JAWS HAGGADAH

INTRODUCTION

We have created this Haggadah for Pesach 5784, a year marked by the utter devastation and shame of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as an alternative for fellow Jewish radicals and their comrades to mark this holiday of liberation with rewritten seder rituals that interpret Pesach from a truly anti-zionist and anti-colonial perspective, seeking to tackle problem of subjugation, exile and struggle in a way that confronts modern-day realities about imperialism and settler colonization. We hope that this Haggadah will be a valuable expression of solidarity that goes beyond the seder table and inspires real-world praxis, and we invite anybody interested in it to help us continue our work by joining our organization.

HOW TO USE THIS HAGGADAH

This haggadah is made to be accessible to Jews from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds, and is also meant to be welcoming towards others of different faiths or heritages that wish to attend a seder. It retains, yet rewrites, the vast majority of the template for a standard Pesach seder.

The prayers and scriptural excerpts written this seder may be approached from a theistic, pantheistic, or secular perspective, and any combination of adjustments thereof is welcome to be recited by participants at the seder table who happen to belong to any of these camps. It is also written upon the principle that despite our unique traditions and practices, Jews are not the only people to bring forth a certain holiness into the world, whether that be through any combination of divine or human intervention, that remakes it according to principles of justice and solidarity. Excerpts from Palestinian and other anti-colonial writers also stand side-by-side with the Jewish texts embedded within the Seder as a means of imagining the Exodus in the light of Palestine and the question of colonization, which has affected both Jew and Gentile. 

In particular, we aim to link antisemitism with the colonization of Palestine and other forms of oppression through one common thread that acts as both poetic image and historical anchoring: exile. Exile, as defined by the Palestinian theorist Edward Said (to whom this haggadah is indebted to) is the state of being cut off from one's roots and land in a manner that affects our perception of space and time in relation to our origins. This has been experienced countless times by Jewish diasporas, who have been made to leave not only one land (as Zionists claim) but a vast number of places throughout Europe and beyond in response to genocidal intent. Of course, Palestinians also go through exile today as their land is occupied and taken away from them, at pain of death. 

Our haggadah therefore embodies diasporism as a project that is not meant to be an end-all; we see the state of being in exile (galut, in Biblical Hebrew) as a painful, but nevertheless potential-filled catalyst for sowing internationalist solidarity amongst the survivors of ever manifestation of ethnic supremacy and colonization. Throughout the seder, more than any specific material or item, all that needs to accompany you is this identification with anybody who has ever been forced to leave their home and become a wanderer — not just through these factors, but for other reasons such as queerphobia, abuse, and even for the more privileged among us, the desire to make a better world from the ashes of one that constantly triggers exile as an experience. Through joining the battle for Palestinian liberation, we hope this haggadah brings you closer to a world where everybody, wherever they are, can finally regain that home. 

Below are the traditional symbols on a seder plate, plus options for additions (with one, the olive, being an addition we particularly encourage due to standing for Palestinian liberation). We also explain what they stand for, and interpret them in the light of the current moment.

Karpas: An herb that is a symbol of spring and hope, that is dipped in salt water meant to resemble the tears of the Israelites. Here, it stands for how the seed of solidarity is sown amongst the sorrow of witnessing and experiencing colonization and genocide.

Charoset: A sweet dessert meant to resemble the bricks and mortar the Israelites used as construction material while enslaved in Egypt. It can remind us of the exploitative realities that lie behind the material or ideological comfort of reactionary ideologies like Zionism; yet it can also remind us of the new world we will build from the rubble of our grief.

Maror: Bitter herbs that are meant to stand for oppression the Israelites underwent in Egypt; this of course encompasses the lived realities of all oppression today, including that of Palestinians. 

Hazeret: A second bitter herb used for Korech/the Hillel sandwich, similar to Maror. 

Zeroa: A shank bone (or red roasted beet for vegetarians/vegans) that represents the now-obsolete Passover sacrifice that used to be performed during Second Temple times. We reinterpret this to commit towards dedicating all of our lives towards ending oppression, and honoring those who literally die as martyrs in the fight for liberation. 

Betziah: An egg roasted on one side (that infamously tends to explode in your face when you try to prepare it). Usually symbolic of the cycles of life, its association with birth here stands for future generations of Palestinians, Jews, and other oppressed peoples that we hope to raise in a world free of Zionism and other expressions of empire. 

Olive: The olive is a symbol of Palestine due to being a tree that is abundant in the land; it is also used across Judaism and other faiths to signify peace, but has, in this manner, sadly been appropriated by different versions of Zionism. We reconcile the two here by insisting upon how true peace is only achievable once all of Palestine is returned to its indigenous inhabitants, who should be given full autonomy over how it ought to be reconstituted. We would also like to turn your attention how the ongoing genocide in Palestine affects the land's environment; its olive trees, though badly affected, will persist as much as the land’s people will and will rise again.

You may, of course, also add watermelons and as many additional symbols related to Palestinian solidarity and liberation that you can think of!

Other Options:

• Oranges, for Jews such as women, queer people, converts, JoC, those of patrilineal descent, and the like, who are often excluded from Jewish community

• Acorn, for indigenous liberation, specifically in Turtle Island

• Spoon, for disabled liberation

FIRST KIDDUSH

CANDLE LIGHTING

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה אַדֹנָ-י אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל שַׁבָּת וְשֶׁל יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Yom Tov.

We bless the Eternal [One, our God, Sovereign]/[Spirit] of the Universe, who has sanctified us with [their] mitzvot and commanded us to kindle the festival lights. 

Non-theistic version:

We bless our ancestors, who have outlived their oppressors through their cultures and traditions and originated the practices that have led us to kindle these festival lights. 

The element of fire is associated with the first blessing of the Shema, where we thank G-d for making light, whose appearance signifies the act of creation. In this prayer, we refer to G-d as the “performer of mighty deeds, maker of new things; master of battles, sower of acts of righteousness, [and the] causer of deliverance to sprout forth.”

The concept of tikkun olam, or of repairing the world, first emerged a kabbalistic idea that involved reigniting the divine spark that emerges from this process out of each of us through performing mitzvot. In progressive Jewish circles, tikkun olam now refers to pursuing acts of social justice — however, most of its usage in these respects still remains bound within a liberal framework of what justice consists of (i.e. working within the system through voting or peaceful protest).

In this season of yearning for freedom, how do we see ourselves acting as revolutionaries, lighting the sparks that lead to the creation of a new world through our praxis? 

KIDDUSH

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱֹלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר בָּחַר בָּנוּ מִכָּל-עָם וְרוֹמְמָנוּ מִכָּל-לָשׁוֹן וְקִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו. וַתִּתֶּן לָנוּ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ בְּאַהֲבָה (לשבת: שַׁבָּתוֹת לִמְנוּחָה וּ) מוֹעֲדִים לְשִׂמְחָה, חַגִּים וּזְמַנִּים לְשָׂשוֹן, (לשבת: אֶת יוֹם הַשַׁבָּת הַזֶּה וְ) אֶת יוֹם חַג הַמַּצּוֹת הַזֶּה זְמַן חֵרוּתֵנוּ, (לשבת: בְּאַהֲבָה) מִקְרָא קֹדֶשׁ זֵכֶר לִיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. כִּי בָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ וְאוֹתָנוּ קִדַּשְׁתָּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, (לשבת: וְשַׁבָּת) וּמוֹעֲדֵי קָדְשֶׁךָ (לשבת: בְּאַהֲבָה וּבְרָצוֹן) בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְשָׂשוֹן הִנְחַלְתָּנוּ

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, borei p'ri hagafen.

Baruch atah, Adonai, Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher bachar banu mikol am v'rom'manu mikol lashon v'kid'shanu b'mitzvotav.

Vatiten lanu, Adonai Eloheinu, b'ahavah (Shabbatot lim'nuchah u)mo-adim l'simchah, chagim uz'manim l'sason, (et yom HaShabbat hazeh v')et yom Chag Hamatzaht hazeh, z'man cheiruteinu, mikra kodesh, zeicher litziat Mitzrayim. Ki vanu vacharta v'otanu kidashta mikol haamim (v'Shabbat u)mo-adei kodsh'chah b'ahavah uv'ratzon b'simchah uv'sason hinchaltanu.

Baruch atah Adonai, m'kadeish [HaShabbat v'Yisrael v']haz'manim.

We bless The Eternal, [our God, Sovereign]/[Spirit] of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. 

We bless The Eternal, [our God, Sovereign]/[Spirit] of the Universe, who has called us to service and sanctified us with mitzvot, and given us, in love; the festivals for gladness, the holidays and seasons for joy, this day the festival of matzah, the time of our collective liberation, a communal gathering between ourselves and the rest of creation, a remembrance of all of our going out of the Exodus from Egypt. 

For we have been called amongst other peoples, and been made holy through service, and received festivals, in happiness and joy, to spur us to further solidarity and unison with the entirety of creation through the act of remembering this Exodus. Blessed is the Eternal, who makes the people who wrestle with [themselves/itself] participate in the redemption of the world through their commemorations.

Non-theistic version:

Let us bless the natural processes of creation, the indigenous peoples of varying lands, and the laborers who have provided us with the nourishment of the fruit of the vine. 

We are called to service and to fulfill mitzvot; in love, we celebrate festivals of gladness, holidays and seasons of joy, this day the festival of matzah, the time of our collective liberation, a communal gathering between ourselves and the rest of creation, a remembrance of all of going out of the Exodus from Egypt.

For we have dedicated ourselves along with other peoples, and set ourselves apart from dehumanization and oppression through mutual acts of solidarity, and continue to celebrate these festivals through the ages, in happiness and joy, to spur us to further solidarity and unison with our comrades through remembering the Exodus. Let us honor and acknowledge how we foresee the emergence of a new world through these commemorations.

Despite being a holiday dedicated to justice and to freedom from the chains of oppression, Pesach has, in many ways, been tainted by Zionism. Across the world, synagogues offer prayers to the so-called State of "Israel" and connect the Exodus to its founding in 1948, which, as we know, was intentionally enacted through the murder and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and the militarization and occupation of all of historic Palestine. Up until today, settlers take advantage of the festivals, as with many other Jewish holidays, to stage attacks against sites in Palestine such as the Al-Asqa mosque — acts of aggression that led up to the Palestinian resistance striking back on October 7, 2023 through the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation – and set the precedent for the genocidal violence that ensured afterwards.

And yet, the story of Pesach still acts as a vehicle for anti-Zionist Jews to dedicate themselves to liberation from oppression, not just for themselves, but for all subjugated peoples of the world—and, just as importantly, has been passed down to many of these peoples, including Palestinians, who have inherited the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt through other faiths that hold the Exodus in importance such as Christianity and Islam, relating a legend of Jewish origins to their unique historical experiences to join in the legend's embodiment of our common yearning for freedom.  

How do we acknowledge both of these truths at this Seder table? How do we find a way to celebrate the specifically Jewish origins of Pesach, but to uphold the story as universal? 

SHEHECHEYANU

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה, אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָֽינוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמָן הַזֶּה

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Haolam, shehecheyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higianu lazman hazeh.

Blessed are you, Eternal [Sovereign/Spirit] of the Universe, who has given us life, sustained us and brought us to this moment.

Non-theistic version:

Let us bless the everyday miracles and the acts of other people who have given us life, sustained us, and brought us to this moment. 

What does it mean to be ‘brought to this moment?’

Can we, like the Israelites, question the goodness and the justness of a G-d,or of a universe, or of a species that calls itself humanity, that has brought us to this moment of immense suffering for oppressed peoples of the world as genocide unfolds in Palestine, Armenia, Sudan, the Congo and elsewhere?

Amidst the persecution of the oppressed, can we still prophesize like Moses about how the institutions that have provided the ammunition for murderous violence are now beginning to fall apart, even as they now seem to be reaching their peak? 

Or are we Jews perhaps less like Moses and more like the latter-day prophets of the Tanakh, who lamented how this oppression was now being committed by their own people?

Where do we find ourselves in this moment, and how do we prepare ourselves to give birth to a new one? How do we reclaim the persistence of all our lives as a catalyst for resistance amidst a world that is surrounded by death?

