Mah Nishtanah: what needs to change, a seder supplement to the Four Questions by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit

Contributor(s):

Ilana Streit

Shared on:

25 March 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Leil Pesaḥ, Magid

Tags:

English vernacular prayer, מה נשתנה Mah Nishtanah, Black Lives Matter, Passover seder, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems

A playful, powerful, passionate reading for Passover seder or any time.

Can be chanted to the traditional Ashkenazi lilt for the Four Questions. Melody here.

[Financial contributions are most welcome, and support further creation and sharing of Ilana’s creative work. You can see and hear more of Ilana’s creative work on her Patreon page. Or to make a one-time contribution, Venmo (@Ilana-Streit).]

Mah Nishtanah: what needs to change

What needs to change
so the world as it is
can wake up?

What needs to change
so the world as it is
can love us?

What needs to change
right now
so we can breathe?

What needs to change
so our sisters and brothers
can be as free as we are?

and what needs to change
so that we
can be free too?

What needs to change
in our voices, our postures,
our pacing

What needs to change
in how
we try to change our bodies

What needs to change
in our newspapers
and in our budgets

What needs to change
in our language
and in our bedrooms

What needs to change
in how
we look in the mirror

What needs to change
in our lovemaking
in every moment

What needs to change — tonight!
so we may wake up
freer in the morning

What needs to change
next week
to nurture all the Miriams and Moshe’s?

And what needs to change
so that every Pharaoh
gets twelve hugs a day?

What needs to change
so that I have a voice
and you have ears?

i know what needs to change
and you know what needs to change
and we will be the change

amen

“Mah Nishtanah: What Needs to Change” was written by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit in Adar Bet / March 2014.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“Mah Nishtanah: what needs to change, a seder supplement to the Four Questions by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Ilana Streit

Weaver of Blessings: poet, liturgist, singer-songwriter.Interpretive, radical, earthy, feminist.Based in Greater Boston, MA.You can see and hear more of Ilana's creative work on her Patreon page. Or to make a one-time contribution, Venmo (@Ilana-Streit).

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=30731

Associated Image:

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category lists and in shared links on social media.)

This post, editable: XML | ODT

Terms of Use: Please reciprocate for any adaptation or redistribution of this work by (1) properly attributing the work to Ilana Streit, (2) clearly indicating the date you accessed the resource and whether any changes have been made (and if so, please be in touch with us and leave a comment below so that we might note your adaptation or improvement), (3) providing the stable link to this resource, and (4) specifying the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license under which this work was shared.

Note: The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libré Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established."–Psalms 90:17