
Telling the Story
The central portion of the Haggadah is Maggid, where the story of the Exodus is presented, providing the broad scope of the story–from wanderings to slavery to freedom. Texts The Telling (David Hoffman): Finding personal context in the maggid verses from Deuteronomy The Meaning of Pesah (Matthew Berkowitz): The importance of compassion in the haggadah […]
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Passover Learning
Collected Video, Commentary, and more from JTS scholars to broaden the holiday of Pesah
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Learning from God to Anticipate the Reactions of Others
Apr 2, 2021 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Pesah
Why do we eat matzah on Passover? According to the instructions that God conveyed to Israel prior to the Exodus we eat matzah because we are commanded: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread (matzot)” (Exod. 12:15). However, according to Exod. 12:39, where the narrative of the events is related, we eat matzah because the Israelites, having been driven out of Egypt, were unable to linger to allow time for the dough to rise: “And they baked unleavened cakes (matzot) . . . because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry.” If so, why does the Torah present the mitzvah (the command) before the Exodus has actually taken place?
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A Holiday of Contradictory Emotions
Mar 26, 2021 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah
Preparing to celebrate our second Pesah under the grip of a global pandemic, our hearts are filled with both sadness and hope. No one has been untouched by COVID-19. We’re grieving a loved one, friend, or neighbor whose life was cut short. We’re experiencing its social and economic toll—overtaxed first responders, teachers, and food providers; overwhelming social isolation; devastating financial insecurity—all exacerbated by underlying inequities. Thankfully, millions have received the vaccine, though many have yet to receive it, and new variants temper our expectations.
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JTS Seder Supplement for the COVID-19 Pandemic
Apr 6, 2020 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Collected Resources | Pesah
Selected thoughts on the Haggadah in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

Passover in the Time of Coronavirus
Apr 3, 2020 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Shabbat Hagadol | Pesah
What a difference a year makes—or a week, or a day. Last year at this time, reflecting on a period of rising anti-Semitism in America and Europe, I wrote that “discussion at your seder table will be different from all Passovers past.” This year, many of those discussions will happen virtually, and attendance at physical seder tables will likely be limited to close family or friends. Many people may be sitting at the seder table alone. The plague is upon us, striking every part of the world without regard to national border or religion. The holiday will not be the same, because we are not the same.
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Matzah’s Majestic Meaning
Apr 8, 2020 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Pesah
I don’t know why we ask the first of the four seder questions—“On all other nights we eat both hametz and matzah but on this night only matzah.” The Ha lahma anya paragraph that immediately precedes the questions already answers it. The opening words, “this is the bread of affliction (lahma anya in the Aramaic) that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt,” suggest that the Israelite slaves in Egypt, who presumably had no time to bake bread, ate matzah. And that is why we eat matzah on Passover. So why ask the first question?
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Fear and Faith at the Exodus
Apr 25, 2019 By Lilly Kaufman | Commentary | Pesah
As they cross the Sea of Reeds and see the advancing Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites feel terror and cry out to God for help in Exodus 14:10. But in the next two verses they reject God’s wondrous efforts to bring them out of Egypt. The people ask for help and then reject it. Do they want God’s help or not?
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