“We know that the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. The Torah and the prayers instruct them in remembrance, however. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succumb who turn to the soothsayers for enlightenment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews the future turned into homogeneous, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter.”

—Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History (a work written during a moment of genocide, the Shoah; Benjamin's last piece before committing suicide)   

UREHATZ 

In this second step, Urehatz, we wash our hands to prepare ourselves for the seder meal; although there is no associated blessing with this act, below is a meditation on the presence of water in the Pesach story. 

Water appears three times throughout the Pesach; first, as a symbol of death when Pharaoh orders the Hebrew babies to be drowned in the River Nile, an explicit act of genocide, against which the brave midwives Shifrah and Puah fight by disobeying his orders. Next, it appears as Moses enters the narrative as a baby; unable to hide him, his family is forced to send him off on the River Nile in a basket, to be consigned to an unknown fate, with his sister Miriam watching over him. He is rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, who stumbles across him as she is bathing. And finally, of course, water appears one last time when the Israelites are at the Sea of Reeds; as the Egyptians pursue them, G-d splits the waters, letting them cross before covering them up again to make the Egyptians drown. 

Located in between similar bodies of water, the Palestinian liberation movement often chants “From the river to the sea!” in reference to liberation of all the land, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. Resistance against the ongoing genocide is currently taking place along the sea, with Ansrallah’s blockade and the Freedom Flotilla bringing humanitarian aid protecting and approaching Gaza. 

As we see the contradictions of settler colonialism in Palestine reach their peak and the fall of the modern Israeli state looming on the horizon, we also see a future where many of the imperialist and capitalist foundations upon which the modern world built itself burst and overflow. This is not a mere metaphor, either; one of the symptoms of this upheaval is global warming, which, as we will see later on in this seder, is a matter intimately connected with the current genocide in Gaza and the colonization of Palestine. Outside of the Levant, rising sea levels across the world threaten to disproportionately affect colonized people, particularly throughout the Global South Although we cannot predict the exact workings of chaotic systems like the environment or the global economy, climate change will affect the quality of human life in general and will be a decisive factor into the popular mobilization of the masses of the Global South and beyond.

A commonly-told Pesach story is that of Nashon, the first to obey Moses's instructions to step into the Sea of Reeds as the shadow of the Egyptian army threatens to obscure the bright, shining fire of divinity that lies in front of the Israelites. With this simple handwashing, may we commit ourselves to similar levels of courage as we wade into uncertain waters, many of us armed with nothing more essential than the desire to reclaim our freedom.

KARPAS

For the third step, Karpas, we dip any fresh vegetable, such as a leaf of cabbage or lettuce, onto water mixed with salt. This is one of many symbols in the seder that combines hope for a new spring with the bitterness that lingers on in our memories of the past, from when we found ourselves bound to oppression. This same dichotomy of balancing hope for the future with the lived experience of dehumanization is one the Israelites also dealt with as they fled Egypt and wandered across the desert for forty years. 

Unfortunately, the genocide is still raging on, and we are not at this stage yet; throughout this seder, crafted for this particular moment, expressions of hope or joy across the rituals and prayers done during Pesach are transformed into evocations of conviction and of resolution to revolutionary action, as they are the only relatives of such emotions appropriate for the moment. We therefore dip the lone vegetable into the water in order to honor life, as is commanded in the Torah, as an evidently fragile gift; we commit to immersing ourselves in the bitterness of the world in order to free ourselves of it and to imagining a future where our descendants, liberated from the existence of oppression, can infuse its seeds with true happiness as they get to experience and pass down a Judaism free of Zionism once more.

BLESSING OVER VEGETABLES 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam borei p’ri ha’adamah.
Blessed are you, Eternal [One/Spirit], [who/that] creates the fruit of the earth.

Non-theistic version:

Let us bless the processes of creation, the indigenous peoples and the laborers who have given us the fruit of the earth.

Usually, Songs of Songs 2:10-13 is recited along with this step:

“Arise, my darling;
My fair one, come away!
For now the winter is past,
The rains are over and gone.
The blossoms have appeared in the land,
The time of pruning has come;
The song of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.

The green figs form on the fig tree,
The vines in blossom give off fragrance.
Arise, my darling;
My fair one, come away!”

Although scholars are not sure when Song of Songs is written, it is curious to note that it seems to be evidence of the very old roots of a common technique in poetry about nation and dwelling, especially of that written from a postcolonial perspective; depicting land as lover. In light of its possible appropriation for the purposes of settler-colonialism in Palestine, and the actual destruction of the land as we write this seder, we would like to instead propose contrasting this passage with poems such as the one below for as long as the siege on Gaza continues:

Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan

Enough for me to die on her earth
be buried in her
to melt and vanish into her soil
then sprout forth as a flower
played with by a child from my country.
Enough for me to remain
in my country’s embrace
to be in her close as a handful of dust
a sprig of grass
a flower.

YAHATZ

In this step, we traditionally take the middle matzah among the three on the seder table and break it in two, hiding one of the pieces somewhere to be found later on. This missing piece is often called the afikomen, and whoever finds it later on in the seder can be given a prize, especially if they are children. A fun game, but not really one that suits the current atmosphere. 

As is common knowledge, matzah bread, in its quickly-cooked, unleavened state — allegedly a representation of how the Israelites had no time to prepare any fancier food upon leaving Egypt — is another example of double-edged symbolism of the bitterness of oppression as well as the sudden arrival of freedom. For this seder, we propose retaining this step whilst reinterpreting it by passing around the afikomen and breaking it yet again into multiple pieces — one for each member of the table, if possible. Each person should hide their piece, but prepare to bring it out later; keeping one’s piece is meant to be a gesture that helps one remember moments in they or their ancestors’ lives where they found themselves in a similar situation to the Israelites in the Pesach story, and to Gazans at the moment. What experiences of genocide, expulsion, repression, or other forms of oppression drive us to develop empathy and solidarity for others who have or are undergoing similar injustices, and to live out the Exodus to the point of liberation?

Once each person has their bit of the afikomen, the table may silently meditate on this for two to three minutes and identify some first or secondhand memories of such events that they may want to recall throughout the entire portion of the seder where the Pesach story is retold. Think about how you or your ancestors reacted or are reacting to this situation, who survived or has survived so far and who has not, and from where or where not you or your ancestor received aid from before reaching freedom. If you are comfortable, you will recount your stories later in place of Tzafun, the step where we later find the afikomen. 

MAGID

הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַּׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַּׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין. 

This is the bread of poverty, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry, whether they be Palestinian, Jewish, or otherwise among the oppressed, come and eat. Let all who are in need come and celebrate Pesach, the story that proclaims the holiness of liberation, which echoes into multiple faiths and which does not only belong to ourselves, but to humanity. Now we are in exile; next year, may those who left their lands return to them. This year, we are all strangers in a strange land; next year, may wherever we are be our home.

May it be your will, Eternal One our God and God of our ancestors, that just as you took the Israelites from among the Egyptians and led them through the sea, so may you empower Palestinians to reclaim their land from the river to the sea and free all peoples across the oceans of the world from the shackles of empire; and for your sake, and not ours, have mercy on the House of Israel for forgetting our past and becoming just like Pharaoh and his army. May you lead us to remember your righteousness and justice and to form a new covenant amongst ourselves and the other nations, and may we remake the world in love and solidarity. 

Non-theistic version:

As we honor millennia of Jewish resistance by telling the legend of how the Israelites were rescued from Egyptians and led through the sea, so may Palestinians soon tell stories of how they reclaimed their land from the river to the sea, and all peoples across the oceans of the world write songs of liberation from the shackles of empire; may we write songs of lamentation about how we forgot our past and became just like Pharaoh and his army. May we form a new covenant amongst ourselves and other nations to remake the world in love and in solidarity. 

WHY IS THIS NIGHT SO DIFFERENT FROM OTHER NIGHTS?

Traditional Hebrew version:

מַה נִּשְׁתַּנָּה הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה מִכָּל הַלֵּילוֹת? שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה – כֻּלּוֹ מַצָּה. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין שְׁאָר יְרָקוֹת – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה (כֻּלּוֹ) מָרוֹר. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אֵין אָנוּ מַטְבִּילִין אֲפִילוּ פַּעַם אֶחָת – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה שְׁתֵּי פְעָמִים. שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין בֵּין יוֹשְׁבִין וּבֵין מְסֻבִּין – הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻּלָּנוּ מְסֻבִּין. 

Adopted English version:

Why is this Pesach so different from other Pesachim?

During Pesach, we used to complain about the taste of matzah;
Now, why does it seem like such a meal compared to the famine in Gaza?

In previous years, we paired bitter herbs with the richest vegetables;
Now, why do we feel ashamed having anything but the simplest of feasts?

On other Pesachim we took the symbols at our table for granted;
Now, why does the salt water we dip the maror in sting like real tears?

In the past, we have reclined while eating our seder meal;
Why have we not sat up, alert, knowing oppression has not left the land?

Reponse: 

עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם, וַיּוֹצִיאֵנוּ ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מִשָּׁם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה. וְאִלּוּ לֹא הוֹצִיא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶת אֲבוֹתֵינוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם, הֲרֵי אָנוּ וּבָנֵינוּ וּבְנֵי בָנֵינוּ מְשֻׁעְבָּדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם. וַאֲפִילוּ כֻּלָּנוּ חֲכָמִים כֻּלָּנוּ נְבוֹנִים כֻּלָּנוּ זְקֵנִים כֻּלָּנוּ יוֹדְעִים אֶת הַתּוֹרָה מִצְוָה עָלֵינוּ לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרָיִם. וְכָל הַמַּרְבֶּה לְסַפֵּר בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם הֲרֵי זֶה מְשֻׁבָּח. 

Pesach began to be celebrated after we had been enslaved under Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. And the Eternal took us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Eternal had not allowed our ancestors to flee Egypt, and other lands of narrowness and of servitude, we and our children’s children would still be under the yoke of such slavery. But, alas, we have not learned the lesson of freedom; we have taken advantage of our escape from death to sentence entire nations to what we once endured. And so now even if we were all scholars, all teachers, all organizers, all knowledgeable about the story of our people, we would not fulfill the mitzvah of remembering the Exodus from Egypt until we made sure to recognize how the Exodus is happening in Palestine and in all other colonized nations today as they resist against their occupiers. And still, we can live out the Exodus today; anyone who joins the cast of this story by standing and fighting together with them is praiseworthy.

Non-theistic version:

The Torah says that we were enslaved under Pharaoh in the land of Egypt; and the Eternal took us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. But if our actual ancestors had not decided to flee oppression for themselves, we and our children’s children would still be under the yoke of slavery. But alas, we have not learned the lesson of freedom; we have taken advantage of our escape from death to sentence entire nations to what we once endured. And so now even if we were all knowledgeable about the story of our people, we would not fulfill the mitzvah of remembering the Exodus from Egypt until we recognize how the Exodus is happening in Palestine and all other colonized nations today as they resist against their occupiers. And we may still live out the Exodus today; anyone who joins the cast of this story by standing and fighting together with them is praiseworthy.

“I have a cause higher and nobler than my own, a cause to which all private interests and concerns must be subordinated.”

—Leila Khaled

THE FOUR CHILDREN/JEWS

In our take on the four children who all express different attitudes towards the seder meal—traditionally, characterized wise, wicked, simple and unsure how to ask—we explore four different reactions the Jewish community has towards the consideration of Palestine today. We portray these different types of Jews as adults in order to fully acknowledge the moral responsibility they wield, and order them according to trends that reflect the state of Jewry’s differing responses to this question at this particular moment. 

The Wicked Child is now The Fascist,
The Simple Child is now The Normalizer,
The One Who Does Not Know How to Ask is now The Uncertain,
And The Wise One is now The Revolutionary. 

The Fascist, unwilling to uphold the centrality of freedom to Jewish experience, is, naturally, written as a Zionist who proclaims the settler state’s ‘right to defend itself’ and uses this to disguise their wish to ethnically cleanse Palestine out of its inhabitants to take the land for their own. Shamefully, this is the loudest contingent within the Jewish community today. 

