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readings for pesach 5771

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pesach 5771 welcome to this pesach supplement it contains various readings and quotes that are intended to provide discussion points at your seder as well as offering readings to supplement and even replace the traditional seder readings references in the booklet are to liberal judaism s haggadah b chol dor vador available from liberal judaism of course there is no obligation to omit the traditional or other readings to the extent that this booklet suggests the hope is however that the different readings and quotations will encourage participants to ask their own questions and engage in discussions that make the message of pesach relevant to our modern age the readings on page 10 and 11 are adapted from a children s haggadah by rabbi pete tobias the full text is available on request.

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the refugee road several groups of african refugees are making their way from ketziot to be er sheva without water directions or money they wander through the promised land in search of a destination by nurit wurgaft returning from a visit at ketziot prison now a temporary home for many stranded african refugees before reaching the main highway between nitzana and be er sheva we saw six africans walking by the roadside some wore wool hats others had swathed their heads in shirts to protect them from the blistering midday sun they looked like they had been walking for a long time with their backpacks and bottles of water in hand they were refugees from ethiopia and darfur and this was their first day in israel actually they had reached the israeli side of the border a week before it took four days before we reached an army base one of the ethiopian refugees said the soldiers brought us onto the base and we stayed there for three days last night they brought us here here is ketziot prison thinking that it was another army base the refugees went to the entrance and asked to be let in they were denied entrance and spent the night outside in the morning they said passersby told them that there was no point in waiting and that it would be better for them to go to be er sheva since then they had been walking in the direction of the city as it was pointed out to them when the six saw us they sat down on the ground exhausted the ethiopian refugee wearing a ceremonial white shirt possibly to impress the immigration authorities told us that he had been forced to flee his homeland my entire family is associated with an opposition organization and we are constantly in trouble he says my father disappeared three years ago and i still have no idea what happened to him i fled because i was afraid that something similar would happen to me one of them asks is be er sheva far from here they said about 15 kilometres photographer alex levac takes out a map and shows them the way.

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they have just over 50 kilometres to go their faces fall we don t have enough water for a trip like that and we don t have the strength the ethiopian says one of the darfur refugees wipes the sweat from his brow if i had known this would happen to us i wouldn t have come he says we whip up a small collection among ourselves and give them enough money to take a bus to be er sheva then we leave another group of refugees is standing at a bus station on the main road about 200 meters further down they had stopped to rest men who had not shaved in days took off new shoes not intended for walking they stretched out in their best clothes on the bus station bench or on the ground in the shade of a small tamarisk tree and napped when they reached the army base the previous thursday they had been freedom by tosh congolese refugee freedom freedom freedom is more than the wealth freedom freedom freedom is more than the money freedom freedom freedom is more than everything confident that their desert trek was over the soldiers let us rest and gave us food and drink they smiled and said encouraging words one refugee from darfur says when they were told on sunday evening to prepare for a trip they were sure the next stop would be an airconditioned office of the immigration authorities and dressed accordingly perhaps you know where the united nations office is they ask the answer that the un commission for refugees is in tel aviv upsets them how do you get to tel aviv they ask they are surrounded by empty water bottles they re out of water and want to know where they can fill their bottles asking how far is it to be er sheva we hope for help from passing drivers but few cars pass here and they re going fast none of them stop despite our vigorous gesturing for negev dwellers african refugees on the roadside are evidently not a rarity since we were out of resources and water we suggested that they not walk any further but wait for a bus and beg to be taken the advice makes perfect sense to them.

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p. 5

we drive another kilometre and meet another group six people from eritrea one with a cane walking in tandem it s the same story again at the end of the previous week they had been at an army base and were driven to ketziot in the middle of sunday night but they lost their way wasting precious time and most of their water yet they remained optimistic and asked to use our cellular phones to call their countryman a refugee like them who had reached israel a few weeks before we re on the way we ll be in be er sheva soon they told him happily where are we actually they asked us after a quick consultation they ask if we can take three of them with us ­ then the water can be shared among less people a border police car stops next to us the soldiers ask who are these people and point at the three walking with us we explain that they re refugees from eritrea and that we re taking them to be er sheva you can t just take them they have to be checked first one of the policemen rebukes us we tell them that the group has come from ketziot where somebody surely checked them and was satisfied eventually we get back into the car with three of the refugees we drive off with the air conditioner on full blast and the eritreans in the back seat chatting in tigrinya they occasionally interrupt themselves to thank us we try to guess what they think of israel as seen through the car windows a desert waste in which the odd bedouin tent is the only sign of life all men have equal rights to liberty to their property and to the production of the laws freedom has its life in the hearts the actions the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed ­ else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots it will wither and die dwight d eisenhower judging by their expressions that isn t how they had imagined israel when be er sheva appears in view they breathe a sigh of relief a city at last voltaire

