Maggid Mashup

During our 2011 Seder, Passover Village created an alternative ritual for telling Maggid, the story of our Journey from slavery to freedom. There is a tradition that Torah does not move in chronological or linear time. Drawing on this, we juxtaposed parts of the Passover ritual and liturgy in atypical combinations.

Counting off "Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet" around our circle, we divided into four groups. Each group then took, by lot, a theme from each of three categories as follows:


Four Children:
  Wise
  Simple or Naive
  Wicked or Alienated
  One that does not know how to ask


Four Symbols from Pesach Plate
  Pesach
  Matzah
  Maror
  Egg (a symbol not discussed in most Haggadot)

Four Stages of Our Journey
  Slavery
  Plagues
  Flight
  On the other shore of Sea (a stage not discussed in most Haggadot)

Each group then met to explore connections and meanings between the thematic elements they had drawn. The Haggadah discusses some of the possible combinations; for example the connection between Slavery and Mahror or the Pesach and Plagues. This exercise stimulated us to explore other combinations. Our four teams, for example, received the following combinations of elements:

  One who does not know to ask / Matzah / Slavery
  Wise / Flight / Maror
  Alientated / On the other shore / Pesach
  Simple / Plagues / Egg

Then, finding relief from the mid-afternoon sunlight in the shade and a breeze provided by granite cliffs outside of our campground, each team taught Maggid incorporating the elements they had drawn. Teams used different methods of story telling. In one team, each individual spoke about his or her personal interpretation. Another acted out a skit based on their assigned elements. One used psychodrama techniques to explore the feelings aroused by their journey. And another used body movement to update the archetypes in the story to the contemporary time.

The consensus among participants is that experiencing Maggid in this manner gave them a new connection to the elements of the Journey, making them feel in some ways that they had, themselves, gone out of Mitzrayim. Rather than hearing or reading someone else's story of the Exodus, we were able to tell our own stories of the passage to liberation; we "did" Maggid rather than "tell" Maggid. Further, members of the Passover Village community got to know each other in deep and profound ways by studying Torah together, and then revealing themselves on our rocky stage overlooking the desert.

This is an example of the type of creative ritual and community process that makes each Passover  Village encampment a meaningful and fun way to experience Passover.

I hear the fine stillness of the desert

Your smiles. Your songs. Your prayers. Your sweetness. These are my memories of Passover Village 2011.

The photo shows the rainbow* that graced our village.

     If God had given us Shabbat and not given us the rainbow sign,
     Dayenu.

While we work out a way to share personal messages, Passover Villagers are invited to share public messages as comments to this post.

* Actually, a rare phenomenon called a circumhorizon arc.

HAGAR/HAJJAR - Another Perspective

Judith M., a member of Passover Village who corresponds with us from Israel, sends this teaching about Hagar (Hajjar in Arabic) from an interfaith study group in Israel/Palestine that includes West Bank residents, Moslems and Jews:

Our discussion centered on Hagar/Hajjar who is a central figure in the Moslem tradition which stresses her faith and dedication. In the Jewish tradition she is a minor figure around whom the Torah weaves a story of family tensions and challenges with G~d, faithful to Abraham and his entire family, by providing for all. The Islamic tradition stresses very clearly the dedication and faith of Hagar and Jewish tradition.

F. and A. spoke of Hajjar as a shining example of faith accepting her test of being cast alone with Ishmael into the desert at the will of G~d. Her time in the desert, her persistent search for water for Ishamel and the miracle which they experienced are the basis of an important part of the Hajj ritual at Mecca the very place where Hagar and Ishmael dwelled.

We heard about the visits that Abraham made to the region to visit his family and his involvement in making sure that Ishmael married a worthy woman from a good family around. This marks the beginning of the development of Mecca.

H.K. delivered a commentary on the Biblical story of Hagar highlighting the interpersonal relationships and feelings in the home of Abraham: Sarah, offering Hagar to Abraham to bear the promised son leaving Hagar, the biological mother, without any matriarchal standing. This is the suffering that Hagar was told to bear when she fled pregnant. The birth of Isaac then created a new source of tension which led to Hagar and Ishmael's dismissal to the desert. As G~d provided water for Ishmael, Hagar's worthiness is stressed by the revelation she received. The midrash points out that this is the only time G~d spoke to a woman.