The Normalizer represents the portions of the Jewish community that are so-called ‘liberal’ or ‘non-Zionists’ that dance around or avoid the question altogether, becoming just as complicit in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians since 1948. It also represents another large portion of Jews who greatly exaggerate the distinctions between themselves and the Fascist. 

The Uncertain describes a growing number of Jews who are learning the history of Palestine from before and after the Nakba, and who have inklings of building resistance against Zionism. However, they continue to cling on to liberal tactics and interpretations of reality and who still cannot fully commit to the cause, necessitating the creation of publications like these.

The Revolutionary, which is the still small but increasingly apparent perspective we aim to stand for, supports the Palestinian right to resist by any means necessary and understands that the only way forth for Jewish liberation and self-determination is through repudiating Zionism in all shapes and forms, and joining the global masses in dismantling empire.

The Fascist asks: Why do you continue to celebrate this holiday, when it reveals how we are chosen to take this land for ourselves and be amongst the kingdoms of the world?

We answer “We must be one with the stranger, for we were once strangers in the land of Egypt;” (Exodus 22:21); we identify with Palestinians because we have both been estranged to the point of genocide, amongst many other peoples, and reject the fascism of Jewish exclusivity.

The Normalizer asks: Why do you create rituals that take sides and paint our own peoples as oppressors and our neighbors as oppressed, when we can share the land?

We answer “(The heavens and) the Earth witnesses against us this day; before us are life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). We must draw barriers between what is true and false, between what frees us all and what continues subjugating the masses; to do this, we only name distinctions that are already there.

The Uncertain does not ask, but looks at the table we have laid before us in hesitation, wondering why they still feel distanced from our Palestinian and other non-Jewish comrades at this table, perhaps trying to examine if there is support for liberation they have still not given.

We observe their silence, and remind them that “It was with a mighty hand that (we were freed)/(freed ourselves) from slavery” (Exodus 13:14); we will not escape our joint suffering until we speak the full truth to power, and engage in praxis outside of the boundaries of a politics of liberal respectability or non-violence.

And the Revolutionary asks: How do these rituals foretell the liberation of Palestine, and our journey towards a better world?

We answer by affirming their commitment, declaring: “Justice, justice you shall pursue, that we may thrive in whatever land (the Eternal has given us)/(we dwell in).” (Deuteronomy 16:20)

Alternatively, we reply “These rituals stand for resistance, and through our resistance, we proclaim (the Eternal’s) sovereignty (of/through) justice and freedom over the entire Earth; on that day, our liberation will be one, and all the ways we speak of it shall be one” (Zechariah 14:9). We make use of Judaism’s heritage by envisioning a repairing of the world through any means necessary, causing the oppressive systems the world coupons to topple along with the divisions they have inflicted upon humanity, reuniting all of creation.

The Story of the Exodus

Here, we retell the story of the Exodus; this year, the challenge that lies before us is to highlight how the narrative brings us to relate to anti-Palestinian oppression while also using its uniquely Jewish character to profess the value of a newly revitalized, anti-Zionist diasporism within our communities. We have aimed to balance both of these needs below using the writings of Edward Said, a seminal Palestinian theorist, on the experience of exile that unites both Jews and Palestinians amongst other peoples (a central emphasis of this haggadah), as well as other poems and excerpts that help make the story relevant to the moment. Discussion questions also accompany the retelling in order to make thematic connections in the language explicit. There are no rewrites of the actual language of the haggadah for this section; the participants will have to simulate a talmudic discussion, interpreting the story for itself.

מִתְּחִלָּה עוֹבְדֵי עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה הָיוּ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ, וְעַכְשָׁיו קֵרְבָנוּ הַמָּקוֹם לַעֲבוֹדָתוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיֹאמֶר יְהוֹשֻעַ אֶל־כָּל־הָעָם, כֹּה אָמַר ה' אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּעֵבֶר הַנָּהָר יָשְׁבוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם מֵעוֹלָם, תֶּרַח אֲבִי אַבְרָהָם וַאֲבִי נָחוֹר, וַיַּעַבְדוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים

From the beginning, our ancestors were idol worshipers. And now, the Place [of all] has brought us close to His worship, as it is stated (Joshua 24:2-4), “Yehoshua said to the whole people, so said The Eternal, God of Israel, ‘Over the river did your ancestors dwell from always, Terach the father of Avraham and the father of Nachor, and they worshiped other gods.’”

“At [...] extreme the exile can make a fetish of exile, a practice that distances him or her from all connections and commitments. To live as if everything around you were temporary and perhaps trivial is to fall prey to petulant cynicism as well as to querulous lovelessness. More common is the pressure on the exile to join—parties, national movements, the state. The exile is offered a new set of affiliations and develops new loyalties. But there is also a loss—of critical perspective, of intellectual reserve, of moral courage.”

—Edward Said, “On Exile”

Discussion Prompts: Based on the quote from Said above, how do we think the Jewish community has made an idol of Zionism? Regardless of whether participants in the table believe in God, Judaism focuses on the divine via imagining a oneness that is invisible, yet powerful. How does Zionism obstruct this, and how does international solidarity help undo it?

בָּרוּךְ שׁוֹמֵר הַבְטָחָתוֹ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, בָּרוּךְ הוּא. שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא חִשַּׁב אֶת־הַקֵּץ, לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּמוֹ שֶּׁאָמַר לְאַבְרָהָם אבינוּ בִּבְרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָם, יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי־גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם, וַעֲבָדוּם וְעִנּוּ אֹתָם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה. וְגַם אֶת־הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹדוּ דָּן אָנֹכִי וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵן יֵצְאוּ בִּרְכֻשׁ גָּדוֹל

Blessed be the One who keeps His promise to Israel, blessed be He; since the Holy One, blessed be He, calculated the end [of the exile,] to do as He said to Avraham, our father, in the Covenant between the Pieces, as it is stated (Genesis 15:13-14), "And They said to Avram, 'you should surely know that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation for which they shall toil will I judge, and afterwards they will go out with much property.

“It must also be recognized that the defensive nationalism of exiles often fosters self-awareness as much as it does the less attractive forms of self-assertion. Such reconstitutive projects as assembling a nation out of exile (and this is true in this century for Jews and Palestinians) involve constructing a national history, reviving an ancient language, founding national institutions like libraries and universities. And these, while they sometimes promote strident ethnocentrism, also give rise to investigations of self that inevitably go far beyond such simple and positive facts as ‘ethnicity.’

“For example, there is the self-consciousness of an individual trying to understand why the histories of the Palestinians and the Jews have certain patterns to them, why in spite of oppression and the threat of extinction a particular ethos remains alive in exile.

“Necessarily, then, I speak of exile not as a privilege, but as an alternative to the mass institutions that dominate modern life.”

—Edward Said, “On Exile”

I am the stranger
The shadow beneath the cloud
Adrift and looming over my land
Only the cloud beckons
It has its purpose for me
I succumb to its atmosphere
Levitate and fall in billowing drifts
I am pulled in all directions
But my desire, oh cloud, is higher
Let it rise to the peak of Ramah
To overlook my postponed destiny
Send the wind that pushes me
I am spent yet full of readiness
And smiling through my breathless facade
Into thunder and storm I become the rain
The roots of my land absorb me
Renewed, I start again

—Bassam Jamil, “I Am The Stranger”

Discussion Prompts: What does exile, as being defined by being a “stranger in a strange land” mean? How does the experience of settler colonialism simulate it, and from a historical perspective, why should the enstrangerment (our neologism for otherization) of Jews from ‘internal’ colonization not be confused with otherization produced from ‘external’ colonization, such as that which occurs in Palestine? How should solidarity be formed out of this?

וַיְהִי שָׁם לְגוֹי. מְלַמֵד שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מְצֻיָּנִים שָׁם. גָּדוֹל עָצוּם – כְּמָה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וירְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד, וַתִּמלא הָארֶץ אֹתָם.

“And there he became a nation- '' From this, learn that Israel was distinct there. “Large, mighty” – As it is said: “And the children of Israel were fertile, and they swarmed, and grew more and more numerous and strong, and the land was filled with them.”

וַיָּרֵעוּ אֹתָנוּ הַמִּצְרִים וַיְעַנּוּנוּ, וַיִתְּנוּ עָלֵינוּ עֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה. וַיָּרֵעוּ אֹתָנוּ הַמִּצְרִים – כְּמָה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: הָבָה נִתְחכְּמָה לוֹ פֶּן יִרְבֶּה, וְהָיָה כִּי־תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה וְנוֹסַף גַּם־הוּא עַל שֹׂנְאֵינוּ וְנִלְחַם־בָּנוּ, וְעָלָה מִן־הָאָרֶץ

And the Egyptians dealt cruelly with us, and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us. As it is said: ““We must act wisely against [this people], in case it grows great, and when we are called to war, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and rise up to leave the land.”

“The colonial world is a Manichean world. It is not enough for the settler to delimit physically, that is to say with the help of the army and the police force, the place of the native. As if to show the totalitarian character of colonial exploitation the settler paints the native as a sort of quintessence of evil.”

Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

“Zionism and Israel were associated with liberalism, with freedom and democracy, with knowledge and light, with what "we" understand and fight for. By contrast, Zionism's enemies were simply a twentieth-century version of the alien spirit of Oriental despotism, sensuality, ignorance, and similar forms of backwardness. If "they" didn't understand the glorious enterprise that was Zionism, it was because "they" were hopelessly out of touch with "our" values. It did not seem to matter that the backward Muslim had his own forms of life, to which he was entitled as a human being, or that his attachment to the land on which he lived was as great as and perhaps even greater, by virtue of its investment in centuries of actual habitation, than that of the Jew who yearned for Zion in his exile. All that really mattered were ethnocentric ideals, appropriated by Zionism, valorizing the white man's superiority and his right over territory believed to be consonant with those ideals.”

—Edward Said, “The Question of Palestine”

Discussion Point: How have Jews been subjected to the same Manichaean and Orientalist binaries by Western empires that Said and Fanon talk about? How are we guilty of perpetuating the same binaries against Palestinians?

וַנִּצְעַק אֶל־יְיָ אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵינוּ, וַיִּשְׁמַע יְיָ אֶת־קֹלֵנוּ, וַיַּרְא אֶת־עָנְיֵנוּ וְאֶת־עֲמָלֵנוּ וְאֶת־לַחֲצֵנוּ

“And we cried out to the Eternal, God of our ancestors. And the Eternal heard our voice, And he saw our oppression, and our labor and slavery.”

וַיּוֹצִאֵנוּ יְיָ מִמִצְרַיִם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה, וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה, וּבְמֹרָא גָּדֹל, וּבְאֹתוֹת וּבְמֹפְתִים. 

And the Eternal had brought us out of Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, in an awesome happening, with signs and wonders.

“While it perhaps seems peculiar to speak of the pleasures of exile, there are some positive things to be said for a few of its conditions. Seeing “the entire world as a foreign land” makes possible originality of vision. Most people are principally aware of one culture, one setting, one home; exiles are aware of at least two, and this plurality of vision gives rise to an awareness of simultaneous dimensions, an awareness that—to borrow a phrase from music—is contrapuntal.”

“For an exile, habits of life, expression, or activity in the new environment inevitably occur against the memory of these things in another environment. Thus both the new and the old environments are vivid, actual, occurring together contrapuntally. There is a unique pleasure in this sort of apprehension, especially if the exile is conscious of other contrapuntal juxtapositions that diminish orthodox judgment and elevate appreciative sympathy. There is also a particular sense of achievement in acting as if one were at home wherever one happens to be.”

[...]

“Exile is life led outside habitual order. It is nomadic, decentered, contrapuntal; but no sooner does one get accustomed to it than its unsettling force erupts anew.”
—Edward Said, “On Exile”

“What might it mean to dream of return not as the crossing of space or, impossibly, the turning back of time, but as a metric of relation—the distance between things as they are and as they could be, between a present of borders and checkpoints and a future where we might be together? The colonial system of walls, roads, passports, and decrees does not constitute the ownership of land itself—a brutal fiction—but is instead a system of control overlaid atop it. Land cannot be passed from one colonially defined population to another by revolutionary fiat. Land cannot be returned by transfer. But the exile can return to the land, as the body returns to it in death, ready to deterritorialize themselves and the colony, to destroy the borders inscribing mind and body. Only then might a new territory form, built from relations of care and not hierarchies of control. May we return, then, to the origin of no origins not to solve the problem of exile but to destroy it for good.”

