כַּאֲשֶׁר זָכִינוּ לְסַדֵּר אוֹתוֹ כֵּן נִזְכֶּה לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ.

 The very first Passover that was celebrated in Egypt the night before the Jews were liberated is known in Rabbinic literature as Pesach Mitzrayim/Passover in Egypt. That first Passover was celebrated in two tenses as it were, in the present and also anticipating the future to the redemption of the next day and the future retelling of the story.

Every Passover since then is celebrated in three tenses--- in the past remembering that very first Passover, in the present-- the Passover we are currently celebrating and also our future redemption.

Remembering Passover of the past isn't just remembering the first Egypt Passover. It is also remembering Passovers from both our personal and our historical past.   I had classmates whose father was a concentration camp survivor. He used to put on his striped concentration camp uniform as he began retelling the story of the exodus from Egypt. 

My father, who was SO particular about how Hebrew was pronounced used to chant one of the post-meal poems  in the Haggadah in the Polish accented Hebrew of his grandfather. We never met Kalish born Grandpa Sam but we still chant that poem as he did.

ובכן ויהי בחצי הלילה a beautiful rendition of the poem that we sing like Grandpa Sam. Our rendition sound nothings like this one.

We chant the entire Haggadah in the melody that my mother's father used. I bake recipes from the notebook

my mother began jotting down Passover cakes in in 1954. My mother is no longer living, the women whose cakes I am baking are no longer living but we eat Mrs. Mael's chocolate  cake and Mrs. Pascal's sponge cake. 

My kids began making Mrs. Isadore Katz's matza balls when they were still in elementary school.

My mother filled this notebook with recipes from 1954 until some time in the 1980s.

I prepare for my Sedarim remembering practicing for the first time I sang mah nishtanah, remembering helping my parents get ready for the holiday.  There are also the sedarim that  my husband and I  have made here in our home after my father died. Some of our regular guests, Mike and Fred and Shawna are no longer alive. It is likely that one or another story of their joining us for Pesach will come up during one of our Sedarim.

Our Seder will tell the story of that original Exodus and will probably touch on other moments of darkness for the Jewish people, the Shoah, the Spanish Inquisition and probably October 7 will come up as well.

Each telling of the Passover story end with a hope for 

redemption. That redemption  is expressed as our receiving Torah, or coming into the land or rebuilding the temple and at the end of the Seder, Next Year in Jerusalem.

The Haggadah, like most Jewish liturgical texts was built up and added to over the millennia that Seders have taken place. At one point the seder ended with this text. 

נִרְצָה

NIRTZA / PARTING

חֲסַל סִדּוּר פֶּסַח כְּהִלְכָתוֹ, כְּכָל מִשְׁפָּטוֹ וְחֻקָּתוֹ. כַּאֲשֶׁר זָכִינוּ לְסַדֵּר אוֹתוֹ כֵּן נִזְכֶּה לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ. זָךְ שׁוֹכֵן מְעוֹנָה, קוֹמֵם קְהַל עֲדַת מִי מָנָה. בְּקָרוֹב נַהֵל נִטְעֵי כַנָּה פְּדוּיִם לְצִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה.

לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלַיִם הַבְּנוּיָה.

The Pesaḥ service is finished,

as it was meant to be performed,

in accordance with all its rules and laws.

Just as we have been privileged to lay out its order,

so may we be privileged to perform it [in the Temple].

Pure One, dwelling in Your heaven,

raise up this people, too abundant to be counted.

Soon, lead the shoots of [Israel’s] stock,

redeemed, into Zion with great joy.

NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM REBUILT!

Many families skip this text and just go onto the songs. For my family this and been a key moment of the Seder. We sing it to a melody that my mother's father used to sing.  This lovely version was recorded by the brilliant Mike Cohen, my kids' clarinet teacher. 

I have been thinking about the words of this little prayer formula all week as I have been tackling one or another piece of Passover preparations. Getting ready for  Passover is a giant collection of difficult tasks. Much of the work is  big and physical, lifting giant pots in and out of the oven, straining that vat of soup, cleaning the house. I remember all of the laws of observing the holiday that I was taught from the time that I was little. I also think about all of the quirky customs that my family has built up over the years.

And despite the hard work-- it is indeed a z'chut a privilege to be able to to these tasks. This year I am sixty three and still I have the strength in my back and in my arms to prepare Passover from my family and friends. I know that at some point I won't have that strength. The prayer implies in Hebrew, and not in this translation, that by doing all of the tasks this year we may be privileged to do them in the future.

There is something redemptive in all of this hard work that I have been doing for the past few weeks. The people who will sit around our table will consume my memories, and the memories of the generations that came before me as they eat the food that I have made.

Then the prayer goes on to hope for the great redemption. At the moment all I hope for is the smaller redemption of the hostages and for better times both here and in Israel.

I hope that however you do Passover that

you do it fully and the doing of it leads you to be redeemed with great joy.

Chag Sameach.