Passover begins tomorrow, where we tell the story of how the ancient Israelites in Egypt fled Mitzrayim, literally “the narrow place”. It is a story of exodus from a state of confinement and oppression into one of freedom. As Jews, we are taught to re-tell this story in every generation, as if we each experienced this journey personally.
But as we gather around the seder table this year, we know that the story of freedom is far from complete. We see this same story used by Zionists and the Israeli state to justify Jewish supremacy and violent occupation of Palestinian lands.
Like many religious stories, we cannot choose how it will be interpreted by others, or guard against a reading of it that justifies grievous harm. We grapple with the complexities of this story, while choosing to learn from it the necessity of freedom for all people.
This will be the third Passover marked during Israel’s livestreamed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We mark this holiday while Israel and the US wage illegal wars and injustice intensifies with rising authoritarian politics across Turtle Island.
And still, we tell the Passover story, and believe that it can still teach us about collective liberation.
We have put together two Haggadah supplements that you can integrate into your seders this year. The first is called Lo dayenu, “it would not be enough for us”. It is not enough for us to be free when others are oppressed. And as we tell our ancient story of leaving a state of oppression, this year we know that it is not enough to feel that journey for ourselves alone, but that we must keep organizing to ensure it is a reality for all peoples.
The second is an alternative version of Nirtzah, the final step of the Passover seder. In this version, rather than ending with the phrase Next Year in Jerusalem, a messianic desire which has been appropriated by the Zionist movement, the seder ends instead with Next Year in a Free Palestine.