I wrote the Passover Poem a few days before Passover 2016. I shared the poem with all my colleagues at the Israel Museum in an email to All which I sent out a few days before Passover.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas
A Passover Poem
Freedom, order, freedom, order,
Slave, enslaved, slavery,
Masters, and slaves,
Slaves that awoke to the potential of being free
Pursued their right to be free
Free women and men
But women are still not free
In most of the world,
To the largest part,
Women are still enslaved
to traditional roles, to dress codes, to serving all around them
Sort of like the eternal slaves,
The eternal laborers,
Used and abused,
Exploited and mistreated,
Not seen for who they are, still not equal, still lagging far behind
Still not deciding, influencing in proportion to their numbers, not managing and directing
Not leading, or co-leading.
Still silenced, excluded, behind closed doors
And now is the time to put things in order;
By restoring the balance,
By letting women in,
To express and be part,
In co-leading with men
As equals.
And on this seder night, look around the table,
and acknowledge the women in your midst.
Support them in being all of who they can be;
To reach places traditionally occupied by men.
Undo the wrong,
liberate women,
bring in the seder-order
we so long.
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