from Darfur and a postcard writing campaign. Last year they wrote letters to Chinese Ambassador asking him to use his good offices to help solve the crisis in Darfur. This year included a time to pray for President Obama, and a child s prayer that corresponded with their Tzedekah Drive for All Saints Commons, a program of the church which provides housing and support for homeless women and children. The goal of the Seder is to build and strengthen the bridges of understanding between our 1
peoples, said McKinney, who said the Haggadah is crafted with this in mind. The parts of the seder and stories told examine the parallel s between our people s histories, values, experiences and relationships. We ve uploaded the Haggadah so that it s now available online. If you use any parts of the Hagaddah be sure to credit Shahanna McKinney and Peter Goldberg and the Milwaukee Area Jewish Committee-an independent affiliate of the American Jewish Committee. Here s just a taste of what you ll find between the covers of this fabulous Haggadah. On Mitzrayim: For it is said that every person, in every generation, must regard his-or-herself as having been personally freed from bondage in Mitzrayim. And where is Mitzrayim? In the Torah (Hebrew Bible), it is the land of Egypt. But the name, Mitzrayim, has in it the Hebrew word for narrow, constrained, or inhibited. It is thus the narrow place that squeezes the life out of the human soul and body. For some of us, it was Pharaoh s Egypt. For some of us, it was the Middle Passage. For some of us, it was the Spanish Inquisition or Nazi Germany. For some of us, it was the Jim Crow South or segregated Northern ghettos. For some of us, it is over-crowded housing and classrooms. For some of us, it is off-limits clubs and boardrooms. No one place is always Mitzrayim, but any place even our own can be turned into one. So tonight let us dedicate ourselves to break out of our own narrow straits. And tonight let us honor all people who have struggled and are struggling for their freedom. On Karpas: KARPAS: Rebirth and Renewal [Co-Leader] Because Passover is the great spring festival of the Jewish calendar, the first symbol of Passover is a green vegetable, karpas, traditionally parsley, onion, or potato, and our first ritual is a reflection of spring. Greens turnip, mustard, and collard, are an important part of many southern meals. Greens are most often associated with the traditional African-American cuisine. The liquid that is left over from cooking greens is called pot liquor. [Co-Leader] Pot liquor became an important ingredient in the captive Africans diet. It is said to have been given as a healing potion, used to cure chicken pox, measles, and mumps; and so these greens also symbolize vitality and rebirth. [Reader 8] My grandmother was a firm believer in the power of pot liquor, and so am I. It s like the Jewish mother s faith in chicken soup. And what is chicken soup other than plain old chicken pot liquor? (Jackie Torrence, The Importance of Pot Liquor) [Co-Leader] We dip the karpas twice: the parsley in salt water, and the greens in pot liquor. This is our hors d oeuvre, the beginning of our festive meal, which we enjoy as free men and women. Festive meals are almost unknown to those in captivity. Let us dip the parsley in salt water (traditionally, a symbol of the tears of bondage), and the greens in pot liquor (a symbol of resistance to oppression), and say the blessing: [Reader 9] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha olam borei p ri ha adamah 2
[Together] Blessed are You Lord our G-d, Sovereign of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the earth. 3