The Temple Sinai Spirituality Committee is continually seeking opportunities to elevate holiday observances and celebrations. This year we HOPE the following formula helps add additional meaning to your Passover Seder. During your Passover Seder, you will drink four glasses of wine, sing four questions, discuss the four children, and remember God’s four promises. To further enhance the meaning of Passover, Temple Sinai’s Spirituality Committee invites you to add FOUR messages of HOPE to your Passover Seder. Throughout history, when human beings have sought hope they have found it in the Jewish story. Judaism is the religion of HOPE and Israel the home of HOPE. With Passover, we celebrate our freedom and continue to keep the light of HOPE burning bright.
ONE.....Starting Your Seder with HOPE
After gathering around your Seder table and lighting your holiday candles, read a poem or message of HOPE to welcome Passover. You can create your own message, share the poem from a family member, use the poem on the next page chosen by our clergy, or dig through some old cards or books for a passage that speaks to you. Let the light of the candles and the words of hope warm your table and all who surround it.
TWO.....Adding a symbol of HOPE to your Passover Table
One of the customs of the Seder involves the three pieces of Matzah often placed next to the Seder Plate. Many people will break the middle matzah as they begin to tell the story of Passover. This year, we invite you to add a fourth piece of matzah, the Matzah of HOPE. In the course of
introducing the ritual of the breaking of the middle piece, you can draw attention to this fourth piece, set aside for people in need of HOPE all over the world. With the inclusion of this simple act, and by drawing attention to the plight of others, we give other stories a voice as we tell our own. The Matzah of HOPE becomes the symbol of our HOPE that all peoples will get to experience the same freedom we celebrate with our Seder.
THREE.....Adding HOPE to the Order
After you and your guests have recited the 10 plagues, take a moment and look at your Seder table and ask your attendees this simple, yet powerful, question: “What objects of hope are present on the Seder table?” Often it is the objects with which we surround ourselves that
reflect the hopes of a previous generation. Perhaps one person will mention the candlesticks given by someone beloved, or the tablecloth handed down from a grandparent. Some may highlight the recipes, preserved by a generation that had hope that their decedents would one day gather around a table like the one before you and dine from the recipes created by great-grandparents. Some of us may choose to wear a kippah
that has the stamp of a wedding, most certainly a ceremony filled with HOPE. These are just a few ways that we can explore the hopes of yesterday to better appreciate how they are being realized at our table now.
FOUR.....Ending Your Seder with HOPE
We traditionally end the Seder by saying “We hope to be in the land of Israel next year!” We invite you to conclude your Seder with the singing of Hatikvah, the Israeli National Anthem, which means HOPE. You can find a video, words and translation on our Judaism at Home page on
the Temple Sinai website.
May your Seder in 5781 be a Story of Freedom with a message of HOPE!