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that evening the chairman of the african refugees development center johannes lama bayo calls bayo himself fled ethiopia he says the five eritreans had reached tel aviv by evening and were taken in by the church on lavenda street in the city s south which houses refugees a military source said the next day that the remainder of the group was at the soldiers hostel in be er sheva he complained that the prison service had been neglecting the refugees for some time forcing the army to house them at the soldiers hostel the moment we understood that the prison service hadn t taken them we sent out a vehicle and took them to the soldiers hostel in israel today there are close to 19,000 asylum seekers and refugees most of those entering israel are from eritrea and sudan in eritrea individuals are fleeing from political and religious persecution whilst darfuris are escaping from a brutal conflict in western sudan and christian individuals in south sudan are leaving persecution to which they were subjected by the government freedom would be meaningless without security in the home and in the streets nelson mandela as only 170 people have gained refugee status according to the un convention of 1951 most are left in a state of limbo with the constant possibility of arrest these asylum seekers cannot access healthcare despite numerous medical problems including trauma they are denied the right to work leaving many destitute and homeless about 50 asylum seekers sleep in levinsky park every night on crossing the border from sinai to israel some are returned to egypt despite human rights violations known to take place there including deportation to the very place from which the asylum seekers are fleeing 1500 people are being held indefinitely in detention including around 250 women and children israel was not created to disappear ­ israel will endure and flourish it is the child of hope and the home or the brave it can either be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success it carries the shield of democracy and it honours the sword of freedom john f kennedy

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p. 7

introductory reading 1a light candles 2a p didn t say goodbye to his mother so as not to entangle her in his plans he didn t pack a bag and didn t change clothes but when asked what the hardest moment was he answers unhesitatingly `the moment i left my home the hardest thing was to start walking and know that i would never come back for every man who lives without freedom the rest of us must face the guilt the watch on the rhine lillian hellman it s only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything fight club kiddush p3a 4a

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p. 8

perhaps we dip the parsley in the salt water the bitterness of the terrible struggles that take away the beauty of the spring and makes us realise that there are too many people shedding tears in this world only when these tears stop falling we can truly celebrate so taste the hope of the spring with the parsley and the bitterness of the salt water tears as we say the blessing together karpas p5a pesach is known as z man cheiruteinu ­ the season of our freedom and judaism is a religion which is built upon the events we are celebrating this evening ­ the release of our ancestors from their slavery in egypt but we know that we live in a world where not everyone is free ­ indeed it could be said that in the very place where our religion was born there is oppression which is contrary to the spirit of the events we celebrate this evening i only ask to be free the butterflies are free mankind will surely not deny to harold skimpole what is concedes to the butterflies bleak house charles dickens freedom in general may be denied as the absence of obstacles to the realisation of desires bertrand russell

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p. 9

my name is adam i m a ten year-old just taking part in this seder meal living in a country where most of the people aren t jewish i go to an ordinary school and i speak english not like so many of my ancestors who went to hebrew school and only learnt jewish things in truth judaism is really only a part of my life i am free there is nothing to stop me being at this seder meal and being happy that my ancestors managed to escape from slavery no-one makes me wear clothes or hats that mark me out as being different from anyone else no-one locks me away or makes me afraid to be jewish but there is a danger in having such wonderful freedom about living in safety and not having to struggle to be jewish it s a different sort of danger to the one faced by countless jews who celebrated pesach in fear but it s still a danger yes i am free to remember the exodus from egypt but i am also free to forget when people are cruel to the jews for whatever reason they always remind us that we are jews but because i am free i have to remind myself that i am a jew i have to try extra hard to be a jew so we must all ask questions about our history about our heritage about our people about ourselves the secret of happiness is freedom the secret of freedom is courage thucydides mah nishtanah p6a any existence deprived of freedom is a kind of death gen michel aoun

