Passover

Freedom is within our grasp, and Pesach reminds us that we need to reach. – Bradley Shavit Artson

What is national freedom if not a people’s inner freedom to cultivate its abilities along the beaten path of its history? – Aẖad HaÊ¿am, 1902

As for the bitter herbs…. To see everyone with tears coursing down their faces, laughing and gasping at the same time, is fun and also makes the point — bitter herbs must be really bitter to experience the suffering… – Julia Neuberger, On Being Jewish, 1995

The Seder nights… tie me with the centuries before me. – Ludwig Frank (1874–1914), Aufsätze, Reden und Briefe, ausgewählt und ein

The cause of Freedom and the cause of Peace are bound together. – Léon Blum (1872–1950), Problems of Peace, 1931

…proclaim liberty through all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof… – Bible, Leviticus 25:10

Get rid of the old leaven of sin so that you may be a new batch of dough — as you really are. – Bible, ICorinthians 5:7

Pesach without children is like a cantor without a song, like an actor without any lines, or a storyteller without an audience. – Joe Bobker, And You Thought There Were Only Four: 400 Questions to Make Your Sed

Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their fathers… are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears. – Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), Der Rabbi Von Bacharach

Today, Passover is used as an opportunity to reflect on the things that plague our world, to seek justice for the still-oppressed and even to bring together multi-faiths family and friends under the common banner of universal freedom. – “Passover 2011: The Unleavened Basics,” Huffington Post

Take particular care of your books…. When you lend a book to any one, make a memorandum of it before it leaves your house, and when it is returned cancel the entry. Every Passover and Tabernacles call in all your books that are out on loan. – Judah Ibn Tibbon, advice to son, quoted by Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the M

Each Jew must either give or take tzedakah [charity] for Passover. – Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916), A Pesachdike Expropriacie, 1908

To keep green, then, the memory of the Exodus was for the Israelite not only to keep his gratitude to his Divine Redeemer ever fresh, but to ratify again and again his covenant with his religion. – Morris Joseph, “Passover,” Judaism as Creed and Life

The religious act is done reverently and lovingly in gratitude for the ancient Redemption, and thus becomes a type of the deep religious emotion with which that memorable event ever fills the pious heart. – Morris Joseph, “Passover,” Judaism as Creed and Life

Because I was born a slave, I love liberty more than you. – Ludwig Börne (1786–1837)

Bitter is wine, but it sweetens all bitterness. – Moses Ibn Ezra

If you must hate, if hatred is the leaven of your life, which alone can give flavor, then hate what should be hated: falsehood, violence, selfishness. – Ludwig Börne (1786–1837), The Eternal Jew