In ruminating on Passover, we found ourselves reading and re-reading The Haggadah. Its the ultimate Jewish book and does a far better job of capturing the sentiment of Passover than we ever could. So weve gathered a two of our favorite quotes from various Haggadahs we love to welcome this very important holiday:

Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a prayer book, user's manual, timeline, poem, or palimpsestand yet it is all of these things. The Torah is the foundational text for Jewish law, but the Haggadah is our book of living memory. We are not merely telling a story here. We are being called to a radical act of empathy. Here, we are, embarking on an ancient, perennial attempt to give human lifeour livesdignity."Jonathan Safran Foer from The New American Haggadah

In his own A Passover Haggadah, Nobel Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel writes, Solemn and joyous, the Passover holiday allowed us to escape time. We followed Moses into the unknown, into the desert, up to Mount Sinai. His summons to freedom was stronger than fear. And while Wiesel faced fears of the impossible kind, it was a personal summons to freedom that forged himself a path to survival. The hardships may differ from generation to generation (Ldor Vdor), but the will of the Jewish people and the spirit of Tikkun Olam carries on.

The story of Passover invites each guest at the table to envision ourselves as one of Mosess followers, fleeing the Pharaoh's bondage in Egypt. In a contemporary setting, this concept is still one that millions of people around the world are seeking. We are not merely telling our own story, but recognizing that the quest for freedom and democracy, for everyone, everywhere, is constant. Let the lessons of our people in Egypt guide the world today.

Happy Pesach