Editor’s Note: Shirley Confino-Rehder is a certified interior designer who lectures on universal design and the Americans for Disabilities Act. She resides in Norfolk, Virginia.
Why This Night IS Different Than Any Other Night – 2010
As we start our Passover Seder, we wonder
Why this Night is different than any other night…
Once again we gather with friends and family,
The table is set:
The Passover Plate, our history,
Three matzoh, covered, the center broken in two
Our dessert, our coming together again, in love, friendship, hope.
And filled cups welcoming Elijah and Rachel.
We have our story,
We recite it to our family and friends.
All over the world the same prayers are repeated,
Filled with determination and trust,
and of faith this will continue on.
We remember our martyrs, our heroes and heroines,
We pray for the hungry, the abused, the soldiers abroad,
We pray for the honesty and integrity of our leaders,
We know our Heritage is strong above all else and
this belief will bring us freedom from our own inner struggles and
the struggles throughout the world.
But tonight we must make our future history too.
We cannot avoid the perils and atrocities surrounding us.
The inequality, the falsehoods, the illusions.
We must not hide,
We must defend,
We must support,
We must speak out on all we see as injustice.
This Night Is different because
We can resolve to help make this a world where people
Can leave their own desert,
Can be nourished with ample food and clean water,
Can be accepted for who they are,
Can be unchained from slavery of mind and body,
Can be free of prejudice, abuse, ignorance.
So that next year, we can all once again
Rejoice and sing and tell our story,
Knowing we have made a difference,
Adding to our story
Of why this Night is different than any other night.
—Shirley Confino-Rehder, 2010
Passover 2011
Why is this night different…
Sweet wine
Bitter herbs
Salted water
Mixed together,
Apples, nuts and wine
Mortar and bricks
Roots and leaves
The roasted egg,
Unleavened bread
Sweetened
By the Afikomen
Uniting us all
Retelling the Exodus.
Tonight, tonight,
Why is this night different …
It is our personal flight,
The freeing of chains
It is our personal Exodus too.
–Shirley Confino-Rehder, 2011
Pesach 2012
Our friends and family assemble
With joy, enhanced by the sweetness of wine
we drink at dinner.
Our lives are stronger
Aged by the bitter herbs, likened
to lessons of life.
Our experiences are varied
As we savor the mixture of apples, nuts, wine,
and maybe adding dates or figs.
Our stories are our own
But we share a single story of Exodus and Freedom
With family and friends.
Toasting Elijah and Miriam
we remember our past
and toast our future
Working together for our own freedom
we all recite
Next year in Jerusalem!
— Shirley Confino-Rehder, 2012
Thank you for publishing this in your newspaper. I am writing about the world around us now and will send when I complete it. Wishing you, your family, the readers and all in San Diego wellness, good spirits, smiles, and 6′ separations while resuming your friendship. Shirley