My friend Amy Jaret invited me to a JVP Atlanta Seder , where I heard this line. It rooted deep. I had never heard it put so succinctly- how powerful we could be if we stayed in our integrity and did not sacrifice one another so some of us could live well (or at all). All of American politics seems to be a game of who we can scapegoat or dispose of, under the rubric of compromise- as Ol' Biden liked to say "reaching across the aisle".
I'm no political scientist, but I do know that tacking in hateful snippets of legislation to bills on issues that are entirely unrelated is sinister strategy.
I think I can see so clearly the world we could build. Though I'm unsure if the human factor (Octavia Butler's critique that we prize hierarchy over intelligence) would do us in every time. I can hope not. I can hold the vision safely until we are ready to live it out.
This text is from the Chavurah for a Free Palestine Haggadah. This portion was written by Rabbi Miriam Grossman & Rabbi Ariana Katz.
13x19" printed on recycled heavy weight card stock
The rest of the passage reads: Before the 8th and 9th plagues, Pharaoh got desperate and tried to pit the people against one another, saying he would let the men go free but leave the rest enslaved. And even though they were desperate and afraid, they did not abandon one another. They said no to Pharaoh’s deal, they would not sacrifice each other. That is how we get out. Today it means, we will not accept walls or police violence or Muslim bans that dehumanize. We will not accept the ubiquitous abuse of women, or the criminalization of homelessness. We will not accept politics of “progressive except Palestine”. We will not sacrifice each other for false stories of safety. We will remember what is possible when we stand together. In every generation we are obligated to tell this story: “Once we did not sacrifice each other and we won.”
My friend Amy Jaret invited me to a JVP Atlanta Seder , where I heard this line. It rooted deep. I had never heard it put so succinctly- how powerful we could be if we stayed in our integrity and did not sacrifice one another so some of us could live well (or at all). All of American politics seems to be a game of who we can scapegoat or dispose of, under the rubric of compromise- as Ol' Biden liked to say "reaching across the aisle".
I'm no political scientist, but I do know that tacking in hateful snippets of legislation to bills on issues that are entirely unrelated is sinister strategy.
I think I can see so clearly the world we could build. Though I'm unsure if the human factor (Octavia Butler's critique that we prize hierarchy over intelligence) would do us in every time. I can hope not. I can hold the vision safely until we are ready to live it out.
This text is from the Chavurah for a Free Palestine Haggadah. This portion was written by Rabbi Miriam Grossman & Rabbi Ariana Katz.
13x19" printed on recycled heavy weight card stock
The rest of the passage reads: Before the 8th and 9th plagues, Pharaoh got desperate and tried to pit the people against one another, saying he would let the men go free but leave the rest enslaved. And even though they were desperate and afraid, they did not abandon one another. They said no to Pharaoh’s deal, they would not sacrifice each other. That is how we get out. Today it means, we will not accept walls or police violence or Muslim bans that dehumanize. We will not accept the ubiquitous abuse of women, or the criminalization of homelessness. We will not accept politics of “progressive except Palestine”. We will not sacrifice each other for false stories of safety. We will remember what is possible when we stand together. In every generation we are obligated to tell this story: “Once we did not sacrifice each other and we won.”
