For the past 20 years poet and nov­el­ist Marge Pier­cy has led a seder for a core group of fam­i­ly and friends at her small Cape Cod home. Using a Hag­gadah she has com­piled over the years and rec­og­niz­ing that Judaism is ever-chang­ing, Pier­cy strives to draw out con­tem­po­rary mean­ings and inter­pre­ta­tions for the par­tic­i­pants— adults and chil­dren with var­ied reli­gious and sec­u­lar backgrounds. 

Pier­cy goes through the Hag­gadah step-by-step, pro­vid­ing much his­toric, per­son­al, and anec­do­tal infor­ma­tion to enrich the mean­ing of the Pesach sym­bols. Her own poems and orig­i­nal bless­ings also broad­en the mes­sage by draw­ing con­tem­po­rary par­al­lels to the tra­di­tion­al themes of free­dom, redemp­tion, slav­ery, sub­ju­ga­tion of the weak. Among the more strik­ing is Piercy’s pre­am­ble to Dayenu, ​“It will not be enough,” a reminder that the world does not end at our thresh­old, and her expan­sion of ​“Pour Out Your Wrath,” in which the names of con­cen­tra­tion camps are recit­ed. A seder is also a fes­tive meal, and Pier­cy shares a wealth of seder and Pesach dish­es, from both Ashke­naz­ic and Sephardic, as well as orig­i­nal recipes. 

Per­son­al, thought­ful, stim­u­lat­ing, and as work-free as pos­si­ble, Pier­cy invites you not to her seder but to your own, inspired by her exam­ple. The only require­ment is that you fin­ish the evening with ​“a sense of renew­al and re-ded­i­ca­tion.” Bib­li­og­ra­phy, index of poem titles, recipes.