Any interesting, meaningful readings for a liberal Passover Seder on the theme of hope?

March 7, 2009 9:52 AM

Any interesting, meaningful readings for a liberal Passover Seder on the theme of hope?

My friend is hosting a Passover Seder, and asked me to help him find readings on the theme of hope. It's a very liberal group, and not everyone at the dinner will be Jewish. (Personally, I'm not religious at all.) Last year, he gave a little free-form nondenominational speech/lecture and passed out a xeroxed packet of readings like a college professor. He seemed to think Reinhold Niebuhr might have something interesting; poetry, philosophy, thoughts on the election...anything you think might be appropriate would be most welcome!

posted by aquafortis to religion & philosophy (2 comments total)

Fortunately, there is a TON of stuff freely available online, in addition to the stuff that you can buy and read aloud (I wouldn't advocate duplicating materials in a copyrighted Haggadah).

Some good places to start would be:

- The CCAR's The Open Door haggadah, which is a downloadable and copyable PDF.

- The Jewish Freeware site, which has tons of great free downloads. Be aware, though, that you'll have to check them out personally to make sure that they are compatible with your political/religious/theological comfort zone.

- Finally, I personally LOVE the "A Different Night" haggadah by Noam Zion. He has lots and lots of stuff that you can buy online and do your own cut-and-paste job. (The "A Night To Remember" is, I think, the latest-and-greatest haggadah he's done.)

Feel free to MeFi mail me if I can help you with other ideas or resources. Hope you have a terrific, meaningful, and inspiring seder!
posted by AngerBoy at 6:35 PM on March 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

Hope: so very 2007-8.
No, I don't mean "hope" in reference to the election campaign of the latest President of the United States, I had in mind Benedict XVI's latest encyclical---whose theme is hope. Sure, it's not very Jewish at all, but it's certainly topical.

Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey.

posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:28 PM on March 7