- Dylan Saba, “Point of No Return”

Discussion Point: Based on the quotes we’ve covered across this retelling, how would you define exile, and how do you think it unites different systems of oppression as a concept? A world where settler colonialism still continues to oppress Palestinians and other peoples is obviously not free of exile. What does a world without exile mean to you?

After the retelling is over, recite:

וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְלָנוּ. שֶׁלֹּא אֶחָד בִּלְבַד עָמַד עָלֵינוּ לְכַלּוֹתֵנוּ, אֶלָּא שֶׁבְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר עוֹמְדִים עָלֵינוּ לְכַלוֹתֵנוּ, וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מַצִּילֵנוּ מִיָּדָם. 

Now this retelling stands for all our ancestors and for all of us; since it is not [only] one [person or nation] that has intended to destroy only one of us, but rather in each generation, there are always those who are Pharaoh, seeking to enslave and eliminate those that are Israelites. But there are always also those who are like Moses, Miriam and Aaron, speaking with prophetic voices and lifting their arms to liberate us from the yoke of oppression; for we bless the spirit of (The Eternal/humanity), who must, and will, always choose the side of freedom.

THE TEN PLAGUES

Below is a reproduction of the original text:

אֵלּוּ עֶשֶׂר מַכּוֹת שֶׁהֵבִיא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עַל־הַמִּצְרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם, וְאֵלוּ הֵן:

These are the ten plagues brought upon Egypt:

דָּם

Blood

צְפַרְדֵּעַ

Frogs

כִּנִּים

Lice

עָרוֹב

Wild Animals

דֶּבֶר

Pestilence

שְׁחִין

Boils

בָּרָד

Hail

אַרְבֶּה

Locusts

חֹשֶׁךְ

Darkness

מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת

The death of the firstborn

Here is another short meditation on the narration of the Ten Plagues:

Do we believe in a deity that literally punishes people for their sins against others? While some readers of this haggadah may believe this, as revolutionaries, we wish to affirm that human agency is powerful enough to affect our surroundings in ways that may benefit or fire back at us, regardless of whether any other guiding power is involved behind the scenes or not.

Instead of trying to find an exact equivalent for the Ten Plagues (for the story is not yet over, and we know not the full consequences the genocide will have on the settler state) we wish to turn the prophetic voice of this seder towards some such consequences that are looming on the horizon because of how starkly visible they are: namely, environmental ones.

In the first sixty days of the invasion alone, “Israel’s” military aggression produced enough carbon dioxide equal to 150,000 tons of burning coal, taking up as much as 99% of the CO2 produced across the entire world throughout that period due to the carbon emissions caused by its military aggression. These horrifying statistics are already showing their effects on Gaza: the ecosystem of the area has vastly deteriorated, with its flora and fauna being severely damaged, and the human population suffering from diseases that these environmental changes have exacerbated. The actual carbon footprint produced by the war might already be underestimated by these numbers, but is likely much, much higher now.

As the wreckage of the genocide spills into the sea and scatters into the atmosphere, it is not difficult to understand that this extreme damage to the environment will, in addition to first and foremost affecting the future of Palestine, also affect the future of humanity. Who are the settler state, and its imperialist allies, to play God? Does it not see that there is still time left for us to fight against this demigurge? That as the lives of people across the world become more and more unlivable, they will continue to strike back. We will never be eliminated but always outlive our oppressors — for our solidarity and our being in community will never leave anyone behind. But the plagues colonizers inflict upon others will later be revealed to be their own undoing, and will bring down their regimes with them.

Let us become one with our environment, and the rest of creation, and swarm upon our oppressors who threaten us all with extinction; let us find divinity not in the idolatry of settler colonialism, which puts certain humans on a pedestal above others, but in our joint struggle against their ecocide, and let us become plagues of our own unto our oppressors, a living ecosystem that haunt them with our solidarity, our unity and our love.

We are tribeless and all tribes are ours.
We are homeless and all homes are ours.
We are nameless and all names are ours.
To the fascists we are the faceless enemy
Who come like thieves in the night, angels of death:
The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the storm.

The road less traveled by we've taken-
And that has made all the difference:
The barefoot army of the wilderness
We all should be in time. Awakened, the masses are Messiah.
Here among workers and peasants our lost
Generation has found its true, its only home.

—Eman Lacaba, “Open Letter to Filipino Artists”

DAYENU

If we prayed for peace,
And had not spoke out against injustice,
That would not be enough;

If we spoke out against injustice,
But added caveats and equivocations,
That would not be enough;

If we did not hold back our support for resistance,
But did not commit ourselves to doing the work,
That would not be enough;

If we did the work and march on the streets,
But did not set our hearts towards revolution,
That would not be enough;

If we set our hearts to revolution,
But do not leave our arrogance and pride behind,
That would not be enough;

If we stopped speaking over the oppressed,
But did not begin to identify as being of them
(Working amongst, as one, not with them)
That would not be enough;

If we joined the masses of the world,
But did not have hope for its liberation,
That would not be enough;

If we live our lives with liberation in sight,
Always thinking the moment has arrived
If we chant and believe ‘within our lifetimes!’
Despite not knowing what the future has in mind

Then maybe, no matter where we end up
Should  we actually see the end or not
If we face tomorrow in strength and love
Could this hope, perhaps, be enough?

This Flock of Goats: An Adaptation of “Chad Gadya”

The wolves came upon us in 1492
To separate us from the sheep
We left the farmlands we had grazed
Weeping behind the shade of olives
And fled from the coasts by the sea
These packs once made us flee towards;

We found a new home an ocean away
And sought refuge where the buffalo roamed
But the wolves began standing up straight
Aiming rifles and holding axes up high
To slay our flocks before domestication

Thinking of how we had been called devils,
And seeing men turn themselves into beasts,
We decided to entertain the evil in our hearts
Not as a livestock of demons or ghouls
But as human masters of the land

And so we made the buffalo disappear
Even as some rode with them to repel us
Ships landed to the shores of this frontier
While we bleated for our new shepherds
Who led some to slaughter, some to servitude

And we could not see
Who was beast and
Who was man

We found ourselves divided,
Some here and some there,
Muddling our ancestry
Getting lost in disguise,
Fighting for something
And fighting for the other;

As the shepherds of death sailed to Africa
And marched in armies all across Asia,
Cruising from the Pacific to the Caribbean
Continuing to goad, planning to devour

We found ourselves along a food chain
Some of us as prey, some as predators
Fitting into wherever we pastured

But the herds who they tried to tame after us
Persisted, and one day raised their horns
Sounding them, declaring war and freedom;
As the shepherd-lords prepared a feast,
We, amongst others, penned our own psalms

Now, shall we write songs of lamentation
Or will we continue chewing our masters’ cud?
Do we swallow the ivy growing on these walls?

Or do we join this vast wilderness
The wilderness into which we were exiled
Growing fast and entrapping its masters;
Do we get lost in the maze of its foliage,
Do we declare this new world our home?

When shall we sing songs of liberation?

FIRST HALF OF HALLEL

This is the initial section of Hallel, a collection of Psalms from 113-118 that shall return towards the end of the haggadah. During the Magid, we recite Psalm 113-114. Along with the traditional text and the English translation, we have provided reinterpretations of the liberating themes of these songs in an explicitly revolutionary context, that can also be used as, but are not limited to being, non-theistic substitutes. We have also coupled each Psalm with an appropriate poem, with one coming from an anti-Zionist Jewish poet and others coming from Palestinian ones. You may recite any combination of these depending on what time allows. 

Psalm 113

הַלְלוּ-יָהּ

הַלְלוּ, עַבְדֵי יְהוָה  הַלְלוּ, אֶת-שֵׁם יְהוָה

ב  יְהִי שֵׁם יְהוָה מְבֹרָךְ--    מֵעַתָּה, וְעַד-עוֹלָם.

ג  מִמִּזְרַח-שֶׁמֶשׁ עַד-מְבוֹאוֹ--    מְהֻלָּל, שֵׁם יְהוָה

ד  רָם עַל-כָּל-גּוֹיִם יְהוָה   עַל הַשָּׁמַיִם כְּבוֹדוֹ

ה  מִי, כַּיהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ--    הַמַּגְבִּיהִי לָשָׁבֶת 

ו  הַמַּשְׁפִּילִי לִרְאוֹת--    בַּשָּׁמַיִם וּבָאָרֶץ

ז  מְקִימִי מֵעָפָר דָּל מֵאַשְׁפֹּת, יָרִים אֶבְיוֹן

ח  לְהוֹשִׁיבִי עִם-נְדִיבִים  עִם, נְדִיבֵי עַמּוֹ

ט  מוֹשִׁיבִי, עֲקֶרֶת הַבַּיִת--    אֵם-הַבָּנִים שְׂמֵחָה

הַלְלוּ-יָהּ

Hallelujah. O servants of the Eternal, give praise; praise the name of the Eternal.
Let the name of the Eternal be blessed now and forever.
From east to west the name of the Eternal is praised.
The Eternal is exalted above all nations; the Eternal’s glory is above the heavens.
Who is like the Eternal, who, enthroned on high,
sees what is below, in heaven and on earth?
(They/it) raises the poor from the dust, lifts up the needy from the refuse heap
to set them with the great, with the great men of (their/its) people.
(They/it) sets the childless woman among her household as a happy mother of children. Hallelujah.

Creative Reinterpretation:

How sweet it is to surpass the borders of space and time
As we carry the past and the future,
Streaming in from both east and west
To shape the present together;
What can surpass this solidarity of those
Who cross sea, earth, and sky?
The poor shall be raised from the dust back to their lands,
And shall sit together with humbled nations;
The barren soil will once again produce fruit,
And in the house her mother left
The mother shall raise her own children.

Excerpt:

after you've finished
building your missiles & after your borders
collapse under the weight of their own split
databases
every worm in this
fertile & cursed
ground will be its own country.
home never was a place in dirt or even
inside the skin but rather
just exists in language. let me explain. my people
kiss books as a form of prayer. if dropped we
lift them to our lips &
mouth an honest & uncomplicated apology—
nowhere on earth belongs to us.
once a man welcomed me home as i entered the old city so I
pulled out a book of poems to show him my papers—my
queer city of paper—my people's ink
running through my blood.
settlers believe land can be possessed—
they carve their names into firearms &
use this to impersonate the dead—we are
visitors here on earth.
who but men blame the angels for the wild
exceptionalism of men?
yesterday a bird flew through an airport & i watched that border
zone collapse under its basic wings.

—Sam Sax, “Anti-Zionist Abecedarian”

Psalms 114

א  בְּצֵאת יִשְׂרָאֵל, מִמִּצְרָיִם;    בֵּית יַעֲקֹב, מֵעַם לֹעֵז

ב  הָיְתָה יְהוּדָה לְקָדְשׁוֹ;    יִשְׂרָאֵל, מַמְשְׁלוֹתָיו

ג  הַיָּם רָאָה, וַיָּנֹס;    הַיַּרְדֵּן, יִסֹּב לְאָחוֹר

ד  הֶהָרִים, רָקְדוּ כְאֵילִים;    גְּבָעוֹת, כִּבְנֵי-צֹאן

ה  מַה-לְּךָ הַיָּם, כִּי תָנוּס;    הַיַּרְדֵּן, תִּסֹּב לְאָחוֹר

ו  הֶהָרִים, תִּרְקְדוּ כְאֵילִים;    גְּבָעוֹת, כִּבְנֵי-צֹאן

ז  מִלִּפְנֵי אָדוֹן, חוּלִי אָרֶץ;    מִלִּפְנֵי, אֱלוֹהַּ יַעֲקֹב

ח  הַהֹפְכִי הַצּוּר אֲגַם-מָיִם;    חַלָּמִישׁ, לְמַעְיְנוֹ-מָיִם

When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign speech,
Judah became holy, Israel, the Eternal’s dominion.
The sea saw them and fled, Jordan ran backward,
mountains skipped like rams, hills like sheep.
What alarmed you, O sea, that you fled, Jordan, that you ran backward,
mountains, that you skipped like rams, hills, like sheep?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the the Eternal, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flinty rock into a fountain.

