The Passover Seder is the retelling of our passage from slavery to freedom, a defining Jewish journey. Tonight at Temple B’rith Kodesh we will celebrate the Seder with families from Iraq and Afghanistan, brought to Rochester by No One Left Behind.

Temple B’rith Kodesh forged a partnership with NOLB, an organization dedicated to fulfill a promise to those who helped the US military and saved lives. The pledge has been to give them and their families visas at such a time when their own lives would become endangered. Tonight we will tell the story of the Exodus and celebrate our/their freedom.

The history of the Exodus is our blueprint as a people in an inclusive human community. We begin the Seder by opening the door to say, “All who are hungry, come and eat. All who are needy come and celebrate Passover with us.” This is the night that we are seated around the table, families, friends, and guests to narrate our journey. We raise the Matzah plate and we recite, “This is the bread of poverty that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.”

The powerful Exodus journey has produced enduring timeless Jewish values of care, compassion and justice as foundational and compelling. Every year we are instructed in the Haggadah to celebrate, and see the ways in which not all are free, so that in the year to come we may do better. In some communities it is customary to put an empty plate on the table to remember those less fortunate, those who are suffering, those in need of shelter, refugees, asylum seekers, the homeless and the hungry. Those of us who follow the custom, place verbal pledges on the plate and commit to Tikkun Olam to alleviate suffering in the coming year.

At the Seder we open the doors of our homes and of our hearts. The physical door is opened to invites all who are in need to enter. To open our heart is to give meaning to Passover. It is to act as people who have known bondage who have been targeted and denied refuge. To open our hearts means that we will speak up for justice. We will resist hatred, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We will stand up for refugees and asylum seekers and for #MeToo, and for LGBTQ and for Black Lives Matter and for a two states and peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, and for the dignity of the human being, kvod haAdam.  “Now we are slaves. Next year may we be truly free.”