An Anti-Zionist Seder?

Last year on Passover, the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace staged what they called an anti-Zionist Seder at the University of Southern California. Many were bewildered at how such an event would navigate the famous concluding line of the Seder: “Next Year in Jerusalem”. But the problems with such a self-contradictory Seder go far deeper than just that last line. A self-proclaimed anti-Zionist Seder would encounter problems at each and every one of the Seder’s fourteen steps.

The following serves as my open letter to JVP, going through each of the Seder’s fourteen steps, and offering my own suggestions for how they might navigate these issues:

1)     Kadesh – We make kiddush over wine. According to Jewish Law, the wine must be grape wine specifically, because grape vines are listed amongst the produce of the Land of Israel in Deuteronomy 8:8 – “A land of wheat and barley, grape vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil producing olives and honey”. And so, plum wine or pear wine, for example, are not kosher to make kiddush upon. You should subvert this norm by making your kiddush on something like plum wine or pear wine specifically, so that your blessings will be purposely in vain.

2)     Urchatz: Wash hands without a blessing. In ancient Israel, before eating foods dipped in liquids, they would ritually wash their hands so that their hands would not subsequently defile the teruma, the gift of produce to a Kohen. We wash our hands before Karpas in memory of this ancient practice. Note that the laws of teruma are only operative in the Holy Land, and that they are generally still in force to this very day. You should therefore skip this step entirely

3)     Karpas: Dipping the green vegetable in salt water has many layers of meaning. But the Talmud says that the reason we must perform it is to elicit curiosity and questions from the children, in keeping with the verses in Exodus 12:25-26 – “And it shall come to pass when you enter the Land that the Lord will give you, as He spoke, that you shall observe this service. And it will come to pass if your children say to you, what is this service to you?” We learn from here that the children should ask questions. Try to avoid citing this proof text, which makes explicit mention of the Land.

Incidentally, we also learn from these verses that Pesach was not observed annually until we arrived in the Promised Land, because the Exodus was not considered to be complete until then. And so, in the forty-year sojourn in the Sinai desert, Pesach was only observed in the first year alone, but not for the next 39 years. (See Rashi there).

4)     Yachatz: Break the middle matza. The ensuing section of Maggid must be recited over a broken matza, in order to signify a sense of “poor man’s bread”. And so, we break the matza and then immediately declare that we are considered as poor and enslaved until we all return to Eretz Yisrael; that declaration ends with: “Now we are here; next year in the land of Israel. Now – slaves; next year we shall be free”. You should delete that line.

5)     Maggid – The Maggid is replete with references and connections to the Land of Israel, too many to adequately cite here. A couple of examples will suffice:

The famous “Dayeinu” song cites all the wonderful miracles that God wrought for us, and culminates in the final line: “And He brought us to the Land of Israel and built for us the House He chose, so that we could find atonement there for all our sins”.

The entire long Maggid section dramatically concludes with the line:

“It was not only our ancestors whom the Holy One redeemed; He redeemed us too along with them, as it is said: “He took us out of there, to bring us to the Land He promised our ancestors and to give it to us.”

Immediately after mentioning the Land, we raise our wine glasses in triumph, and we recite Psalms of praise. But you can’t, in good conscience, perform that part.

6)     Rochtzah: Wash hands with a blessing. We wash our hands with a vessel in memory of the ancient Temple practice of the Kohanim. The Temple was in East Jerusalem, rendering this practice as problematic.

7)     Motzi Matza: According to Jewish Law, matza must be made from one of the five species associated with the first two grains listed as grains of Eretz Yisrael in Deuteronomy 8:8 – “A land of wheat and barley, grape vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil producing olives and date honey”. And so, matza made from, say, corn or rice are not kosher for this step of the Seder, since these are not the grains of Eretz Yisrael. You should subvert this norm by intentionally using matza made from rice or corn, so that your blessings will be purposely in vain.

Note that you are also required to eat a kezayit (olive size) of matzah. The olive is used as the standard, since it is a common small fruit of the Land of Israel. Even throughout our long exile, in European lands where individual Jews had never actually seen an olive in person in their life, the olive measurement remained the standard nonetheless.

8)     Marror: Bitter herbs. The Midrash connects this practice to the verse in Lamentations 3:15: “He has filled me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood”, which the prophet Jeremiah uttered in lamenting the downfall of Zion. Avoid quoting this prooftext.

9)     Korech: the famous “Hillel Sandwich”. Hillel made Aliyah (moved from the exile to the Land of Israel) in the first century CE, an act that you now see as highly problematic for Jews to do today. Therefore, you should not mention Hillel’s name in this step.

10)  Shulchan Orech: We are required to have a festive meal on all holidays, in fulfillment of the verses in Isaiah 58: 13-14: “And you shall call the Sabbath a delight, the holy (day) of the Lord honored…Then, you shall delight with the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the Land (Ibn Ezra comments: That is, Eretz Yisrael)”.

These verses teach that in exchange for feasting and rejoicing on our festivals, God will restore us to our Land. Avoid citing this proof text, which is the standard, black letter and authoritative source for having festive meals in our codes of Jewish Law (See Rambam Mishneh Torah Laws of Yom Tov 6:16, and Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 529:1)

11) Tzafun: Eat the Afikomen. We make dessert over a piece of matza in memory of Temple times when the last thing you eat must be the Passover sacrifice. The sacrifice could only be eaten in the holy city of Jerusalem, and its meat could not be removed from the city. Avoid mentioning this connection to Jerusalem.