Creative Reinterpretation

Many shall return to stolen land;
Many shall embrace the world as wilderness;
Many shall reclaim their orphaned tongues,
And the speech of the many shall become one.
The northern lands will renew their spirit
As southern lands shatter empire's chains;
Seas will welcome back those who fled,
And they will run with the river back home.
What alarms those who now wish to sail upon the waters they poisoned,
Running away from the rivers as they are redeemed?
The mighty disperse like rams across the mountains
While gently, the free flock together amongst the hills like sheep.
So the world pangs in labor
As it breaks forth water
Springing from the rocks,
In fountains, out of flint.

Excerpt:

Beloved Palestine,
how do I sleep

While the spectrum of torture is in my eyes
I purify the world with your name
And if your love did not tire me out,
I would've kept my feelings a secret
The caravans of days pass and talk about
The conspiracy of enemies and friends

Beloved Palestine! How do I live
Away from your plains and mounds?
The feet of mountains that are dyed with blood
Are calling me
And on the horizon appears the dye

The weeping shores are calling me
And my weeping echoes in the ears of time
The escaping streams are calling me
They are becoming foreign in their land
Your orphan cities are calling me
And your villages and domes
My friends ask me, "Will we meet again?"
"Will we return?"

Yes! We will kiss the bedewed soil
And the red desires are on our lips
Tomorrow, we will return
And the generations will hear
The sound of our footsteps
We will return along with the storms
Along with the lightening and meteors
Along with the hope and songs
Along with the flying eagle
Along with the dawn that smiles to the deserts
Along with the morning on the waves of the sea
Along with the bleeding flags
And along with the shining swords and spears

—Abdelkarim Al-Karmi, “We Will Return”

CONCLUSION: IN EVERY GENERATION

In concluding the themes of the Magid, this section plays on Hasidic teachings that every Jew carries a spiritual Jerusalem inside of them, rather than being solely attached towards the physical ‘land of Israel’ (now Palestine), and also draws inspiration from the Shia Muslim saying ‘every day is Ashurah, every day is Karbala’ (a reference to Hussein ibn Ali’s, the Prophet’s grandson, martyrdom at the hands of corrupt and oppressive rulers).

בְּכָל־דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת־עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא אֶת־אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בִּלְבַד גָּאַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֶלָּא אַף אוֹתָנוּ גָּאַל עִמָּהֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם, לְמַעַן הָבִיא אוֹתָנוּ, לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ. 

And so in each and every generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as if we are leaving Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 13:8); "And you shall explain to your children on that day: For the sake of this, did The Eternal do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt." Not only our ancestors did the Eternal  redeem, but rather also all of humanity with them, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:23); "And we were taken out and brought in to give us the land which was sworn unto our ancestors." Today, we affirm that this land does not only refer to the land where some of our ancestors lived and where Palestine now stands, but that every land that anyone has ever been exiled in is Egypt, and every home that everyone longs to return to is the Promised Land. And so Pesach is the story of all humanity, and so will Palestinians be brought back to their own homelands, just as one day we will return to all of ours. 

Non-theistic version: 

And so in each and every generation, we are obligated to see ourselves as if we are leaving Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 13:8); "And you shall explain to your children on that day: For the sake of this, did The Eternal do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt." Not only do we determine that our fate is freedom with this story, but we declare this to be true for humankind as well, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:23); "And we were taken out and brought in to reclaim the land our ancestors sought" Today, we affirm that this land does not only refer to the land where some of our ancestors lived and where Palestine now stands, but that every land that anyone has ever been exiled in is Egypt, and every home that everyone longs to return to is the Promised Land. And so Pesach is the story of all humanity, and so will Palestinians be brought back to their own homelands, just as one day we will return to all of ours, and as one day the entire world will become all of our homes. 

“Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.”

―Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

SECOND CUP OF WINE

Each participant prepares to drink their second cup of wine or grape juice;

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר גְּאָלָנוּ וְגָאַל אֶת־אֲבוֹתֵינוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם, וְהִגִּיעָנוּ הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה לֶאֱכָל־בּוֹ מַצָּה וּמָרוֹר. כֵּן ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ יַגִּיעֵנוּ לְמוֹעֲדִים וְלִרְגָלִים אֲחֵרִים הַבָּאִים לִקְרָאתֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם, שְׂמֵחִים בְּבִנְיַן עִירֶךָ וְשָׂשִׂים בַּעֲבוֹדָתֶךָ. וְנֹאכַל שָׁם מִן הַזְּבָחִים וּמִן הַפְּסָחִים אֲשֶׁר יַגִּיעַ דָּמָם עַל קִיר מִזְבַּחֲךָ לְרָצוֹן, וְנוֹדֶה לְךָ שִׁיר חָדָש עַל גְּאֻלָּתֵנוּ וְעַל פְּדוּת נַפְשֵׁנוּ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל. 

Blessed is the Eternal, who redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors from Egypt, and brought us to the moment of freedom embodied through the night of Pesach, where we gather with other free peoples to eat matzah and maror; so too may (they/it) bring us to other sacred times and holidays where we will greet each other in victory, joyful in the building of a new world where we see the presence of (their/its) divinity within the oneness of humanity; that we live by the blood of those who dedicated their lives to bring us this everlasting Pesach, and we shall thank them with a new song upon our redemption and upon the restoration of our souls. Blessed is the Eternal, who redeems those who struggle for this world. 

Non-theistic version:

Blessed are ancestors and our comrades who redeemed us and are redeeming us from Egypt, and brought us to the moment of freedom embodied through the night of Pesach, where we gather with other free peoples to eat matzah and maror; so too may we bring each other to other sacred times and holidays where we will greet each other in victory, joyful in the building of a new world where we see the inherent holiness of the oneness of humanity; that we live by the blood of those who dedicated their lives to bring us this everlasting Pesach, and we shall thank them with a new song upon our redemption and upon the restoration of our souls. Blessed is our collective vision of the future, that redeems those who struggle for this world. 

RACHTZAH

In this section, we once more wash our hands and dip into the unknown waters of the future and of revolution. As you do this, carrying the baggage of the past steps that have made you reflect on exile, do it with the knowledge that in Judaism, through spaces like the mikveh, water also purifies us and prepares us for new stages of life. Be mindful of how you continue to cross the sea as you cleanse your hands one more, no longer merely in exile, but in solidarity.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל נְטִילַת יָדַיִם

Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al n’tilat yadayim.

Blessed are you, Eternal (One/Spirit), (who/that) sanctifies us with the commandment to wash our hands.

Non-theistic version:
Blessed are our ancestors who have invented this ritual, as well as the oceans, lakes, rivers and the rains, along with the laborers and protectors of the environment, that have brought us this water to wash our hands with. 

MOTZI MATZAH

Now, turn your attention to your plate once again, lifting it if it is covered, while taking the top and the middle ones. Say the following blessings:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ. 

Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.

Blessed are you, Eternal (One/Spirit), (who/that) brings forth bread from the Earth.

Non-theistic version:

Blessed are the natural processes, as well as the indigenous peoples and laborers, who have brought forth bread from the earth. 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מַצָּה. 

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu al achilat matzah.

Blessed are you, Eternal (One/Spirit), (who/that) sanctifies us with the commandment to eat Matzah.

Non-theistic version: 

Blessed are our ancestors, who make us reflect on our humanity through the tradition of eating Matzah.

Here is a very short meditation on the symbolism of chametz vs matzah, and why we still say the blessing for bringing forth bread from the Earth, that you may recite out loud as you eat it: as was mentioned earlier on in the haggadah, matzah is meant to represent newly-received or won freedom as well as the legacy of affliction we bring along with it. The recent victories of Palestinian resistance have been unprecedented, signaling hope for the liberation of the land drawing nearer day by day; however, the genocidal deluge of the IOF is currently producing suffering to an even greater degree. To forswear the eating of chametz during Passover is to abandon the luxury the Egyptians enjoyed as they ate meals with leavened bread, confronting the pain of a revolutionary life dedicated to freedom; still the bread does not rise. Have hope that it will do so, but at the same time, acknowledge the extreme bitterness we face now. 

MAROR

Throughout the next two steps, we revisit the feelings of combining profound sorrow with a determination that refuses to give into despair through the custom of dipping maror (a bitter herb) in charoset (a sweet dessert that is also said to resemble the brick and mortar the Israelites used as slaves in Egypt). During Karpas, we focused on our feelings at the moment; here, across Maror and Korech, we continue musing on how the gain of the new world we will build is still based on the loss of human life we feel as revolution unfolds. Think of this, and think of previous genocides like the Shoah and how they lead us to recognize what is happening now. Remember that to heal from oppression does not mean to forget. 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָנוּ בְמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל אֲכִילַת מָרוֹר. 

Baruch ata adonai eloheynu, melech ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al ahilat maror.

Blessed are you, Eternal (One/Spirit), sovereign over all creation, (who/that) makes us holy with mitzvot and commands us to eat maror.

Non-theistic version:

Blessed are the natural processes, the indigenous peoples, and the laborers, who determine the fate of the people, that nourish us with these traditions and have led us to eat maror.

KORECH

Here we take the third matzah and make a sandwich with the charoset-dipped maror in the middle, a custom apparently invented by Rabbi Hillel two thousand years ago.

הָיָה כּוֹרֵךְ מַצָּה וּמָרוֹר וְאוֹכֵל בְּיַחַד, לְקַיֵּם מַה שֶּׁנֶּאֱמַר: עַל מַצּוֹת וּמְרוֹרִים יֹאכְלֻהוּ. 

He (Hillel) would eat matzah and maror together, in order to fulfill a decree in (Numbers 9:11): "You should eat it upon matzah and marrorim." 

Much of the post-Biblical prophetic tradition in Judaism is based upon the oppression the Jews faced in historical Palestine under the Roman Empire, a struggle their descendants that still currently live in the land face today. Hillel lived under these times, and although he was not exactly a revolutionary, the hope for a messianic era and a repairing of a world during these times mirrors our hope today, and is similarly born out of contrasting feelings of grief and of expectation. Due to the preservation of Jewish practice the rabbis strove for, today, through mysticism or through materialism or both, we are all aware that we are collectively responsible for trying to bring this messianic era about, not just for Jews, but for all peoples. We are not obligated to finish this work, but neither can we desist from it. Let us carry this into our meal.

SHULCHAN ORECH

You may now eat the actual seder meal. In respect for the ongoing famine in Gaza, unless a hearty meal is needed for whatever reason (such as recovery from illness or an eating disorder), we encourage a simple meal of any kind, such as some cheap and lightly seasoned protein source or vegetables combined, or an everyday spread/filling such as liver or peanut butter, put on matzah. (Rice or potatoes may be a good option for those who cannot tolerate the taste of matzah, but who do not wish to violate rules regarding chametz). 

For those who additionally wish to fast beforehand, either by skipping meals or by eating very simple food such as matzah or plain rice to act in solidarity with victims of the famine, you may consider doing the Fast of the Firstborn, beginning the dawn before Pesach until the eve that begins the holiday, but is often skipped over or cut short. If you choose this option, to make the fast useful and more than symbolic, we encourage you to donate the proceeds you would typically spend on preparing a complete meal to a reputable fundraiser, especially if it is directly started by or for a Palestinian. You can extend the fast for as long as you can if you wish to, for instance, declare an emergency full-day fast over 25 and a half hours as you would on Yom Kippur or Tisha B’Av; however, we also reiterate to recognize your needs and take care of yourself even if you are fasting for others, as self-punishment is not conducive towards expressing solidarity.

If you are not fasting before the seder, you may also donate a portion, a sum equivalent to, or one exceeding your seder meal based on what you can afford. 

BARECH 

Here, after the ritual, we perform various prayers, blessings and rituals that begin to focus on our hope for future redemption as we enter the last third of the seder.

