NEW "SEDER FOR THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR, & SARAH" Why is this Seder different from all other Seders?

Because in all other Seders, we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

Through this Seder, we tell the story of the collisions and reconciliations that have intertwined the children of Abraham and Sarah -- the Jewish people -- with the children of Abraham and Hagar -- the Arab peoples.

This story of conflict, suffering, and efforts to make peace began more than three thousand years ago, and this very day continues among Israelis and Palestinians.

The new SEDER draws deeply on the Biblical and Koranic accounts of Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah, and Isaac, and includes as part of its "Telling," eyewitness accounts of the sufferings of both Israelis and Palestinians, and their acts of peacemaking.

In many communities in North America, and some in Europe and Israel, families, synagogues, havurot, Hillel Houses, and independent community-wide committees are planning to hold this Seder, some as a Jewish event, some as a joint effort by Jews and Arab-Americans.

Among congregations planning to hold this Seder are B'nai Jeshurun of New York City, Am Kolel of Washington, D.C., and Mishkan Shalom of Philadelphia. They will hold a communal SEDER OF THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR, AND SARAH on the night of April 4, uniting a wonderful moment for celebration and joy with efforts to build support for Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

That night is the fifth night of Pesach, the night of Easter Sunday, and the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King.

This new Seder was "woven" by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, author of the famous Freedom Seder, which was published in 1969 and deeply changed everyone's assumptions about what a Seder could be. Waskow is director of The Shalom Center, a national network that draws on Jewish wisdom to seek peace, pursue justice, and heal the earth.

In its March issue (already available), Tikkun magazine is publishing a special 8-page insert with text and graphics for the new SEDER.

To get a copy of the March issue of Tikkun, send a check for $8.00 and a self-addressed large (9 x 11) envelope with 55 cents stamps to --

Tikkun Magazine
26 Fell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

You can use the following coupon:

To:  Tikkun Magazine, 26 Fell Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

___ I enclose $8.00 and a large self-addressed stamped envelope. Please send
me the March 1999 issue of Tikkun with the "Seder for the Children of Abraham,
Hagar, & Sarah," and information on how the Seder can itself strengthen the
effort to make peace between Isarelis and Palestinians. 


Name ____________________________________
Address __________________________________
City/ State/ Zip _____________________________
Email address ______________________________
Phone/s __________________________________ 

Reader says aloud:
In the name of God, the Compassionate!
All present respond:
In the name of God, the Compassionate!
(Hand everyone a cup of grape juice.)

Reader says: We begin with the cup of Spring, when earth awakes and peoples come to birth.
All recite three blessings: one over the fruit of the grapevine, one over all the nations, and Sheh'hekhianu:
Blessed are You, the Breath of Life,
Who breathed into the earth of an ancient land
the vine that brings forth fruit
that brings forth juice
as red as blood --
the joyful juice of grapes that give us not death
but life.

Blessed are You Who taught:
“In that day Israel shall be the third alongside Egypt and Assyria, each a blessing in the midst of the earth -- for YHWH [pronounce Yahh, with a strong sense of breathing] of the multitudes has blessed each, saying: ‘Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’ (Isaiah 19 :24)
Blessed are You, Breath of Life, Who has filled us with life, lifted us up, and carried us to this moment.
All drink.

... We are taught: “And you shall tell your child on that day, saying: “It is because of what the Breath of Life did for me, breathing me forth from slavery in the Narrow Place.’ “ For it was not only our forebears that the Breath of Life freed, but us as well.

So in every generation, let every human being look upon himself, herself, as if we all came out of the Narrow Place today.

One reads:

For us today, the Narrow Place is the place of bloodshed that comes from war between the two families of Abraham -- the family that calls him Ibrahim and the family that calls him Avraham # -- the children of Hajar/ Hagar through her child Ismail/ Yishmael and the children of Sarah through her child Yitzchak/ Is’haq.

Another reads:

May the Narrow Place through which we move become the narrow birth canal, may the blood we have shed become the blood of birthing! -- For today we tell both the story of the Narrow Place that holds us in its grip, and the story of turning that Narrow Place into the birth canal for two new peoples and a new way of being, a new way of living face to face in the Land that gave two peoples birth.

So tonight we ask each other Four More Questions:

From the plate with four slices of matzah, lift the bottom slice. Say aloud: This is the bread of affliction: It is whole, and so long as it is whole, no one can eat from it.

Now break it; let everyone see these two pieces.

(The First Question:)

Why do we break the matzah in two?
Because the bread of affliction becomes the bread of freedom --when we share it. Because the Land that gives bread to two peoples must be divided in two, so that both peoples may eat of it. So long as one people grasps the whole land, it is a land of affliction, and no one is nourished by it. When each people can eat from part of the Land, it will become a land of freedom.

Pass the broken pieces of matzah from hand to hand. Each person breaks off a piece and hands that piece to someone else. Together they say: “Blessed is the Breath of Life, Who brings forth bread from the earth and compassion from each earthy-human.”

Everyone eats.

The Four Children

Four children bring different questions to the Seder table tonight:

The angry child asks, "Why should I compromise?"

And we answer that we choose the route of compromise because the alternative is the mutual destruction, both moral and physical, of our two peoples. If we fail to compromise, we will lose a vision of the future for our children.

The naive child asks, "Why can't we just love each other?"

And we answer that neither of us can live as if history has not happened. Unfortunately, too much blood has already been shed on both sides. It takes time to build trust.

The frightened child asks, "How can I be safe?"

And we answer that we are both afraid. "How can I be safe if my brother or sister is not safe?"

The wise child asks, "How can we take the steps that walk in peace, toward peace?"

This is the question with which we wrestle tonight. But this is a question that goes beyond tonight. For in each one us lives all four children: Each of us bears in our own belly the angry one, the frightened one, the naive one, the wise one. Which of these children shall we bring to birth? Only if we can deeply hear all four of them can we truthfully answer the fourth question. Only if we can deeply hear all four of them can we bring to birth a child, a people, that is truly wise.

(The Fourth Question):

Why is there an egg upon the Pesach plate?
It is the egg of birthing.
When the midwives Shifrah and Puah
Saved the children that Pharaoh ordered them to kill,
That was the beginning of the birth-time;
When Pharaoh's daughter joined with Miriam
To give a second birth to Moses from the waters,
She birthed herself anew into God's daughter, Bat-yah,
And the people turned to draw itself toward life.

When God became a Midwife
And named Israel Her firstborn,
Though it was the smallest and youngest of the peoples,
The birthing began;
When the waters of the Red Sea broke,
They were delivered.

So tonight it is our task to help the Midwife
Who tonight is giving birth to two new peoples --
For tonight only Hagar can give a new birth to the children of Israel,
And only Sarah can give a new birth to the children of Ishmael.

Our lives are in each other’s hands.
No Pharaoh can force us to kill.
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