Escape Velocity, A Passover Haggadah for the Whole Family

Synopsis: On Passover a Jew is obligated to see himself as if he came out of Egypt.

Yes, but how?

The Passover Haggadah, the text that is meant to guide one through the Seder night, is almost as old as the holiday itself. It tells a story of ages ago, removed by millennia from our modern lives. And how can Jews relate to an ancient persecution when we are not seventy years removed from the cataclysm of the Shoah?

Escape Velocity works under a very simple assumption: The Haggadah is the one source Jews use, on the one night they have, to express, and be impressed, by their faith. Escape Velocity sees to it that the Haggadah lives up to that promise. It strives to find relevance in a story few Jews can relate to. It recognizes the intent of the text and places enormous demands on it to not only be a good read, but for it to be a good feel for it to be felt: deeply.

Escape Velocity is a how-to of sorts. It sets an example of how to bring one's self to the Seder table and intertwine the richness inherent in each of us with the poetry and song found throughout the Haggadah. It reveals an ancient tale which is told by the wise and the pious, but one that is meant to be read and listened to by the Jew of today. It is a celebration of synthesis between the wisdom of the ancients and modern man s unique vantage point - a post-Apocalyptic vantage point. When the Haggadah is read through the eyes of such a generation, it takes on an existential tone and moves from a commemoration of an event in the past, to a celebration of our lives in the now .

Escape Velocity s commentary, its design, as well as its illustrations all work to uncover a dynamic, riveting opportunity to connect with ones faith and impart that faith to others. It reveals a Haggadah of existential proportions, perfectly suited for a people of extra-ordinary circumstances. In the end, Escape Velocity teaches us that we have more in common with our ancient ancestors than we think. Our emerging from the dark shadow of the Shoah makes the exodus of our people from Egypt a blueprint of sorts for our modern lives.

The Jewish people has rarely known a time where their hopes and dreams were not ripped from their tightly clenched fists and tossed out a window like a handful of magic beans. Indeed, history has been less than kind to the chosen ones. As the Passover Haggadah declares: In all ages they rise up against us to destroy us ... . Expulsion. Crusade. Pogrom. Pick your persecution; the Jew has known it.

Yet somehow one gets the feeling that recent times have taken knowing to new levels. Never before have so many been so close to so much unabashed, raw evil. Never before have so few survived, been pushed so far and left with so little. The Holocaust: more than crusade, more than pogrom, even more than genocide was no less than deicide. And although faith was never wholly rational, it was now reduced to the ridiculous, and the faithful left wide open to ridicule.

These are the times in which we find ourselves. And suddenly, the very fact becomes an imperative. In these times, we must find ourselves! The Seder night then becomes the battleground where man s stare must penetrate his own heart, and without missing a beat his heart must courageously return the gaze.