The #QuietingTheSilence Haggadah

Rabbi Nachmun of Breslov teaches:

“The Exodus from Egypt occurs in every human being, in every era, in every year, and in every day.”

The chaos of our escape from an oppressive overlord in the Passover story is not just a piece of our past but a part of our present. We all, at one point in our lives, have found ourselves in some kind of Egypt, where we felt burdened by the weight of something we never thought we would be free from and, even when offered the chance to escape, didn’t believe was possible. These might be stories about challenging relationships, difficult work or living situations, chronic physical illness, or mental health conditions. They are stories we often prefer to bury in our past rather than relive. In a way, locking those experiences up and living in fear of those parts of ourselves is like constructing an inner “Egypt.” But unlike the original Egypt we had to escape from, we need to open ourselves up to let it out.

By telling those stories — both to ourselves and to others — we can Quiet the Silence surrounding our inner “Egypts,” release those inner “Egypts,” and encourage others to do the same.

We created this Haggadah to help individuals utilize the themes and motifs of Passover traditions to examine their internal stories of slavery and experience true freedom. Telling stories of people living with mental illness helps de-stigmatize conversations about mental illness and helps others feel less alone in their mental health journeys. This Haggadah is an attempt at creating an experience that helps participants feel a sense of freedom from their own challenges or at least helps them start to talk about them and #QuietTheSilence surrounding mental illness.