3-2-1: Passover

A few reflections to take to your Seder

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Pre-Passover listening: Check out the latest episode of Wondering Jews — I was joined by the brilliant R’ David Wolpe for a wide-ranging conversation about Passover. We explored myth vs. history, the boundaries of belonging, Jewish resilience, and much more.

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I love James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter—3 ideas, 2 quotes, 1 question—and thought I’d borrow the format for Committed this week.

As we prepare for Passover, here are a few thoughts you might bring to your Seder rooted in the power of the Haggadah to speak across time.

If you have ideas of your own, I’d love to hear them in the comments!

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3 Ideas

1. Freedom must be both felt and performed
There’s a striking difference between how Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews recite a core line of the Haggadah:

Ashkenazim say: “Each person must see themselves as if they left Egypt.”
Sephardim say: “Each person must show themselves as if they left Egypt.”

The first speaks to inner experience—imagining yourself in the Exodus. The second adds something more: a public performance. A visible identity.

We can learn from both these traditions that freedom is both what we feel internally and what we embody and express. Jewish identity, in particular, is not only a private matter of belief or heritage—it’s something others see. Especially now, when Jewish identity is being tested so sharply, our freedom to show up as Jews is precious — and must be protected.

2. Freedom is what we give to others
Before we begin telling the story of our liberation, we start with generosity in Ha lachma Aniya: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”

Commenting on this, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l wrote about Holocaust survivors who, in moments of extreme deprivation, chose to share their bread. That act—small but sacred—was a reclaiming of freedom.

I think of the testimonies from hostages held in Gaza, describing how, even in captivity, they found ways to care for each other. That, too, is freedom. Not just escape or autonomy, but the preservation of humanity, compassion, and connection.
Freedom is loving each other more than anyone hates us.

3. Freedom is resisting how others define us
In the book of Exodus (and in the Hagaddah) we read: *“Vayareu otanu haMitzrim”—*often translated as “the Egyptians did evil to us.”
But my father, Rabbi Yosef Bitton, offers a deeper read: “They made us bad.”

Before enslaving us, Pharaoh launched a campaign of dehumanization and demonization. He made the people fear us, distorted our image, and portrayed us as a threat.

Part of the work of Jewish liberation—then and now—is reclaiming our story, our name, and our dignity. Fighting for our physical freedom must come with fighting for our moral image in the eyes of the world.

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2 Quotes

1. A Passover supplement from the Soviet Jewry movement (1980s):

“Therefore it is our duty to protest, to speak out, to bear witness, to demonstrate, to intercede on their behalf—
that they may be brought from slavery to freedom,
from sorrow to rejoicing,
from mourning to feasting,
from darkness to light,
from slavery to redemption.”

I came across this stunning supplement in Cold War Exodus, Shaul Kelner’s brilliant sociological exploration of how Jewish activists around the world fought for Soviet Jewry.

Activists in the UK wrote this to bring the plight of Soviet Jews into the heart of the Seder. It’s a model we can draw on this year as we remember the 59 hostages still in Gaza. We tell the story of our ancient Exodus while holding onto the pain and urgency of those who have not yet experienced theirs.

2. Avivah Zornberg, Exodus: The Hidden Order of Intimacy

“One of the important issues is… the need for those who have to be liberated to achieve in themselves some sense of the possibility of change. I think there comes a situation in totalitarian regimes of all kinds in which there is what Václav Havel, the Czech leader, calls… a kind of automatism, in which everyone somewhere becomes the system. People don't just accept their role, they almost become that role. There are no choices involved anymore.

Nadezhda Mandelstam writes about the Russian situation under communism also as one in which no one believed that there could possibly be any change, nothing would ever change again. And this is not only those who are imposing the regime, but also those who suffered under it.

So it seems to me that the story of the Exodus is one in which, in a quieter way, but I think in a very real way, one of the most important themes for liberation is the need for a process of growth within the persecuted if they are to have a history.”

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1 Question

At the seder, we tell the story of our freedom. But it is also the story of the birth of Jewish peoplehood. What does freedom have to do with us becoming a people?

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Wishing you and your loved ones a joyous, meaningful Pesach.

May we see miracles in our day.
May our precious people in captivity come home.
May our people be safe.
And may our children grow up proud of their Judaism, with the courage to live it in full view of the world.

Hag Sameah,

Mijal