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p. 10

there is something in the soul that cries out for freedom there is something deep down within the very soul of man that reaches out of canaan men cannot be satisfied with egypt they try to adjust to it for a while many men have bested interests in egypt and they are slow to leave egypt makes it profitable to them some people profit by egypt the vast majority the masses of people never profit by egypt and they are never content with it and eventually they rise up and begin to cry out for canaan s land martin luther king jr telling the story `leaving egypt i prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery jean-jacques rousseau we are leah and shmuel for so long we had been slaves our masters would whip us and beat us all the time it was terrible but it was not as frightening as this at least we knew what to expect we got up worked all day and then went home exhausted with hardly enough energy to eat what little food we had before falling asleep no-one can say anything for sure in these difficult days the only certainty is that ahead of us is darkness and in that darkness there is fear if we could choose we would not make this terrible journey we cannot go back we are going into the wilderness and leaving slavery behind we are so brave we are so foolish we are so scared we know that we will die and will never be heard of again we are going into the wilderness away from slavery how will our descendants remember us will they think of us as heroes striding boldly into the night or will they remember the fear and the terror that moment of truth as we asked ourselves whether it was better to live as slaves or risk death as a free people we are do brave we are so foolish we are so scared we are free will you remember us

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p. 11

change does not roll in on the wheels of nevitability but comes through continuous struggle and so we must straighten out backs and work for our freedom a man can t ride you unless your back is bent martin luther king jr the plagues p14a to know how to free oneself is nothing the arduous thing is to know what to with one s freedom andre gide dayyeinu p16 freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction we didn t pass it to our children in the bloodstream it must be fought for protected and handed on for them to do the same ronald reagan

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p. 12

we shall overcome we shall overcome we shall overcome some day deep in my heart i do believe we shall overcome some day we ll walk hand in hand we ll walk hand in hand we ll walk hand in hand some day deep in my heart i do believe we ll walk hand in hand some day black and white together black and white together black and white together some day deep in my heart i do believe black and white together some day christian muslim jew christian muslim jew christian muslim jew today deep in my heart i do believe christian muslim jew today those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves abraham lincoln we are not afraid we are not afraid we are not afraid today deep in my heart i do believe we are not afraid today the people shall be free the people shall be free the people shall be free all days deep in my heart i do believe the people shall be free all days we shall live in peace we shall live in peace we shall live in peace some day deep in my heart i do believe we shall live in peace some day we shall overcome we shall overcome we shall overcome some day deep in my heart i do believe we shall overcome some day in the long history of the world only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger i do not shrink from this responsibility i welcome it john f kennedy

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p. 13

history does not teach fatalism there are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads charles de gaulle it was not a normal friday in baghdad with cars banned ahead of a day of protests the streets were mostly deserted except for military and police vehicles but that did not stop more than a thousand people from gathering in this city s tahrir square they came on foot shiites and sunnis christians senior citizens teenagers and children most of them there to support the freedoms that iraqis have fought so hard to grasp over the past eight years i too made an hour-long trek to tahrir square so i could report on the protests for the times one of the first people i encountered after arriving at about 10 a.m was wesal esmail a 32-year-old woman who walked two hours to be there i have never felt so free in my life she said maliki cannot stop me maliki cannot take this away from me she said referring to prime minister nuri kamal al-maliki by noon things became heated a group of protesters gathered at the nearby jumhuriya bridge which runs over the tigris to the green zone and began trying to tear down concrete blast walls that had been set up shortly before the protest i followed them and spoke to a 25-year-old named ali who helped to rip down the walls maliki thinks that he can stop us with his walls he told me it s all he has

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p. 14

freedom is never voluntarily given up by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed martin luther king jr the thing about movements is that at a certain point the ordinary person experiences power beforehand and afterwards nobody pays them any attention but at a certain point the ordinary person feels their own power b chol dor va-dor p20a individual liberty is individual power and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation john quincy adams

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p. 15

egypt ­ the youth organisers announced that jan 25th would be a day of protest against the government by spending the news online and through the streets with fliers tens of thousands of people filled the streets of cairo and other cities to demand the end of the nearly 30-year rule of president hosni mubarak the success of the demonstrations inspired veteran opposition leaders to join the youth groups second glass of wine p20a all government of course is against liberty henry louis mencken revolution is easy democracy is difficult albert r hunt the key to change is to let go of fear roseanne cash

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