Mini-review: Liberating Your Passover Seder

Mini-review by Herb Levine of the book of 30 essays written by creators of about 30 venturesome Passover Seders, edited by Rabbi Phyllis Berman & Rabbi Arthur Waskow — Liberating your Passover Seder (Ben Yehuda Press).

Every year, between Purim and Passover, I read something connected to the Seder's themes. For such a purpose, I highly recommend Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Rabbi Phyllis Berman's co-edited volume.

There are three primary audiences I see for this book:

First, community organizers who plan large group Seders, who will find in it inspiration for activism and paths to liberation of all kinds;

second, historians of the American Jewish community, who will regard it as a treasure-trove of primary sources for the transformation of American Judaism since the Freedom Seder of 1969, which, along with other forces of that era, such as the written work and public actions of A. J. Heschel, removed the artificial barrier between religion and politics and restored the prophetic impulse to prominence;

and third, the Seder leader in every household, who this book will attune to hear from Seder participants what is the liberation they need and how that connects to the broad currents of liberation needed by our nation, the Jewish people, and all the peoples and species inhabiting our precious and so vulnerable planet.

Best wishes for a sweet and joyous Pesach.

Herb Levine