PASSOVER 2008 –
RESPONDING TO WAR…CONSIDERING PEACE
EVEN WHILE WE CELEBRATE!
A Long Way to Go — Martin Luther King, Jr.
We still have a long, long way to go before we reach the promised land of freedom. Yes, we have left the dusty soils of Egypt, and we have crossed a Red Sea that had for years been hardened by a long and piercing winter of massive resistance, but before we reach the majestic shores of the promised land, there will still be gigantic mountains of opposition ahead and prodigious hilltops of injustice…
Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice.
Let us be dissatisfied until those who live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security.
Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home.
Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.
Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.
Let us be dissatisfied until men and women…will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin.
Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, “White Power!” when nobody will shout, “Black Power!” but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power.
Dayeinu — Arthur Waskow
If we were to free the Jewish people,
but not to beat the swords of every nation into plowshares,
It would not be enough for us.
If we were to beat the swords of every nation into plowshares,
but not to free our earth and air of poisons,
It would not be enough for us.
If we were to free our earth and air of poisons,
but not to share our food and end all hunger,
It would not be enough for us.
If we were to share our food and end all hunger,
but not to free the poets from their prisons,
It would not be enough for us.
If we were to free the poets from their prisons,
but not to free all women, men, and children to be persons,
It would not be enough for us.
If we were to free all humans to be persons,
but not free ourselves to know You,
It would not be enough for us.
Then how great, doubled and redoubled, are the claims the Redeemer makes upon our efforts! You call us to struggle, work, share, give, think, plan, organize, sit-in, speak out, dream, hope, and pray for the great Redemption!
Copyright (c) 1969, 1986, 2002 by Arthur Waskow. Archived and made available by the author's permission, on condition this note is attached and a copy of any Haggadah that uses it is sent to him at The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia PA 19119. See also the Shalom Center website at www.shalomctr.org.
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