Pesaḥ—the Festival of Freedom, a prayer for bediqat ḥamets (CCAR 1923)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

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11 March 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., בדיקת חמץ bediḳat ḥamets, English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English, תוכחות tokheḥot

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy borders. And thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt. (Exodus 18:6-8)
	Love ye, therefore, the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:19)
	In each generation every man must regard himself as if he had come out of the land of Egypt. For it is said: And thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying: It is because of that^[1] removed an errant “the” in transcribing this line. which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt. Not our fathers alone did the Holy One redeem, but us, too, did He redeem with them. For it is said: And He brought us out from thence (Deuteronomy 6:23). (Mishnah Pesachim 10.5, as found in the Haggadah)
	The deliverance from Egypt is more than history. It is a constant admonition. Its story is recalled at every significant occasion of the year. To the lesson of each festival is added the words: A memorial of the departure from Egypt. Passover, which especially commemorates that event, is meant to be more than merely a reminiscence. It is to embody a living truth. Its ceremonies are calculated to bring glories of yesterday into the perplexities of today.
	The fathers’ bondage recalls to their sons their own thralldom. It brings the stirring word, that no man can worship God in spiritual slavery. The voice of God speaks only to the living spirit of free men. No man can serve Him who is willing to remain a slave to his own desires. No man can call upon the Lord of Justice if towards God’s children he is unjust and harsh. No man can adore the Father of Mercies if he is thrall to the bonds of hate.
	In each generation man must break from the slavery of Egypt. He must learn from the endlessness of God’s love to him, how to love the stranger, how to help the weak, and how to be merciful to the broken hearted. He must depart in haste from the serfdom of uninspired toil, and wander through the desert of self-discipline. He must long to enter the land which flows with the milk of kindness, that he may dedicate himself in freedom to the service of the living God.
	Everlasting One, our Redeemer, the blessing brought by this day is substance of our fondest dreams, the essence of our dearest hopes. Lord, how precious unto us is Thy promise; “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people and I will be your God!” (Exodus 6:6-7) Behold, we are still in fetters, our hearts are Egypt. Our minds are Pharaoh. Our passions are the tormentor’s lash; our indolence, the slave herder’s shackles. O redeem us from this slavery! Though the Pharaoh hordes of temptation pursue us, though we pass through the Reed Sea of affliction, though our path be through the howling wilderness of hardship, O our Father, make us free.
	Help us to efface our will before Thy will; for we have no freedom but in Thee. Let a growing submission of all wills to Thy will assuage those conflicts between will and will whence all enslavement cometh. Grant Thy children freedom from one another by granting them harmony with one another in a common harmony with Thee.
	Yea, help us to efface our will before Thy will; that the will of each, as our sage hath taught, may become effaced before his fellow’s will. Keep us from seeking freedom by the vain paths of strife. Lead us into those ways of forbearance, brotherhood and peace which alone are freedom’s ways. “The Lord will fight for you, if ye abide in silence” (Exodus 14:14). O may those deathless words sound for ever in our souls!
	Remove Thou the leaven of evil tendencies from our hearts. May we see in every sorrow the scouring of our sin-touched lives in preparation for the spiritual Passover of deeper wisdom and nobler character. Give us, in the struggle with ourselves, the persistence of a Moses, undaunted though ten times foiled. Make Thou of our souls open doorways through which the Elijah of goodness may enter the world reuniting the hearts of all who are estranged. May those who eat the bread of affliction soon partake of the wine of comfort.
	“My beloved is mine and I am his The shepherd among the lilies” (Song of Songs 2:16), These words our fathers read this day from sacred writ. We also turn to Thee, our Shepherd, our Beloved. Be Thou ours, make us Thine unto all eternity. Amen.

“Pesach—The Feast of Freedom” is the thirty-second prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 108-110. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

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Notes

Notes
1	removed an errant “the” in transcribing this line.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Unknown

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

Pesaḥ—the Festival of Freedom, a prayer for bediqat ḥamets (CCAR 1923)

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