Although the Hagar and Abraham's first born son are sent to the desert (with a Divine promise for the future) both the Bible and the Midrash keep these characters in mind. The midrash identifies Keturah, Abraham's second wife, with Hagar and the Bible recounts how Ishmael returns to bury his father with Isaac.

 These teachings parallel those that have surfaced in the Passover Village study group this year, and that form part of our Kavanah for this year's seder.

2011 Kavanah: Our Spiritual Intention

Shalom Haverim,

It’s that time again . . . time to start thinking about our upcoming 16th annual Passover Village retreat. This year we will again be returning to Joshua Tree, where the rocky amphitheater of the land is calling us to another year of earth-based ritual, prayer, camping, and being together.

Once again, we remember that Pesach is a time to renew our connections with our ancestors as we explore our ancient roots in ritual fashion. We are instructed to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt as if we ourselves had gone out from that “narrow place” over 3000 years ago. It is a time to reflect on the meaning of slavery and freedom, oppression and transcendence, repression and growth. We celebrate what it means to be a people dedicated to service of Hashem/Elohim, and renew our connection with the story and the people with whom it all began.

In addition to these general themes of Passover, our particular group seeks to explore the connection to our people’s past as an indigenous people. That is to say, what does it mean to be a Hebrew - an Ivri, a boundary crosser - one of the Children of Israel, an indigenous tribal people who lived day to day connected intimately to the land and to nature? This was our initial motivation way back in 1995 for holding seder on the land, in the desert, much as our ancestors must have experienced it.

Each year we establish our “ Passover Village” for the weekend, where we enjoy each other’s presence and spirits in a cooperative, and heart-felt endeavor. Our vision is to create a place in which we all dwell together as Brothers and Sisters, in which each Soul is fully seen, recognized, and acknowledged, creating a lattice of contribution, in which each person serves a different role, a vital role in the community aligned as much as possible to his/her core self.

Every year we also add a bit of additional community Kavannah (spiritual intention) to our Seder weekend, to help us explore more deeply our tribal history together. Last year, again setting up our seder ritual space in accordance with the dimensions of the ancient Tabernacle, surrounded by the flags and banners of the 12 Tribes, we experienced deep and very personal teachings about the character and nature of our ancestress Ruth, as well as the nature of the Feminine in our tradition. We each took home from our seder weekend our own very particular lessons and understandings of the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, and were blessed with what we received from the Hebrew Feminine.

For this year’s kavannah, we want to further explore the archetypal nature of our ancestors, to see what lessons we can derive from their lives that will inform our own lives. Building from our experience of Ruth and the Feminine aspects of our tradition, and having studied many of the Masculine archetypes in past years, we decided that this year we would take the next step and explore the nature of the relationship between Masculine and Feminine as embodied by our first couple, Avram/Avraham and Sarai/Sarah.

With these 2 ancestors as our guides, together we will seek to gain some insight into what our tradition teaches us about being in relationship, the nature of Masculine and Feminine, Father – Mother, HaKadosh Baruch Hu – Shechinah, union, intimacy, generosity, laughter, hospitality, infertility, polyamory, ancient wisdoms, relations with neighbors, the division of the Ishmaelites from the Yitzhakites, offerings of healing at personal, relational, communal, and inter-tribal levels. These are just some of the possible teachings that might flow from a study of the first Hebrew couple.

Maybe learning the lessons within the story of our first archetypal ancestral couple could even open up a path to world peace. Im tirtzu . . . (if you want it . . . )

We look forward to what we will discover together at Joshua Tree under the sun and moon of Nissan, through our prayers, discussions, rituals, and general interactions together.

We are indeed a fortunate People to have so much of our ancient history written and available to us in our sacred texts. As we gather this year among the stones of Joshua Tree, and among the memories that we have built over the preceding 13 years, we will celebrate the freedom that we hold so dear, and again learn from one another what it means to be a people connected to the earth, to our ancestors, to Spirit, and to the best within each of us and each of our fellow human beings.

If you want to read about Abraham and Sarah, you can find it in Genesis. Some members of the Village have been studying this text during the past year, and notes from our discussions are posted on this Blog. 

Shalom U’L’hitraot – see you in Joshua Tree!
Marc

Hold the Dates

Passover Village will be held from Friday, April 22 through Sunday April 25, 2011. Watch for more information about location and other plans.