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The aroma of chocolate eggs (beitzah), chocolate covered matzah, green-colored chocolate (karpas) a solid chocolate seder plate, several chocolate nut clusters (charoset), and a 100% cacao bar (maror) wafted our friends into our home. Three of the five rabbis at the table had never been to a seder – a chocolate seder that is.

“We’re all so unique. How do we bring our full personalities to the table? Wouldn’t it be great if we could embrace tradition and start a conversation that reflects our interesting, hilarious, modern, multi-cultural thought-provoking lives?”

Earlier this year, the United States took meaningful action to further prohibit products made by slave labor to enter our country.

The heroism of the women who made Passover possible is a strong and accurate answer to those who claim that women always play a secondary or subordinate role in Jewish thinking. An orange does not make their case. Telling their story does.

On Passover, we confront a central, inextricable tension: we must simultaneously hold the joy of our exodus from slavery in Egypt with the persecution we see all around us in the world. For many centuries, that persecution was directly experienced by Jews themselves.

The Land of Israel is a ghost throughout the haggadah, even as it is a constant presence in the background of the Passover story. Liberation isn’t solely freedom from Egyptian bondage; it’s also intentional direction toward Sinai and the ultimate arrival in the Promised Land. Yet Eretz Yisrael itself is rarely mentioned in the haggadah text.

We enjoyed the music we heard and the good food we ate in New Orleans, but the real highlight was meeting our host, Calvin, and learning about his life and work. We returned home with more insight, more hope and more inspiration – and we are so glad we stayed at 1317 Feliciana Street.

When you break the bread of affliction
And the crumbs make a mess
Pray for those with addiction
And those who live with less.

The haggadah teaches that we should read the story of Passover feeling as if we were personally freed from Egypt. To do this, we must visualize ourselves in the story, but we should also be aware of the injustice that currently exists in our world.