This meditation is intended to help people relax and feel welcome and safe at the seder, to create the sense of a divine sanctuary that can hold it all, in which judgment and performance and striving fade away, and we can all float together in the effortless river of redemption. Haggadah metaphors and terms are used throughout to set the stage. A script version is available below for you to read on seder night.
Meditation Script:
Getting into a comfortable position. Closing your eyes if that feels right. Gathering yourself in from all the places you’ve been and all the places you will be and arriving here in this moment, in this body, in this space.
Coming into awareness of the seat under you and the ground under you, whatever’s holding you up, noticing how you are held and supported, trusting that holding, that support, relaxing into it, letting yourself sink into and be held.
Taking a deep breath and as you do, maybe inviting in a sense of God or Spirit or your Higher Power or consciousness, however you understand the Mystery beyond us and inside us, breathing that in, letting that divine presence enter you and enter this space we are creating together, inviting God to be with us here right now, inside each one of us and in the space between us, in this joint sanctuary. Feeling into what that divine presence feels like to you in this moment – maybe it feels like a merkhav yah, divine spaciousness, opening the windows and getting some air, or maybe it feels like kindness, softness, tenderness, compassion, love, support, the absence of judgment. Maybe imagining all the judgment and criticism, both inner and outer, of ourselves and each other, maybe imagining all those little specks of judgment flying out the door, or running to hide in the corner before the compassionate accepting energy of the Holy One, and before our own capacity to be such compassionate holy ones.
This is a leil shimurim. A night of protection. Protection from danger and protection from judgment. You are safe here. I know a lot of times we don’t feel safe. Maybe you’ve been holding tight in hypervigilance for a long time. Let your body unwind and relax now. You are safe in this sanctuary.
Into this sanctuary, into this divine holding space of non judgment and acceptance and love, invite in whatever needs holding in you right now, whatever lies heavy on your heart, your personal worries and your worries about the world. Kol dikhfin, kol ditzrikh. All who are hungry, all who are in need. Checking in with yourself about what weighs on you and bringing it into this divine space to be held and loved here and now. It doesn’t have to be super clear, maybe it’s just this general darkness you are carrying – the sense of oni, of suffering in yourself and others, let it be here with us. Let this wild mysterious force beyond us and inside us that can hold anything, let yourself feel its capacity to hold what is unbearable for you to hold on your own. So much sorrow and heartbreak and suffering in the world and in us. Take the weight off your shoulders and hand it over to that eternal force for a moment. Let the suffering be held.
And if what is coming up for you is skepticism or resistance to this whole experience, let that be here, too, and let that, too, be held without judgment. We don’t have to let that be in charge, we don’t have to let it stop us, but it is welcome here. The rebellious child in the haggadah excludes himself. Don’t exclude yourself or any part of you.
Be as you are. Maybe you feel like the child who cannot speak right now, your tongue tied in awkwardness or simplicity. Not clever or funny. It does not matter. Do not perform or strive. Be here as you are without any effort to change or fix yourself. Tonight, redemption comes to us as we are, through grace, not effort. No savior Moshe here. Just God and us. Tonight, redemption comes to us through relaxing and trusting, through letting go of all of our complex mechanisms of control and efforting. Can you feel that in your body? It’s like we’ve been fighting against a river current for a long time, and now we relax and let the river take us. Relaxing into the effortless redemption of God. Letting go into what wants to unfold, just as you are. God takes us out of Egypt just as we are. We don’t have to deserve it or earn it. Let yourself be carried by that unconditional love, relaxing into its stream, trusting it, nothing to do, nothing to fix or make better, it’s ok, just rest and let the water carry you.
And maybe, as the judgment and striving begin to die down inside and you relax into the river, maybe you can get in touch with something much simpler that is buried deep inside, underneath all of that, a pure, simple point inside each of us that is our divine essence, the uncomplicated place that has this deep knowing and peace, that is always connected to the divine. It’s as if, as all the puff and noise of striving and judgment and control calm down inside us, we become like matzah, returning to our simplest essence, no longer puffed up with concerns about approval and performance, returning to the most basic essential point inside us, beyond words and explanations and evaluations, just simply floating in the river as we are, sensing our inextricable connection to the river itself, to each other, to all of creation, to all the generations before and after us, bekhol dor vador, and to the divine consciousness that animates it all. In our simplest essence, we know we belong. We return home, we remember who we are, we remember what matters. Everything else fades away. We are redeemed.
As we begin to close, resting in that river together for another moment. Coming into awareness of the people around you, floating next to you, and of our joint intention to continue to create this sanctuary of presence and acceptance together, to support and love each other exactly as we each are, letting go of judgment and expectation and evaluation, and opening to the divine in each of us and in the space between us, inviting in that divine presence to accompany us through the seder and beyond.
When you’re ready, letting go of the practice, taking with you what need – just whatever resonated – and leaving the rest. Maybe moving around a little, taking your time and when you’re ready, opening your eyes and returning to the room.
Image by Pixabay at Pexels