GRACE AFTER MEALS

The Jewish blessing after meals is usually very, very long, and for the interests of both our time in writing this and everyone’s time in reading it we will not replicate or reinterpret it in full here (maybe next year?). For now, this shortened blessing will suffice:

Have mercy, Eternal (One/Spirit), upon those who have no home, and who long to return to the homes that have been taken from them, and for those who wish to make the entire world their home. Feed us, nourish us, sustain, support and relieve us as we work towards a world that does not have borders that prevent us from achieving this dream and grant us relief from all our hunger for return. We beseech thee, let us not hold grudges or dues to one another but give each other a helping hand and become holy through becoming comradely and breaking our bread, so that we may not be robbed of our humanity or our dignity, for ever and ever. 

Non-theistic version:

Let us honor those who have no home, and who long to return to the homes that have been taken from them, and for those who wish to make the entire world their home. Let us feed, nourish, sustain, support and relieve each other as we work towards a world that does not have borders that prevent us from achieving this dream, and let us fill our hunger for return. Let us not hold grudges or dues to one another but give each other a helping hand and become holy through becoming comradely and breaking our bread together, so that we may not be robbed of our humanity or our dignity, for ever and ever. 

THE THIRD CUP

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן. 

Baruch ata, Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, borei peri hagafen.

We bless The Eternal, [our God, Sovereign]/[Spirit] of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. 

Non-theistic version:

Let us bless the natural processes of creation, and the indigenous peoples of varying lands and the laborers who have provided us with the nourishment of the fruit of the vine. 

COUNTING THE OMER

At this stage, we begin counting the omer, a period of time between Passover and the next major Jewish holiday, Shavuot, where the Israelites are thought to have accepted the Torah. By contrast, we do not know the exact day of liberation, but we have faith that it will come, and that each day we live is one day less until it arrives. Hence, we count. 

ברוך אתא אדונאי אלוהינו מלך העולם אשר קידשנו במצוות ותציבונו על ספירת העומר.

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha’Olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tizivanu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed is the Eternal, who has sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to count the omer.

Non-theistic version:

Blessed are our ancestors, who instilled the tradition upon us of counting the Omer, and the agricultural cycles that lead them to take note of such times. 

Then, on the first day, for example say:

היום יום אחד לעומר

Hayom yom echad la’omer

Today is the first day of the omer.

ELIJAH AND MIRIAM’S CUPS

Here, we prepare a cup of wine or grape juice for Elijah, who is said in Jewish tradition to herald the coming of the messiah and who we open the door for; in modern times, Miriam has also been added for female representation, with an additional cup of fresh water standing for her. Sing the following blessings below over the drinks:

Eliahu ha-navi, Eliahu ha-Tishbi, Eliahu ha-Giladi. Bimheira v’yameinu yavo eleinu, im mashiach ben David.

May Elijah the prophet, of Tishbi and of Giladi, come speedily and in our days, and bring about the Messiah, son of David. 

Miriam ha-Nevi’a, oz v’zimra b’yadah. Miriam tirkod itanu l’hagdil zimrat olam. Miriam tirkod itanu l’taken et ha-olam. Bimheira v’yameinu, hee t’vi’einu el mei ha-y’shua. El mei ha-y’shua.

May Miriam the prophet bring us strength and song, and dance with us to repair the world, bringing the waters of salvation speedily and in our days!

Along with opening our door for Elijah and Miriam, you may also name Palestinian, Jewish, and other revolutionaries who inspire you and who you wish to honor.

Conclude by reciting either of the following:

We have faith that the messianic era will come through our work, resistance and solidarity. And even if we tarry in bringing it out, we will await our liberation every day.

OR

The messianic era is already here, and it will never leave, for it resides within us and among us. Even if the world shall never be made perfect, we will live its liberation out every day. 

TZAFUN

For this step, each person brings out the piece of the matzah they received during yachatz that takes the place of the traditional afikomen. Now that we have established the meaning of Pesach throughout the seder and have had time to think during Shulan Orech (you may also perform this step alongside the meal for the interests of time), all who are willing are free to take turns holding up their piece of matzah as they tell stories of their ancestors’ or their experiences of being an exile, and what they have done to resist against their oppression, whether it is as simple as continuing to survive or a collective action such as organizing. You can negotiate how many people will speak and how long their speech should be. If nobody wants to speak and would prefer silent ruminations over these matters as they eat or after their meal, that is also perfectly acceptable as well. 

Either way, after everyone is done with this step (along with Shulan Orech, should you decide to combine the two), have a minute of silence before reciting this blessing:

Baruch ata Adonai, elohei-nu melech ha-olam, she-asani b’chorin. 

Blessed is/are (the Eternal/my ancestors/my comrades/the holiness inherent within me), for making me a free person. 

If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

—Reefat Al-Areer, “If I Must Die”

HALLEL

This section is a continuation of the singing of the Psalms that began during Magid, spanning from 115-118. They are also accompanied by creative reinterpretations and existing texts about the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Read out any combination of these as time allows.

PSALMS 115

לֹ֤א לָ֥נוּ יְהֹוָ֗ה לֹ֫א־לָ֥נוּ כִּֽי־לְ֭שִׁמְךָ תֵּ֣ן כָּב֑וֹד עַל־חַ֝סְדְּךָ֗ עַל־אֲמִתֶּֽךָ 

לָ֭מָּה יֹאמְר֣וּ הַגּוֹיִ֑ם אַיֵּה־נָ֝֗א אֱלֹהֵיהֶֽם׃

וֵאלֹהֵ֥ינוּ בַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁר־חָפֵ֣ץ עָשָֽׂה׃

עֲֽ֭צַבֵּיהֶם כֶּ֣סֶף וְזָהָ֑ב מַ֝עֲשֵׂ֗ה יְדֵ֣י אָדָֽם׃

פֶּֽה־לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יְדַבֵּ֑רוּ עֵינַ֥יִם לָ֝הֶ֗ם וְלֹ֣א יִרְאֽוּ׃

אׇזְנַ֣יִם לָ֭הֶם וְלֹ֣א יִשְׁמָ֑עוּ אַ֥ף לָ֝הֶ֗ם וְלֹ֣א יְרִיחֽוּן׃

יְדֵיהֶ֤ם ׀ וְלֹ֬א יְמִישׁ֗וּן רַ֭גְלֵיהֶם וְלֹ֣א יְהַלֵּ֑כוּ לֹא־יֶ֝הְגּ֗וּ בִּגְרוֹנָֽם׃ 

כְּ֭מוֹהֶם יִהְי֣וּ עֹשֵׂיהֶ֑ם כֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁר־בֹּטֵ֣חַ בָּהֶֽם׃ 

יִ֭שְׂרָאֵל בְּטַ֣ח בַּיהֹוָ֑ה עֶזְרָ֖ם וּמָגִנָּ֣ם הֽוּא׃ 

בֵּ֣ית אַ֭הֲרֹן בִּטְח֣וּ בַיהֹוָ֑ה עֶזְרָ֖ם וּמָגִנָּ֣ם הֽוּא׃ 

יִרְאֵ֣י יְ֭הֹוָה בִּטְח֣וּ בַיהֹוָ֑ה עֶזְרָ֖ם וּמָגִנָּ֣ם הֽוּא׃ 

יְהֹוָה֮ זְכָרָ֢נוּ יְבָ֫רֵ֥ךְ יְ֭בָרֵךְ אֶת־בֵּ֣ית יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְ֝בָרֵ֗ךְ אֶת־בֵּ֥ית אַהֲרֹֽן׃ 

יְ֭בָרֵךְ יִרְאֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה הַ֝קְּטַנִּ֗ים עִם־הַגְּדֹלִֽים׃ 

יֹסֵ֣ף יְהֹוָ֣ה עֲלֵיכֶ֑ם עֲ֝לֵיכֶ֗ם וְעַל־בְּנֵיכֶֽם׃ 

בְּרוּכִ֣ים אַ֭תֶּם לַיהֹוָ֑ה עֹ֝שֵׂ֗ה שָׁמַ֥יִם וָאָֽרֶץ׃ 

הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם שָׁ֭מַיִם לַיהֹוָ֑ה וְ֝הָאָ֗רֶץ נָתַ֥ן לִבְנֵי־אָדָֽם׃ 

לֹ֣א הַ֭מֵּתִים יְהַֽלְלוּ־יָ֑הּ וְ֝לֹ֗א כׇּל־יֹרְדֵ֥י דוּמָֽה׃ 

וַאֲנַ֤חְנוּ ׀ נְבָ֘רֵ֤ךְ יָ֗הּ מֵעַתָּ֥ה וְעַד־עוֹלָ֗ם הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃ {פ}

Not to us, O Eternal, not to us but to Your name bring glory for the sake of Your love and Your faithfulness.
Let the nations not say, "Where, now, is their God?"
when our God is in heaven and all that the Eternal wills the Eternal accomplishes.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see;
they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell;
they have hands, but cannot touch, feet, but cannot walk; they can make no sound in their throats.
Those who fashion them, all who trust in them, shall become like them.
O Israel, trust in The Eternal! The Eternal is their help and shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in The Eternal! The Eternal is their help and shield.
O you who fear The Eternal, trust in The Eternal! The Eternal is your help and shield.
The Eternal is mindful of us. The Eternal will bless us; The Eternal will bless the house of Israel; The Eternal will bless the house of Aaron; The Eternal will bless the house of Ishmael;
The Eternal will bless those who fear The Eternal, small and great alike.

May The Eternal increase your numbers, yours and your children's also.
May you be blessed by The Eternal, Maker of heaven and earth.
The heavens belong to The Eternal, but the earth the Eternal gave over to man.
The dead cannot praise The Eternal, nor any who go down into silence.
But we will bless The Eternal now and forever. Hallelujah.

Creative Reinterpretation:

Not for our sake alone
Do sound the horn of liberation
Not only to one people
Do we bring its tidings,
But through our music
Creation awakens as one

Let not the nations distract and divide us
Their anthems of death cannot drown out our hymns;

They fashion themselves into idols
Built upon gold and silver,

And claim to be mankind's salvation
Fetishes that drop down freedom from the skies,
When we know freedom is something
That sounds from us below

They have mouths, but cannot sing against injustice
They have ears, but cannot hear chants nor cries; 

They have noses, but cannot smell our new spring blooming
They have hands, but they cannot enjoin them with ours,
Feet, but they cannot march along with us into battle;
Their sounds of fear croak out too late from their throats. 

They who craft false myths of dissonance
Shall turn into nothing but legends of old
Passed down in ballads and lampooned by bards

Let those who walk among the living
Trust in the infinite choir of tomorrow

That restores us to life and gives us strength,
A united polyphony refraining in our souls,
Binding voices great and small alike.
May it be a heavenly psalm passed down
To those that will inherit the Earth;

For a martyr's song
Is not given over to silence,
But is sung everlasting
At the wedding of the world. 

How alone it was,
our loneliness,
when they won their wars.
Only you were left behind,

Naked,
before this loneliness.
Darwish,
no poetry could ever bring it back:
what the lonely one has lost.
It’s another age of ignorance,
our loneliness.
Damned be that which divided us
then stands united
at your funeral.

Now your land is auctioned
and the world’s
a free market.
It’s a barbaric era,
our loneliness,
one when none will stand up for us.

So, my country, wipe away your poems,
the old and the new,
and your tears,
and pull yourself together.

