Jews Talk Racial Justice - Ep. 83: Beyond the Brisket: Creating a Liberatory Passover Practice

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Tune into this episode and read the full shownotes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

QUICK EPISODE OVERVIEW

As we approach Passover 5782, we’re thinking about the tension inherent in commemorating a moment of acute urgency with practices that require a lot of time, intention, and planning. The Passover story contains multiple moments when our ancestors and predecessors displayed both faith and radical imagination, but when ritual becomes rigid, it can limit beliefs and imagination. April and Tracie investigate how we can use the Passover holiday, ritual, and greater awareness, to nurture and apply our own radical imagination toward liberation. 

A NOTE FOR OUR COMMUNITY

Hey superfans! We have a few dedicated folks who are using the discussion/reflection questions, and we’re so thrilled that they have been helpful. We wanted to let you know that moving forward, we will giving you some questions that you can use for reflection and discussion in the show notes of each episode, and we may not publish a page for each episode as we previously have. Thank you for listening and for your dedication, and as always, we love to hear from our beloved community, so if you would like to reach out, you can do so here. ☺️

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Find the audio version with the full transcript here.

  1. Tracie opens the episode by noticing that many Jews (Ashkenazi Jews in particular) commemorate a singular moment or urgent trauma (that comes after centuries of oppression) by taking a lot of time to prepare for the seder and this ceremony of remembrance. One example she uses is brisket. What do you make of this? Why do you think that this tension exists?

  2. In the Midrash about Nachshon, it took immense faith and radical imagination to walk into the water. Can you think of a time in your life or in your ancestors’ lives when faith and radical imagination played a similar role?

  3. Like Nachshon, what does it mean to have radical imagination and get our minds ready to believe a better reality and anchor ourselves in that so we are working towards it? 

  4. April says that oppression conditions us to not believe in our capacity. How so? Think about this and about how this relates to your own identities. 

  5. In the Seder it has become traditional for many to lounge and lay back. Are those two things connected for you? What do you make of the association with kings and royalty?

  6. If you celebrate Passover, what traditions resonate with you? Are there any that don’t and that you would want to tweak or get rid of in order to make Passover more liberatory? 

  7. What would it look like for us to counter the “narrowness” in our lives today, maybe even beyond Passover?

COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS?

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