Author’s note:

Last year, Passover felt impossible. In the wake of ongoing mass violence worldwide, across countries, across borders, within borders, within the clandestine, and so too the public sphere and space, it felt impossible to celebrate anything in the wake of so much ongoing grief.

For one of my two weekly video series––“Behind the Poem”––I a piece, a poem, maybe simply a prayer in the order of the Passover Seder, which I shared across my social media last Passover.

As Passover begins this year, I find myself returning to this piece, poem, prayer, as mass violence and human-made atrocities continue to eradicate not only livelihoods and lives, but our souls. 

I believe that when we continue to operate under conditions of such unconscionable violence, our bodies aren’t the only parts of our beings to suffer. I believe our spirits deteriorate too.

May we find ways to eradicate the structures and ideologies of violence and oppression we have systematically co-created, rather than each other, rather than our bodies, rather than our souls.

Chag Pesach Sameach, to all.

***

SEDER (“order”)

one. Kadesh קדש | holy

and for whose sanctification

have we sanctified this

sanctification and does it

sanctify us into a sanctification

that is a sanctification that

sanctifies the sanctification of

the holy holy holy sanctification

 

of all?

 

two. Urchatz ורחץ | washing

and what hands are we

washing? from what are we

trying to wash ourselves?

clean? holiness? freedom?

sanctification? grief? are we

trying to wash and clean

ourselves free of this grief?

 

Three. Karpas כרפס | spring vegetable

if a tear gets dipped in

a body of salt water

and nobody sees it

did we actually

grieve?

 

Four. Yachatz יחץ | to break, divide

the seder writes itself. the seder

breaks itself. the seder divides

itself. the seder hands itself to

itself. and so of what must we

be free? from what must we

break? and break? break? break?

break? break? break? break?

not this ocean. not this sea.

 

Five. Magid מגיד | narrate

i. is any life different

from any other life?

 

ii. onto what have we reclined?

 

iii. whose deaths have we

chosen to pass over? whose lives

have we chosen to pass?

 

iv. why? again. and again?

 

Six. Rachtzah רחצה | second washing

wash.

a wash.

awash.

 

Seven. Motzi Matzah מצה מוציא | blessing of the matzah

a blessing for all of the

American groceries that put

matzah in a “Jewish” section at

the front of the store on Rosh

Hashanah and Yom Kippur and

Hanukkah. what an ocean of

tears. the seder writes itself.

divide. divide. a total wash.

 

Eight. Maror מרור | bitter herb

if bitterness falls in a

body of a trauma

and nobody breaks

it, is it also a total

wash?

 

nine. Koreich כורך | to wrap, encircle

we remember the bitter.

we remember the sweet.

we remember the bitter.

we remember the sweet.

we remember the bitter.

we remember the sweet.

the bitter. the bitter. the sweet.

the sweet. the bitter. the bitter.

the sweet. sweet.

 

Ten. Shulchan oreich עורך שלחן | set table

it is possible to eradicate

hunger. completely.

worldwide. and yet, we

have chosen to put it in a

section at the grocery store.

let it be a total wash.

 

eleven. Tzafun צפון | hidden, concealed

might it be a washing that might wash

away the chosen bitterness and sweeten

that which we have hidden in the divide?

might we break open the sanctification of

that which we choose to pass over and

find inside the broken breaks of

sweetness the bitterness of that which we

choose to hide? it is possible to reveal

that which we have hidden. completely.

worldwide. and yet, we have chosen to

put it in a section at the grocery store. let

it be a tear dipped in a body of salt. water.

broken. parted. divided. see.

 

twelve. Bareich ברך | blessing

blessing.

blessing.

bless.

 

thirteen. Hallel הלל | praise

and oh, to the prophets, who

live within our grief, who set

the table of our tears, whose

oceans wash our bitterness

into sweetness through a

body of trauma that nobody

sees: please break us from

this divided grief.

 

fourteen. Nirtzah נירצה | desired

next year, next year, next year,

next year, next year, next year,

next year, next year, next year,

next year, next year, next year,

next year, next year, and still

too, many it be today,

completely. worldwide.

a sanctification of holiness

 

for all.