HAGGADAH SUPPLEMENT - 5781 / 2021 - Edited and Compiled by Rabbi Ilana Garber

As we unpack our Haggadot and look to the classical words of the rabbis and sages of old, it is worth stopping for a moment to examine the very first passage of the Seder ritual. [...] Tonight, we are enjoined to taste the miracle that we made it through something that hurt so badly we thought it might be the end of us… and the deeper we go into the pain, the sweeter is the taste of our freedom. [...] At the beginning of the evening, we break the middle matzoh and tuck the larger part of it away into hiding, an act of modeling what it is to go into the part of us on the inside and break open what has been constrained. [...] The seder (literally, the order of ritual practices within the framework of a meal) supports our deep desire to get real and go deep in the safety of context—of people we love, of food that will touch us emotionally and spiritually and eventually offer us sustenance for the journey. [...] In other words, on the seder night we are meant to make the emotional journey of our ancestors from the despair of slavery to the praise of God at our liberation.