May the space we jointly create tonight be a true merkhav yah, a space of divine expansiveness and inclusiveness.
Bena’areinu uvezekuneinu nelekh. We will go out with our children and with our elders. If you are elderly, you are welcome here. If you are middle aged or young, you are welcome here. If you are a child, you are welcome here.
May all four and more children be welcomed and honored here. May our inner children be welcome inside us, and our outer children be welcome at our table.
If you are a scholar or a simpleton, if you are talkative or shy or awkward or impatient, if you are angry or rebellious or self righteous, if you are traditional or innovative, you are welcome here. Wherever you are on the gender and sexual identity continuum, you are welcome here.
If you want to talk about political freedom or you want to talk about personal freedom, you are welcome here. If you like to sing or to discuss or to eat or to play or just to be left alone, you are welcome here. If you like to stick to the text of the Haggadah or you like to add your own spin, you are welcome here. If you feel like you belong or you feel like you don’t belong, you are welcome here.
If your views about Israel and Gaza feel clear and strong, you are welcome here. And if you feel confused and uncomfortable and not sure, you are also welcome here. If your views are mainstream or if your views have not been represented or welcomed elsewhere, you are all welcome here.
This is a wide space. This space is as wide and vast as the sky, as wide and vast as eternity itself, as the Eternal One who created us all as we are, different and separate and yet deeply intertwined, all carrying a divine spark.
Eternity is indeed present in this vast space as well. We welcome all the past and future generations – bekhol dor vador. This seder night connects to all other seder nights across time and space. We welcome our ancestors from Poland and Russia, from England and Canada, from Israel and Yemen and Morocco, from Spain and Portugal, from Germany and Hungary and Australia and all the other far flung corners of the earth, across time and space. We gather them all in like the ingathering of the exiles, we gather them all in tonight to celebrate together, across time and space, the ones we personally know, our own dear lost ones, and the ones we never knew, we feel their presence and welcome them here now.
We welcome, too, the unborn generations who will grace our world, their potential and aliveness like seeds planted inside us, we sense their presence, too, our future descendants. We welcome them and embrace them with love.
We welcome into this space, too, all the maror, the bitterness, and the oni, the suffering and the pain, of the past as well as the present. Kol dikhfin – all who are needy. We open ourselves to all who are suffering, beginning with our own personal suffering, including that, and casting the net as wide as we can. There is no limit to God’s compassion. We welcome into this space the suffering of the past as well as the suffering of this current moment in this country and in all parts of the world, including Israel and Gaza, all who are needy and in bondage, Jew and non-Jew alike, all who are in need of care and compassion, release and peace and freedom, justice and security. May the Spacious One, Hamakom, make space in our hearts to include them all. May we all feel held, in all our pain and confusion and heartbreak, in the loving embrace of that Spacious One.
This is a night of celebration. We welcome and include, too, all the sparks of joy and growth, the seedlings and the saplings, the song of the turtledove and the blossoming daffodils, all the little moments of triumph and glimpses of possibility in each one of us present tonight and in all those around the world who are also arising and singing their songs, each one a treasure. May the work of their hands and hearts be blessed. Our hearts rejoice with all of them.
We open the door wide, too, for the coming of a new era. We open it with hope and faith in our joint awakening.
May this gathering be a true merkhav yah, a space of vast divine inclusiveness.
You are welcome here.
Photo by shvets production at Pexels
