I once read that there are at least 3,000 different haggadot to tell the one story of Passover, but that was several years ago, B.G.E -- Before the Google Era. There must be double that now.
And that doesn't count the countless versions of the haggadah made by people like me for our own seders, revised each year as I cut and paste new parts that strike me as true for that moment. Many years ago, my husband started calling it "The Kinko Haggadah," even though these days I just print it off my computer.
It was Rabbi Arthur Waskow who touched off the modern phase of rewriting haggadot. On the first yahrzeit of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1969, Waskow organized a "Freedom Seder" based on a haggadah he had written, The Freedom Seder. (Waskow is still going strong, writing a Freedom Seder for the Earthin 2008.)
I'm in the process of putting together my haggadah for this year and, over the next few days, I thought I would share some of the pieces I intend to incorporate into it. This year I find that my approach to Pesach -- and to Counting the Omer, a practice I took on four or five years ago -- is impacted by my work with Jewish Mindfulness.
The first piece I want to share I found at Projecting Freedom:Cinematic Interpretations of the Haggadah,a remarkable set of videos interpreting each part of the seder.
It's about the power of brokenness, tied to Yachatz, the breaking of the middle matzah.
Breaking is a complex concept. It separates, it destroys, and it also enables rebuilding. Whether because of structural limits or deficiencies, the inability to retain external or internal pressure, the act of moving away from the status quo, or the act of clearing space for redevelopment, breaking can be transformative. Above all, breaking is natural.
In Jewish mystical tradition, the world itself was created from a primordial breaking. The Kabbalah maintains that God’s energy in creating the world could not be contained in vessels. The vessels therefore shattered and released the energy of creative light into the world. Breaking releases energy trapped in form. In what is referred to as shvirat ha’kailim, “breaking of the vessels,” creative energy overwhelms form, breaks free, and invigorates its surroundings.