12) Barech – We recite the grace after meals, in fulfillment of the Biblical verse in Deuteronomy 8:10 – “And you will eat and be sated, and you shall bless the Lord, your God, for the good Land that He has given you”. First, we recite the famous prelude to the Grace from Psalm 126: “A song of ascents. When the Lord returns the returnees to Zion, we shall be like dreamers”. The second blessing of the Grace thanks God for the Land of Israel. The third blessing beseeches God to rebuild Zion, to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and to reestablish the sovereign Jewish Davidic dynasty therein. The fourth blessing was composed in honor of the buried dead of Betar, the symbol of the ancient revolution to restore Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. We then beseech God: “May the Merciful One break the yoke from off our neck, and lead us upright to our Land”. You’ll need to just skip the Grace entirely.

13)  Hallel: Before reciting Hallel, which is replete with references to Jerusalem, we recite from Psalm 79, in which we lament our exile and the destruction of Zion. We fill the cup of Elijah, the fifth cup of the Seder, which corresponds to the fifth expression of redemption, as found in the verse in Exodus 6:8 – “’And I will bring you to the Land, concerning which I raised My hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage; I am the Lord.’ ” According to tradition, the prophet Elijah will return to herald the coming the of Messiah, who will ingather all Jews to the Land of Israel, reestablish complete Jewish sovereignty therein, and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. You need to skip all of this entirely.

14)  Nirtza

Before the Nirtza step, we drink the fourth cup of wine, to conclude Hallel. We then recite the after-blessing on the wine, which is worth excerpting here in full:

“Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, for the vine and the fruit of the vine, and for the produce of the field; for the desirable, good and spacious land that You willingly gave as heritage to our ancestors, that they might eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness. Have compassion, LORD our God, on Israel Your people, on Jerusalem, Your city, on Zion the home of Your glory, on Your altar and Your Temple. May You rebuild Jerusalem, the holy city swiftly in our time, and may You bring us back there, rejoicing in its rebuilding, eating from its fruit, satisfied by its goodness, and blessing You for it in holiness and purity.  Grant us joy on this festival of Matzot. For You, God, are good and do good to all and we thank You for the Land (of Israel) and for the fruit of the vine. Blessed are You, LORD, for the Land and for the fruit of the vine” *

*Note: If the wine was produced in Eretz Yisrael, then this final wording is changed to: “For the Land and for the fruit of ITS vine”, (Gafnah), in order to give special honor to the produce of the Land of Israel. This holds true even if the wine was produced over the Green Line.

This is the same prayer recited after wine (and grain, and fruit) all year round, not just on Pesach. There is not a single line of that prayer that you can say.

The Seder famously concludes with the lines:

Soon, lead the shoots of our stock, redeemed, into Zion with great joy! Next Year in Jerusalem! (You obviously cannot say these lines in good faith).

15) After Nirtzah, come the three famous songs that everyone loves to sing, but all of which you’ll need to avoid:

First comes Adir Hu, with the fervent and urgent refrain beseeching God, again and again, to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount (where there is currently a Mosque): “May He build His house soon! Soon, speedily in our days! Build, Oh God, build, Oh God, build Your house soon!!” Note that mainstream Jewish tradition does not advocate using violence to bring about the rebuilt Temple, but we do pray daily for God to bring it about on His own timeline.

Next comes the fun song “Who Knows One?” All of the righteous people mentioned in this song are buried in the Land of Israel: (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, and Joseph); and all of them over the Green Line, too.

Chad Gadya: As the famous refrain goes: “One little goat that my father bought for two Zuzim! One little goat!” Zuzim are the name of the currency that Jews used in ancient Israel, and which are still mentioned in the Ketubah at Jewish weddings to this day. We have Zuz coins minted by Bar Kochba from the Second century CE which read: “To the Freedom of Jerusalem” on the front and: “Year Two to the Liberation of Israel” on the back. You should probably “decolonize” this song by chanting “two dollars” instead of “two Zuzim”.

If your Seder is being held on the second night: please note that the second Seder is only held in the Diaspora. Therefore, if you were to have an Israeli Jewish guest at your anti-Zionist Seder on the second night, he would not be allowed to lead any of its parts, as he does not share in the obligation for that night. As a resident of Eretz Yisrael, he is afforded a special and different status, closer to the biblical norm of observing just one day. This holds true even if he lives across the Green Line! He is still a resident of Eretz Yisrael, by precedent of the Jewish Law of millennia.

By now, I have made my point, although I could have written twice as much. The great irony is that, by disavowing the centuries long Jewish attachment to the Holy Land, you think that you are being edgy and subversive. But the Haggadah itself teaches that you have existed in every generation. You are the contrarian child whom the Haggadah does not regard fondly, who turns to the mainstream Jewish community, looks at our ancient attachment to our Homeland and asks: What is this all this labor to you?

This question of the wicked son derives from Exodus 12:25-26, where the question comes in response to our entry to the Land – “And it shall come to pass when you enter the Land that the Lord will give you, as He spoke, that you shall observe in this service. And it will come to pass, if your children should say to you: what is this service to you?”

In every generation, there are Jews who sell out their temporally unpopular identity in order to bow to the idol of the time. In your case, this is far left progressive orthodoxy, which casts the Jewish State as the scapegoat for all of the worst sins of our time, uniquely symbolizing all that is wrong in the world, such as Colonialism and White Supremacy. By acceding to this shallow and unfair ideology – which is the fashionable and dominant ideology in your social circles – you are not being contrarian rebels, but pathetic conformists.

I like to point out that we Jews keep inviting the wicked son back to the Seder every year, which demonstrates our hopes for his eventual repentance. I have the same hope for you: that you will repent of your misguided ways, and draw closer to the God, the People, the Torah, and the Land of Israel.