Step 1 KADESH (A toast to freedom)

It's been a busy week and a busy year. The first step of the Seder is to forget the noise and leave it behind. Tonight we enter a timeless space, where we experience the Exodus together with Moses and all our ancestors-with generations of rejoicing and tears, of celebration and wisdom-by doing just what we will do tonight.

Fill your cup with wine (or grape juice). That's the first of four cups you'll enjoy at tonight's Seder. Make sure it holds at least 3-1/2 ounces. Everyone stands and recites Kiddush together. It's all there in your Haggadah. Now get ready for some serious relaxing-recline on a cushion to your left side while you drink. (Remember the good old days, when kings would recline on couches while sampling wines? That's what we emulate by reclining. We are not just free; we are our own masters.)

Every journey begins with a separation. You've got to leave somewhere to get somewhere else. The Hebrew word "kadesh" means "separation," which is the first step towards freedom. It also means to "sanctify." Once you've separated yourself from those things that inhibit your soul, you can achieve the second meaning of "kadesh"-to "sanctify" our world. The first two steps of the Seder, Kadesh (separate/sanctify) and Urchatz (purify) describe what we set out to accomplish this night: to pass over the limitations of our world in order to elevate it.

Step 2 URCHATZ (Washing hands)

For this step, you could bring a basin and towel to the table or you can head to the kitchen sink. Fill a cup with water. Pour the water over your right hand three times, then over your left hand three times. That's how the Kohanim (priests) washed when they entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

(When we wash our hands again before eating matzah, we'll recite a blessing. But not now.)

Our hands are the instruments that allow the mind to interact with our environment. They reflect our mental state, and act according to our emotions: love, fear, compassion, the urge to win, to be appreciated, to express ourselves. Too often, our psyche is fragmented and compartmentalized-the mind sees one way, the heart feels another-and our interaction with the world is disoriented.

Water symbolizes wisdom. Flowing downward from on high, everything in its stream is affected by its pure and simple essence. We pour water over our hands so that our heart and emotions may be touched by wisdom, and from there, shape our interaction with the world.

Step 3 KARPAS (The appetizer)

After washing our hands in the previous step, we now dip a vegetable (for example, potato, onion or parsley) into saltwater. Say the blessing for eating vegetables, and munch good; you're not going to eat for a while. The saltwater represents the tears of our people, beginning with our slavery in Egypt. In order to free ourselves from our personal Egypt, we taste harshness again. This harshness gives us the humility necessary for freedom.

Any other night, we would be getting to the meal now. But tonight we do things differently to spark the interest of children and to provoke them to ask questions. If they ask, "Hey! Aren't we supposed to eat real food now?"-you know you're doing things right.

The child is the most important participant at the Seder. In fact, the entire Seder with all its customs revolves around children. The essential mitzvah of the Seder is to "tell the story to your child."

But more than children learn from us, we learn from children. Tonight, we enter the mind and heart of a child. We awaken our child within, the place that is innocent and able to grow, to be amazed, to sense awe. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch once said, "If you want to know what it is like to see with the eyes of a prophet, look at the world the way you did as a child."

Step 4 YACHATZ (Breaking the matzah)

Take the middle matzah from your Seder Plate and break it into two.
Put the smaller piece back between the two complete matzahs. This piece is the "poor man's bread" over which we will recount the story of our Exodus.

Break the larger piece into five and wrap the pieces in a cloth. Hide the package until the end of the Seder when it will be eaten as the Afikoman. Some have the tradition that children hide the Afikoman and the adults have to find it at the end of the meal. In other traditions, the adults hide it and the children must find it. Either way, it keeps the kids
in suspense.

Why is there so much broken in this world? Why did the Creator make a world where hearts break, lives shatter, beauty crumbles? A whole vessel can only contain its measure, while a broken one can hold the Infinite. The broken matzah is called the "poor man's bread." His brokenness allows him to open his soul and escape his Egypt. When we realize that we are just a fragment-that we need the others around us, that so much of ourselves is missing-then miracles can begin.

Step 5 MAGGID (Retelling)

The Seder Plate is moved aside and the second cup of wine is filled. The story of our Exodus is now retold. Children ask the Four Questions, found in your Haggadah. (Of course, they can always ask more.) No children at your Seder? Have an adult ask. There's just you? You be the child and G-d, the Father. Say the blessing and drink the second cup at the end of this step.

The experience of leaving Egypt left such an indelible mark on our soul that we never stop doing it. The Exodus is not simply an event that happened to us. It is found in the life of each one of us, occurring again and again in our wrestling match with the world and in our struggle with our own selves. To retell the story is to express our essential self; to come face to face with who we really are.

Step 6 RACHTZAH (Washing hands)

We now prepare ourselves to eat matzah by again washing our hands. Pour some water over your right hand three times, then over your left hand three times. Say the appropriate blessing and dry your hands.

In Judaism, eating can be a spiritual experience. Since the destruction of the Holy Temple, the table upon which we eat is likened to the Altar. We wash our hands before eating to prepare ourselves for an experience in which we can encounter G-dliness. Spiritual freedom is not achieved by ignoring or suppressing our human needs and desires, but rather by acknowledging and fulfilling them in a holy way.

Step 7 MOTZIE (Thanking G-d for bread)

Raise the three matzahs together-the top one, the broken middle one and the bottom one-and say the blessing found in your Haggadah:". . . