End of Pesach Sources

Achron shel Pesach
At the End of Passover
A Drash in Haiku
Naomi Gurt Lind
After our seders
We come back to B’shallach
Yet we’re also changed
Bechol dor vador
Generations see ourselves
Leaving our narrows
All Jews forever
Each and every one of us
Lives this story out
Moses leads us forth
Stands up to his own demons
Also to Pharaoh
When we make our way
God sends us the long way round
Scared we might turn back
A pillar of cloud
Keeps us company in daylight
At night it is fire
We’re sort of a mess
Not sure what we’re heading towards
Hungry, tired, scared
Manna from heaven
Tastes like Grandma’s honey cake
God sees to our needs
An angel attends
Rashi says it’s but a judge
Keeping watchful eye:
Will the Israelites
Prevail despite obstacles?
Or will we be lost?
We come to the sea
Oppressors gaining on us
The water is wide
We cry out to God
Between two impossibles
We can only pray
Water is raging
Nachshon ben Aminadav
Takes the brave first step
Then God splits the sea
We tumble through in a rush
While oppressors drown
Two peoples, one sea
Ibn Ezra explains it
Two opposing winds
A wind from the east
Moves water out of our way
We are safe to cross
But another wind
Brings a wet and cruel fate
To our oppressors
Az yashir Moshe
Chants and dance and tambourines
We are free at last!
Our Exodus
Israelites - that’s you and me
Make our way toward home
Every single year
Even in a pandemic
We sing of freedom
Around the table
Wine cups, hope-songs, family
All seems possible
Seders full of joy
Next year in Jerusalem
Let my people go!
Now the Haggadah’s
Crumb-laden and stained with wine
The party’s over
Achron shel Pesach
The end of the holiday
Brings us back to earth
Life goes on, it seems
The split sea returns to tides
Was it all a dream?
Now the world feels rough
War and grief and pandemic
Can sea split again?
Many hearts are frayed
Softness that keeps us intact
Seems harder each day
Nations in conflict
Yemen, Ukraine, Syria
To name but a few
Prisons for profit
Inequality is rife
Families ruined
Planet in crisis
Islands drowning like Pharaoh
What can still be saved?
Bullets everywhere
School, subway, apartment
Nobody is safe
We’re all so estranged
Can’t cherish what we can’t see
Our minds are elsewhere
Sometimes I don’t know
How to hold the different threads
Only that I must
What about Pesach?
After seders, where are we?
What, then, have we learned?
Renewed commitment
Torah tells us not to quit
We rely on God
Hard times strengthen us
We lean on one another
Pressing on toward home
Freedom’s urgent call
Beckons us to keep going
The world needs this
Reach out for my hand
I’m as empty as you are
Let’s walk together