Welcome to Shabbat haGadol - the "big" or "great" Shabbat - the one before Pesach. Traditionally on Shabbat Hagadol the rabbi gave the lengthiest sermon of the year - in the order of 3 hours long, and we're going to bring that tradition back to temple this year.

The sermon was usually about preparations for Pesach, because this special Shabbat precedes the date of the original departure from Egypt. This Shabbat commemorates the 10th day of Nissan, days before they split Egypt - when the Hebrew slaves took the lambs that they were going to offer for the Pesach offering and tied them up outside their homes, to keep until they offered it on the 14th (Ex. 12:3-6). This same sheep would supply the blood that was painted on the doorposts to let the malach ha mavet, the angel of death know that this address doesn't welcome solicitors.

Now you wouldn't think this was any big deal, tying your sheep up outside the house, but remember, Egyptians worshipped sheep, so that's not going to go over well having their divine object tied up for slaughter outside your house. Miraculously, instead of slaughtering the Hebrews, the Egyptians had a big argument with each other over whether the Hebrews should be sent away already. Another interesting tradition has it, and no I am not making this up, that they were too busy on their ancient toilets with a plague driven bowel disorder - a "toot-uncommon", if you will, to do anything about this in-your-face paschal sacrifice. (Come to think of it, ironically enough, a week of eating Matzah might have solved the Egyptian stomach issues)

But key to this story is that the Israelites were putting tuchus aufen tisch - they were putting their issue right out there on the table. That's really what Seders are about. Did you know that a higher percentage of Jews find their way to a Seder table than any other holiday on the Jewish calendar. There's something about prepping for Pesach that reminds us of how deeply charged this holiday is. And many personal family traditions pop into mind.

Over the years I have heard many unique and not so unique Passover traditions. There are families that make origami frogs and dump them on each other's heads. Or drop red food coloring into water glasses. I once asked a group of little children what they do at their Seders and a little girl excitedly raised her hand and said: we whip each other! Concerned, I investigated and found out they do it with scallions. There is a Sephardic custom of putting children in a dark room with obstacles they must overcome to emerge into the light. Another Sephardic custom is to get up and dance around the table celebrating the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. I participated in one Seder at which following the meal Elijah's cup had been cleverly rigged to drain itself. Some folks have Elijah show up at the door.

Then there is the orange on the Seder table - Once source close to home let me know that this is owed to a comment made by an Orthodox Rabbi some time ago who said: "a woman belongs in Rabbinical School as much as an orange belongs on a Seder plate" - Another also close-to-home source has the orange origin credited to Susannah Heschel choosing an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community.

She offered the orange as a symbol of the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out - a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism. Interestingly Heschel often mentions that the transformation of her custom to the thing about women rabbis is a typical patriarchal maneuver as now the reason for the orange is attributed to something a MAN said.

I have a collection of Haggadot - the Liberated Lamb - Soviet Jewry, a Holocaust Haggadah, there is a new Darfur Haggadah out, there are Addiction Haggadahs. There have always been Middle East Peace Seders, and now there are Global warming Seders as well.

Basically, Pesach is, I think a Rohrshach, an inkblot, a projective technique, a template for that which challenges and concerns us in our own lives and in the world at large. The Seder table is a big slate upon which we cast our issues. And Jews have issues.

So what is the common thread that should bind together the various participants at a Seder service? One theme that seems to be common to all these is, of course, freedom. And no freedom is more important than that of the mind. And this year, with so many set assumptions being challenged and the status quo questioned is a good year to think about the freedom of our own thinking. In the wake of some pretty dire circumstances in our world, opening ourselves to new ideas and approaches.

The cups of wine detail the four steps to redemption. Cup #1 - breaking the chains. Cup #2 - removing the slaves from the construction zone. Cup #3 - God's outsretched arm awaiting response. And #4 - taking them as a people to be a real community. (sort of ironic that we rarely make it to the 3rd and 4th cup)

Well, let each cup be seen as a step to the freedom of the mind - cup #1 - unshackling ourselves from set notions and old ideas, cup #2 - Opening our worlds to new places and people that offer opportunities to stretch our thinking - #3 accepting the outstretched arm - which means a willingness to be taught a new way of thinking - perhaps learning from a person or a source that is brand new to us. #4 allowing yourself to be influenced and nourished by community. Judaism teaches us that there is rarely if ever learning done in a complete vacuum. We need one another.

Chametz, the leavened products you will so assiduously avoid over the next week or so, is a wonderful symbol of a rotting mind - staleness and deadening routine - old ideas growing on even older ideas. Sameness.

Chametz is but food grain which when mixed with water begins to ferment within 18 minutes, not unlike a mind which rests upon what it knows and decides that it will not grow. Shmura Matzah - glatt Kosher for Pesach matzah is manufactured on a matzah machine that is disassembled every 18 minutes so that fermentation does not build up.

Matzah is a liberating mind food. Imagine if the laws of Pesach had developed differently so that we started the Seder with unleavened bread and by the end we ate cakes and muffins and bread as free people. It doesn't happen that way because freedom is not in the physical, but in the mental state. The ancient Israelites baked the matzahs flat because they were under tremendous time pressure from the enslaving Pharaoh and company. The modern Israelites - us! - prepare and eat the bread flat on purpose - to demonstrate our free will determination to remember that slavery is eternal and unending.

You might think about this as you consider how significantly you are going to keep Passover this week. The irony of choosing to enslave yourself to flat bread for a week is the symbol of your free mind's ability to celebrate itself while meanwhile those around you who cannot refrain are bowing to the entrenchment of the sameness in their lives. Is this not true of every habit we cannot give up? Is this not true of injustices in our world we let slip by because we are tethered to sameness?

I have thought about this recently as mold (chometz) is growing on the walls in my office and I have built that theme into every public talk I have given since it was declared a hazardous zone. During the week the Torah discussed leprosy I was sure the mold was an indication of my inner perversity as a human being, but now, as Pesach approaches, the mold appears to be a clear symbol of the need for change and growth and so I made a hasty exodus from my office.

This Pesach let us acknowledge that the only true escape from slavery is in understanding that we possess minds capable of changing and adapting. May each symbol sitting upon the Seder table cause us to ask multiple meaningful questions about our existence, our community, our responsibility and our future. May we listen to one another, take advice from our own hearts, and never, ever grow stale. We are free people with thoughts unstoppable. We live in the past, the present and the future. May you learn something brand new this year at your Seders, and bask in the glow of precious freedom.

Shabbat Shalom and happy Pesach.