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Resource Category: Passover

“The Exodus from Egypt Occurs in Every Human Being, in Every Era, in Every Year, and in Every Day.” – Rabbi Nachman

Passover is a time to focus on our collective story, but it can also be a time for us to explore our own. On Passover, we remember our freedom from the physical bondage of Egypt, but without acknowledging the mental bondage many of us are still trapped in we will never truly be free. That is why we built these resources, to help individuals utilize the themes and motifs of Passover traditions to examine their internal stories of slavery and experience an Exodus like no other.

Bring mental health to your Passover seder with our new “#QuietingTheSilence Haggadah,” a FULL 142-page Haggadah, including the complete text of the traditional Haggadah with a de-gendered translation, our Passover resources, original commentary and prompts on key aspects of the seder, and select stories of overcoming mental health challenges from our “#QuietingTheSilence: Personal Stories” book. You can purchase a physical copy and/or download the full Haggadah here. (Please note that shipping on hardcover typically takes around 2-3 weeks so order soon, while paperback typically takes around 3-4 days.)

Or, check out our shorter “Mental Health Seder Companion,” a shorter addition to your seder complete with our Passover resources and seder commentary. That can be purchased and/or downloaded here. (Please note that shipping typically takes 1 week.)

Searching in Our Souls: A Pre-Bedikat Chametz Meditation

Jews around the world spent the night before Passover searching their homes for any chametz, such as bread and other items not Kosher for Passover, that they may have missed, before burning or disposing of that chametz the morning before the holiday begins. This process is called "Bedikat Chametz," or searching for Chametz. Now, as you prepare to search for the chametz in your homes, let’s take a moment to meditate on the chametz in our souls that we will be releasing tomorrow when we burn that chametz, to experience the personal redemption of Passover.
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Your Red Sea, Your Pursuers, and Your Nachshon Moment

By Ruthie Hollander | We can’t find freedom by outrunning anxiety, anger, or grief. This lesson is captured in the compiled Rabbinic teachings called midrash, which preserves the memory of Nachshon, prince of the tribe of Judah and brother-in-law of Aaron. The sea only splits, according to the midrash, when Nachshon steps forward and enters the sea, “since they (b’nai Yisrael) were standing and taking advice/debating/arguing (over what course of action they should take).” Their salvation came at the hand of a brave man’s choice to step forward. What is your Nachshon Moment?
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Passover: Four Cups Toward Freedom – Exploration of Liberation and How to Reclaim the Passover Seder for Ourselves with the T’Shuvah Center

Leaving Egypt is not just about our story and journey on the road to freedom. It is a foundational roadmap to liberation, both for a community and individuals and offers us a story of recovery. Each year, we retell it as a reminder to leave behind constrictions and slavery, and instead choose freedom and sovereignty. Jewish tradition commands us, as we are telling the story, to see ourselves as if we have left Egypt. Egypt is not just a country, an ancient place, or a space. It is not just the setting of the enslavement that we’ve endured. It is also an edict about how we leave Egypt internally.
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The #QuietingTheSilence Haggadah

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.
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Looking for Chametz – Inside and Out

Chametz is also symbolic of other things like the yetzer harah (the ego, the self, mental clutter, negativity) that live within us and distract us from our true goals. We are tasked with cleansing ourselves of that kind of "chametz" as well, which allows us to focus on what matters in our lives. In a way, this is a mental cleanse as much as it is a physical cleanse. Try this fun mental cleanse resource to make space in your mind for freedom.
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Your Journey to Wellness – Told in Four Cups

Why do we drink four cups at the Seder? Traditional Jewish sources associate the four cups of wine with the four terms used by God in their promise to save the Jewish people from slavery, which has additionally been understood to be references to the different stages of redemption on our journey to freedom. In this resource, we ask ourselves if, as we drink the four cups during the Seder, we can think about and feel grateful for the steps that we have taken, are taking, or can take as we escape our personal Egypts.
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From Chaos to Seder: Pesach, Addiction, and Removing Our Personal Chains

We are going to know a new freedom” -Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 83. I have always marveled at the paradox that our nation’s liberation from the bondage of slavery is marked by the quintessential period of restriction. A holiday that requires us to adhere to strict guidelines and detailed instructions with such profound exactitude and measure. To distance ourselves from something that in the rest of the year we get to engage in unconditionally. This is freedom? In working firsthand with individuals in addiction treatment as they battle for ultimate freedom, I now understand that the answer to this question is a resounding yes.
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