There is likely no Jewish ritual that has generated as many words as the Pesach seder. Even as the same core ritual has been performed for centuries, somehow, there is always a new Haggadah to write, or a new supplement to print. But these myriad sources are not redundant. Instead, they are manifestations of the core mitzvah of Pesach—in every generation, every person is obligated to see his or herself as if they too had left Egypt. As our worlds and our realities continue to evolve and change, the way that we fulfill this mitzvah has changed, but the obligation remains the same.

This Pesach, Maharat is proud to share the first set of articles that have come out of our new Hear Her Voice program. Over the course of the year, our first, second, and third year Core Semikha students have been attending seminars and workshops once a week in order to strengthen their writing skills across different modalities. The goal of the program is to amplify our students’ voices. We know that their Torah is powerful, and we are excited to give them more tools to amplify it. These nine pieces each represent the Torah of our students’ hearts, guiding us through the seder from a place of narrowness to a space of abundance. 

At the beginning of Maggid at the seder, we say, “Let all who are hungry come and eat, let all who are in need come and celebrate Pesach.” Rav Soloveitchik notes that those who are in need are not necessarily the same as the people who are hungry. We must attend to our physical needs, but we cannot forget our emotional, spiritual, and psychological ones as well. We all enter the tradition in different ways, and therefore, we all have a different Torah that speaks to us, that has the ability to bring the story of the Exodus to life. Our hope, in publishing this reader, is that you will find some words that help you fulfill that need for you, in whatever form it may take. Whether through midrash or mussar or narrative or the Haggadah itself, these pieces remind us of the expanse of the Torah of Yetziat Mitzrayim. We hope they help you fulfill the Haggadah’s mandate—tze u’lamad. Go out and learn.

With wishes for a chag kasher v’sameach.