Many Jews recite the Hebrew blessing formula without really thinking about its meaning. Tonight we make an effort to recapture that meaning and transform it into one that makes sense for us, here and now.

Traditional Jewish blessings are spoken directly to God and begin with  baruch ata, "blessed are you." It may seem presumptuous for us to bless God rather than the other way around, but every one of us is a sacred living being.

Many of us anti-monarchist Americans flinch at calling God  melech ha'olam, "king (or ruler) of the universe," but we can instead take the more literal meaning of "ruler," the bringer of rules and order. Though unfair and unfairly applied rules can do tremendous harm, fair rules and orderliness can be great forces for peace, counteracting despotism and entropy. We can also replace the phrase altogether with another that describes a relevant aspect of divinity.

Kiddush, the blessing over the wine at Shabbat and holidays, comes from kodesh, "holy." Many blessings for obligatory actions, such as lighting candles for festivals, say that the Jews are kid'shanu b'mitzvotav, made holy by mitzvot. The translation of mitzvah as "commandment" implies that mitzvot are restrictive obligations that we follow under duress. In fact, they are directions and opportunities for creating holiness, or rightness. We are not passively sanctified by having heard or read the commandments; with each independent choice to enact a mitzvah, we sanctify ourselves.

Maimonides, a 12th-century Jewish scholar, wrote, "Just as we recite blessings for benefit which we derive from the world, we should also recite blessings for each mitzvah before we fulfill it." In other words, we say a blessing to acknowledge that having opportunities to take rightful action brings us great benefit. At times when we feel lost and uncertain, it can be a great comfort to have clear directions for ways to create spaces for rest and celebration, be forces for justice, fairly share the world with those around us, and make amends when we mess up.

Taking all of this together, we can interpret the blessing over the Passover candles as follows:

Blessed are you, י ה ו ה, force for order in the universe, who directs us to create sacredness by lighting candles to honor the festival of Passover.

Or, in a secular rendering:

We come together in shared determination to act in rightness, and light candles to honor the festival of Passover.

May the light of the candles we kindle together tonight bring radiance to all who live in darkness. May this season, marking the deliverance of our people from Pharaoh, rouse us against anyone who keeps others in servitude. In gratitude for the freedom we enjoy, may we strive to bring about the liberation of all people everywhere. Lighting these candles, we create the sacred space of the Festival of Freedom; we sanctify the coming-together of our community.

—Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

The Schehecheyanu blessing is said on special occasions and is a pure expression of celebration: we are alive, we are together, and we are free.

Blessed are you, י ה ו ה, spirit of the universe, who has created us, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.

We share our celebration of coming through difficult times to reach this moment together.


haggadah Section: Kadesh