—Hibu Ada Nada,“Our Loneliness”

PSALMS 116

אָ֭הַבְתִּי כִּי־יִשְׁמַ֥ע ׀ יְהֹוָ֑ה אֶת־ק֝וֹלִ֗י תַּחֲנוּנָֽי׃ 

כִּי־הִטָּ֣ה אׇזְנ֣וֹ לִ֑י וּבְיָמַ֥י אֶקְרָֽא׃
אֲפָפ֤וּנִי ׀ חֶבְלֵי־מָ֗וֶת וּמְצָרֵ֣י שְׁא֣וֹל מְצָא֑וּנִי צָרָ֖ה וְיָג֣וֹן אֶמְצָֽא׃ 

אֲפָפ֤וּנִי ׀ חֶבְלֵי־מָ֗וֶת וּמְצָרֵ֣י שְׁא֣וֹל מְצָא֑וּנִי צָרָ֖ה וְיָג֣וֹן אֶמְצָֽא׃ 

וּבְשֵֽׁם־יְהֹוָ֥ה אֶקְרָ֑א אָנָּ֥ה יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה מַלְּטָ֥ה נַפְשִֽׁי׃ 

חַנּ֣וּן יְהֹוָ֣ה וְצַדִּ֑יק וֵ֖אלֹהֵ֣ינוּ מְרַחֵֽם׃ 

שֹׁמֵ֣ר פְּתָאיִ֣ם יְהֹוָ֑ה דַּ֝לֹּתִ֗י וְלִ֣י יְהוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃ 

שׁוּבִ֣י נַ֭פְשִׁי לִמְנוּחָ֑יְכִי כִּֽי־יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה גָּמַ֥ל עָלָֽיְכִי׃ 

כִּ֤י חִלַּ֥צְתָּ נַפְשִׁ֗י מִ֫מָּ֥וֶת אֶת־עֵינִ֥י מִן־דִּמְעָ֑ה אֶת־רַגְלִ֥י מִדֶּֽחִי׃ 

הֶ֭אֱמַנְתִּי כִּ֣י אֲדַבֵּ֑ר אֲ֝נִ֗י עָנִ֥יתִי מְאֹֽד׃ 

אֲ֭נִי אָמַ֣רְתִּי בְחׇפְזִ֑י כׇּֽל־הָאָדָ֥ם כֹּזֵֽב׃ 

מָה־אָשִׁ֥יב לַיהֹוָ֑ה כׇּֽל־תַּגְמוּל֥וֹהִי עָלָֽי׃ 

כּוֹס־יְשׁוּע֥וֹת אֶשָּׂ֑א וּבְשֵׁ֖ם יְהֹוָ֣ה אֶקְרָֽא׃ 

נְ֭דָרַי לַיהֹוָ֣ה אֲשַׁלֵּ֑ם נֶגְדָה־נָּ֝֗א לְכׇל־עַמּֽוֹ׃ 

יָ֭קָר בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה הַ֝מָּ֗וְתָה לַחֲסִידָֽיו׃ 

אָנָּ֣ה יְהֹוָה֮ כִּֽי־אֲנִ֢י עַ֫בְדֶּ֥ךָ אֲנִי־עַ֭בְדְּךָ בֶּן־אֲמָתֶ֑ךָ פִּ֝תַּ֗חְתָּ לְמֽוֹסֵרָֽי׃ 

לְֽךָ־אֶ֭זְבַּח זֶ֣בַח תּוֹדָ֑ה וּבְשֵׁ֖ם יְהֹוָ֣ה אֶקְרָֽא׃ 

נְ֭דָרַי לַיהֹוָ֣ה אֲשַׁלֵּ֑ם נֶגְדָה־נָּ֝֗א לְכׇל־עַמּֽוֹ׃ 

בְּחַצְר֤וֹת ׀ בֵּ֤ית יְהֹוָ֗ה בְּֽת֘וֹכֵ֤כִי יְֽרוּשָׁלָ֗͏ִם הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃ {פ}

I love The Eternal for (they hear/it hears) my voice, my pleas;
for The Eternal listens to me whenever I call.
The bonds of death encompassed me; the torments of Sheol overtook me. I came upon trouble and sorrow
and I invoked the name of The Eternal, "O Eternal, save my life!"
The Eternal is gracious and beneficent; our God is compassionate.
The Eternal protects the simple; I was brought low and the Eternal saved me.
Be at rest, once again, O my soul, for The Eternal has been good to you.
You have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before The Eternal in the lands of the living.
I trust [in The Eternal]; out of great suffering I spoke
and said rashly, "All men are false."
How can I repay The Eternal for all the Eternal’s bounties to me?
I raise the cup of deliverance and invoke the name of The Eternal.
I will pay my vows to The Eternal in the presence of all the Eternal’s people.
The death of faithful ones is grievous in The Eternal's sight.
O Eternal, I am Your servant, Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have undone the cords that bound me.
I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and invoke the name of The Eternal.
I will pay my vows to The Eternal in the presence of all the Eternal’s people,
in the courts of the house of The Eternal, in the midst of Jerusalem. Hallelujah.

Creative Reinterpretation:

Love can only return upon heeding a voice.

Amidst these pleas for freedom, and calls for justice
Do we incline our ears in pity
Towards a spectacle of suffering in frozen horror
Or do we turn back and respond
Towards an equal?

In the midst of sorrow
Between death and torment,
Still our kin can invoke their right to life.
We have not had empathy for them
We have not shown them compassion;

Can we bring ourselves low and confess our betrayal?
Will we find rest before
Our tears depart for us all? 

Out of our great
Yet temporary suffering
Remorse emerges, along with hope;
Can it ever be adequate
To build trust eternal? 

Will the cords restrain us from each other
Be undone?

So may the land be returned
And may it become a land of the living;

Will we prove our word true
And repay our wrongs
Before its courts are reestablished? 

Will we prove our new vows fulfilled
As history judges us?

Will we ever deserve forgiveness?

Excerpt:

I may lose my daily bread, if you wish
I may hawk my clothes and bed
I may become a stonecutter, or a porter
Or a street sweeper
I may search in animal dung for food
I may collapse, naked and starved
Enemy of light
I will not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.
You may rob me of the last span of my land
You may ditch my youth in prison holes
Steel what my grandfather left me behind:
Some furniture or clothes and jars,
You may burn my poems and books
You may feed your dog on my flesh
You may impose a nightmare of your terror
On my village
Enemy of light
I shall not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight.
Enemy of light
The signs of joy and the tidings
Shouts of happiness and anthems
Are there at the port
And at the horizon
A sail is defying the wind and the deep sees
Overcoming all the challenges
It is the return of Ulysses
From the lost sees
It is the return of the sun
And the return of the ousted
And for their sake
I swear
I shall not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight!

—Sameeh Al Qassem, “I may lose my daily bread”

PSALMS 117

הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־יְ֭הֹוָה כׇּל־גּוֹיִ֑ם שַׁ֝בְּח֗וּהוּ כׇּל־הָאֻמִּֽים

כִּ֥י גָ֘בר עלינוּ ׀ חַסְדּ֗וֹ וֶאֱמֶת־יְהֹוָ֥ה לְעוֹלָ֗ם הַלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃ {פ}

Praise the Eternal, all you nations: for great is (their/its) steadfast love towards us:
The faithfulness of the Eternal endures forever. Hallelujah.

Creative Reinterpretation:
Glory to our revolution;
For great is the steadfast love that fuels it,
And forever will its hope endure. 

This psalm is a bit of a breather due to its brevity; in place of a poem, we will perform protest chants that promote international solidarity towards the Palestinian cause. The table recites:

In our millions, in our billions, we are all Palestinians!
From (current location) to Gaza, globalize the intifada!
From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S war machine!
From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go!
From Turtle Island to Palestine, colonialism is a crime!
The people, united, will never be defeated!
Long live international solidarity!

PSALMS 118

הוֹד֣וּ לַיהֹוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ 

יֹאמַר־נָ֥א יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ 

יֹאמְרוּ־נָ֥א בֵֽית־אַהֲרֹ֑ן כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ 

יֹאמְרוּ־נָ֭א יִרְאֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ 

מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַר קָרָ֣אתִי יָּ֑הּ עָנָ֖נִי בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב יָֽהּ׃ 

יְהֹוָ֣ה לִ֭י לֹ֣א אִירָ֑א מַה־יַּעֲשֶׂ֖ה לִ֣י אָדָֽם׃ 

יְהֹוָ֣ה לִ֭י בְּעֹזְרָ֑י וַ֝אֲנִ֗י אֶרְאֶ֥ה בְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃ 

ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּיהֹוָ֑ה מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בָּאָדָֽם׃ 

ט֗וֹב לַחֲס֥וֹת בַּיהֹוָ֑ה מִ֝בְּטֹ֗חַ בִּנְדִיבִֽים׃ 

כׇּל־גּוֹיִ֥ם סְבָב֑וּנִי בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃ 

סַבּ֥וּנִי גַם־סְבָב֑וּנִי בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃ 

סַבּ֤וּנִי כִדְבוֹרִ֗ים דֹּ֭עֲכוּ כְּאֵ֣שׁ קוֹצִ֑ים בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲמִילַֽם׃ 

דַּחֹ֣ה דְחִיתַ֣נִי לִנְפֹּ֑ל וַ֖יהֹוָ֣ה עֲזָרָֽנִי׃ 

עׇזִּ֣י וְזִמְרָ֣ת יָ֑הּ וַֽיְהִי־לִ֝֗י לִישׁוּעָֽה׃ 

ק֤וֹל ׀ רִנָּ֬ה וִישׁוּעָ֗ה בְּאׇהֳלֵ֥י צַדִּיקִ֑ים יְמִ֥ין יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה עֹ֣שָׂה חָֽיִל׃ 

יְמִ֣ין יְ֭הֹוָה רוֹמֵמָ֑ה יְמִ֥ין יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה עֹ֣שָׂה חָֽיִל׃ 

לֹא־אָמ֥וּת כִּֽי־אֶחְיֶ֑ה וַ֝אֲסַפֵּ֗ר מַעֲשֵׂ֥י יָֽהּ׃ 

יַסֹּ֣ר יִסְּרַ֣נִּי יָּ֑הּ וְ֝לַמָּ֗וֶת לֹ֣א נְתָנָֽנִי׃ 

פִּתְחוּ־לִ֥י שַׁעֲרֵי־צֶ֑דֶק אָבֹא־בָ֝֗ם אוֹדֶ֥ה יָֽהּ׃ 

זֶה־הַשַּׁ֥עַר לַיהֹוָ֑ה צַ֝דִּיקִ֗ים יָבֹ֥אוּ בֽוֹ׃ 

א֭וֹדְךָ כִּ֣י עֲנִיתָ֑נִי וַתְּהִי־לִ֝֗י לִישׁוּעָֽה׃ 

אֶ֭בֶן מָאֲס֣וּ הַבּוֹנִ֑ים הָ֝יְתָ֗ה לְרֹ֣אשׁ פִּנָּֽה׃ 

מֵאֵ֣ת יְ֭הֹוָה הָ֣יְתָה זֹּ֑את הִ֖יא נִפְלָ֣את בְּעֵינֵֽינוּ׃ 

זֶה־הַ֭יּוֹם עָשָׂ֣ה יְהֹוָ֑ה נָגִ֖ילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָ֣ה בֽוֹ׃ 

אָנָּ֣א יְ֭הֹוָה הוֹשִׁ֘יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א אָנָּ֥א יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה הַצְלִ֘יחָ֥ה נָּֽא׃ 

בָּר֣וּךְ הַ֭בָּא בְּשֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָ֑ה בֵּ֝רַ֥כְנוּכֶ֗ם מִבֵּ֥ית יְהֹוָֽה׃
אֵ֤ל ׀ יְהֹוָה֮ וַיָּ֢אֶ֫ר לָ֥נוּ אִסְרוּ־חַ֥ג בַּעֲבֹתִ֑ים עַד־קַ֝רְנ֗וֹת הַמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃ 

אֵלִ֣י אַתָּ֣ה וְאוֹדֶ֑ךָּ אֱ֝לֹהַ֗י אֲרוֹמְמֶֽךָּ׃ 

הוֹד֣וּ לַיהֹוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃ {פ}

Praise The Eternal, for the Eternal is good, (Their/Its) steadfast love is eternal.
Let Israel declare, "(Their/its) steadfast love is eternal."
Let the house of Aaron declare, "(Their/its) steadfast love is eternal."
Let those who fear The Eternal declare, "*(Their/its) steadfast love is eternal."
In distress I called on The Eternal; The Eternal answered me and brought me relief.
The Eternal is on my side, I have no fear; what can man do to me?
With The Eternal on my side as my helper, I will see the downfall of my foes.
It is better to take refuge in The Eternal than to trust in mortals;
it is better to take refuge in The Eternal than to trust in the great.
All nations have beset me; by the name of The Eternal I will surely cut them down.
They beset me, they surround me; by the name of The Eternal I will surely cut them down.
They have beset me like bees; they shall be extinguished like burning thorns; by the name of The Eternal I will surely cut them down.
You pressed me hard, I nearly fell; but The Eternal helped me.
The Eternal is my strength and might; The Eternal becomes my deliverance.
The tents of the victorious resound with joyous shouts of deliverance, "The right hand of The Eternal is triumphant!
The right hand of The Eternal is exalted! The right hand of The Eternal is triumphant!"
I shall not die but live and proclaim the works of The Eternal.
The Eternal punished me severely, but did not hand me over to death.
Open the gates of victory for me that I may enter them and praise The Eternal.
This is the gateway to The Eternal -- the victorious shall enter through it.
I praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my deliverance.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This is The Eternal's doing; it is marvelous in our sight.
This is the day that The Eternal has made -- let us exult and rejoice on it.
O Eternal, deliver us! O Eternal, let us prosper!
May they who enter be blessed in the name of The Eternal; we bless you from the House of The Eternal.
The Eternal is God; (they have/it has) given us light; bind the festal offering to the horns of the altar with cords.
You are holy and I will praise You; You are holy and I will extol You.
Praise The Eternal, in (their/its) goodness; (their/its) steadfast love is eternal.

Creative Reinterpretation:

Choose death over life
Choose to sacrifice the innocent us to it
And let your holocausts extinguish all mercy;

The floodgates will always break forth
In victory gushing,
The walls will crumble down
As your colony collapses,
The ghettos will be overcome in uprising; 

There is no day but this day of struggle
Of swimming on with freedom's unyielding currents
So we resist without fear, in spite of our mortality;
Our lives are not consumed in your fire,
But we continue kindling in each other's tents;

You have rejected our right
To inherit the lands where we have built our homes,
But yet again will we become the cornerstone
And yet again will this holy fire burn everlasting

Under the dawn of a new day
As the sun settles
In a land of death; it will rise again
In the land of the living.

Excerpt:

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits.
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response.
And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions.

But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don’t you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children?
Pause.

I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza.
Patience has just escaped me.

Pause. Smile.
We teach life, sir.

Rafeef, remember to smile.
Pause.

We teach life, sir.
We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky.
We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies.
We teach life, sir.

But today, my body was a TV’d massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits.
And just give us a story, a human story.You see, this is not political.
We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story.
Don’t mention that word “apartheid” and “occupation”.
This is not political.
You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre.
How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication?
How about you?
Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun?

Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits.
Today, my body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood.

But they felt sorry.
They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza.
So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject.
And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied.

And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand dead.
And between that, war crime and massacre, I vent out words and smile “not exotic”, “not terrorist”.
And I recount, I recount a hundred dead, a thousand dead.

Is anyone out there?
Will anyone listen?
I wish I could wail over their bodies.
I wish I could just run barefoot in every refugee camp and hold every child, cover their ears so they wouldn’t have to hear the sound of bombing for the rest of their life the way I do.

Today, my body was a TV’d massacre
And let me just tell you, there’s nothing your UN resolutions have ever done about this.
And no sound-bite, no sound-bite I come up with, no matter how good my English gets, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite, no sound-bite will bring them back to life.
No sound-bite will fix this.

We teach life, sir.
We teach life, sir.
We Palestinians wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life, sir.

—Rafeef Sidah, “We Teach Life, Sir” 

THE FOURTH CUP

Finally, we drink from the fourth and last cup:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן. 

Baruch ata, Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, borei peri hagafen.

We bless The Eternal, [our God, Sovereign]/[Spirit] of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. 

Non-theistic version:

Let us bless the natural processes of creation, and the indigenous peoples of varying lands and the laborers who have provided us with the nourishment of the fruit of the vine. 

Add this blessing:

בָּרוּך אַתָּה ה', אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, עַל הַגֶּפֶן וְעַל פְּרִי הַגֶּפֶן, עַל תְּנוּבַת הַשָּׂדֶה וְעַל אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה שֶׁרָצִיתָ וְהִנְחַלְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ לֶאֱכוֹל מִפִּרְיָהּ וְלִשְׂבֹּעַ מִטּוּבָהּ. רַחֶם נָא ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמֶּךָ וְעַל יְרוּשָׁלַיִם עִירֶךָ וְעַל צִיּוֹן מִשְׁכַּן כְּבוֹדֶךָ וְעַל מִזְבְּחֶךָ וְעַל הֵיכָלֶךָ וּבְנֵה יְרוּשָׁלַיִם עִיר הַקֹּדֶשׁ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ וְהַעֲלֵנוּ לְתוֹכָהּ וְשַׂמְּחֵנוּ בְּבִנְיָנָהּ וְנֹאכַל מִפִּרְיָהּ וְנִשְׂבַּע מִטּוּבָהּ וּנְבָרֶכְךָ עָלֶיהָ בִּקְדֻשָּׁה וּבְטָהֳרָה [בשבת: וּרְצֵה וְהַחֲלִיצֵנוּ בְּיוֹם הַשַׁבָּת הַזֶּה] וְשַׂמְּחֵנוּ בְּיוֹם חַג הַמַּצּוֹת הַזֶּה, כִּי אַתָּה ה' טוֹב וּמֵטִיב לַכֹּל, וְנוֹדֶה לְּךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן. 

Blessed are you, Eternal (sovereign/spirit) over all creation, for the vine and for the fruit of the vine; and for the bounty of the field; and for a desirable, good and broad land, which you want us to share with our kin, to eat from its fruit and to be satiated from its goodness.

Please have mercy, Eternal our God upon all those who struggle to free their land from captivity; and upon Jerusalem, Your city: and upon Palestine, the Holy Land, where you have revealed your plans to redeem humanity through those that have dwelt there and that have endured and resisted against oppression, not once, not twice, not thrice, but countless times and until today, as you have done in countless in other lands and in countless other generations; build an altar for the martyrs and sanctify it with our resistance, and let your holy city be freed and rebuilt quickly in our days, and bring those who have been dispossessed of it back into it and gladden us with its liberation; let all nations of the world be blessed through its fruit, and come into freedom along with it, and become one in holiness and purity, so that we may be at home in this unity, wherever we are, and that we may also no longer be in exile.

Show us that your goodness and that your righteousness has not faded, and neither has hope; let us show that we can still redeem the heritage you have given us before it is too late, and rescue it from its desecration. Promise us on this day of the Festival of Matzah.  

Non-theistic version:

Blessed are the workings of all humanity and the universe, for the vine and for the fruit of the vine; and for the bounty of the field; and for a desirable, good and broad land, of which we have the blessed opportunity to share with our kin, to eat from its fruit and to be satiated from its goodness.

Praise to all those who struggle to free their land from captivity; and upon Jerusalem, a monumental city, and upon Palestine, a land that has been made holy through its people, who have used their faith and their cultures to endure and resist against oppression, not once, not twice, not thrice, but countless times and until today, as has been done in countless other lands and in countless other generations; let us build an altar for the martyrs and sanctify it with resistance, and may the land’s people rebuild it quickly in our days, and let the dispossessed return to it and gladden us with its liberation; let all nations of the world be blessed through its fruit, and come into freedom along with it, and become one in holiness and purity, so that we may be at home in this unity, wherever we are, and that we may also no longer be in exile.

May we show each other that goodness and righteousness has not faded, and neither has hope; let us show that we can still redeem our heritage before it is too late, and rescue it from its desecration. Let us make this promise on this day of the Festival of Matzah.  

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן. 

Blessed is the Eternal, for causing us to sow seeds of redemption across the entire earth, along with sowing the fruit of this vine.

Non-theistic version:
Blessed are the memory of the ancestors, the company of our comrades, the earth below us, and the martyrs buried underneath, for supporting us as we sow the seed of redemption wherever we are amongst us, along with sowing the fruit of the vine.

NIRTZAH

The seder is nearly done, and all we have left is to affirm its truth one last time. We recite:

חֲסַל סִדּוּר פֶּסַח כְּהִלְכָתוֹ, כְּכָל מִשְׁפָּטוֹ וְחֻקָּתוֹ. כַּאֲשֶׁר זָכִינוּ לְסַדֵּר אוֹתוֹ כֵּן נִזְכֶּה לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ. זָךְ שׁוֹכֵן מְעוֹנָה, קוֹמֵם קְהַל עֲדַת מִי מָנָה. בְּקָרוֹב נַהֵל נִטְעֵי כַנָּה פְּדוּיִם לְצִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה. 

Completed is the Pesach Seder according to the law, according to the way it is judged to be relevant for us today. Just as we have merited to arrange it to reflect this moment, so too may we merit to dedicate our lives to being living sacrifices for the revolution it foretells. Let all our communities be raised up, more than can we count, and let us commit ourselves to the fight.

At this stage, the participants begin naming a variety of places. They can decide to name the following places related to exile across the Jewish and other diasporas or colonized areas of the world, as  listed below, but are of course not limited to them; those who spoke during Tzafun are especially encouraged to add and say the places they talked about if they are not mentioned already. Either way, it is up to unique tables to decide whether individual or communal recitations are more powerful for specific places mentioned in specific seders.

Next year, in Cordova!
Next year, in Moscow!
Next year, in Berlin!
Next year, in Baghdad!
Next year, in Sudan!
Next year, in the Congo!
Next year, in Rwanda!
Next year, in Haiti!
Next year, in Turtle Island!
Next year, in Oaxaca!
Next year, in Hawaii!
Next year, in Aoteaora!
Next year, in Kurdistan!
Next year, in Eelam!
Next year, in Damascus!
Next year, in Kashmir!
Next year, in Kosovo!
Next year, in Artsakh!
Next year, in Ireland!
Next year, in Korea!
Next year, in Burma!
Next year, in the Philippines!
Next year, in Boricua!
Next year, in Stonewall!
Next year, in a world that values disabled life!

If there are Palestinian participants, ask them if they would like to say the next two lines before everyone repeats:
Next year in a liberated Al-Quds/Jerusalem!
Next year in a free Palestine!

All participants show a meaningful gesture of commitment such as standing up, and declare:

Next year, the end of exile!

“I wish children didn’t die.
I wish they would be temporarily
elevated to the skies until the war ends.

Then they would return home safe,
and when their parents would ask them:
“where were you?” they would say:
“we were playing in the clouds.”

— Ghassan Kanafani

AFTERWORD

As we release this haggadah to the public we at JAWS must admit its shortcomings in the context of our current situation as an organization; despite the effort we have exerted in creating this document, we still have much work to do. Although there was much excitement when we debuted in 2023 as a coallation of genuinely anti-Zionist Jews who universally sought to tackle the Zionist question from a decolonial and revolutionary socialist perspective, we have lost the momentum we originally gained in the wake of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation and the genocidal escalation that ensued.With only a few of us currently still active in the organization and unable to pursue larger actions, we have created this haggadah together as a way of reinvigorating JAWS; it leads those of us still here to confront the urgency of the need to remain committed to our struggle to free Palestine in the light of our flaws, and it encourages those who may feel represented by the language, art, and spiritual reflection that we have prepared with care in order to harness the spirit of Pesach to join this struggle with us and help us build the organization JAWS aims to be. We also hope that in spite of our marginal position within the Jewish community, it will provide a revolutionary, anti-Zionist, and anti-colonial interpretation of the holiday and it associated rituals in a way that moves us to wrestle for a more radical Judaism, past the politics of the "Jewish left", that genuinely sees itself standing with Palestinians and the rest of the world as they fight against this late imperial epoch.We at JAWS do not see this haggadah as the be-end of fulfilling these goals, but hope that the agitation it provides as an artistic and theological work will lead us inside and outside the towards concrete action — and, as a result, the experiental growth in the field of revolutionary organizing that we, among many other initiatives both new and old, fundamentally benefit from. We hope to return to this text every year with lessons from such maturations and we hope that it is not soon before we update it in response to the joy Palestinians and the rest of the world will one day express when Palestine is freed from the river to the sea, rather than the grief and the uneasy, yet determined hope from which this text was written in.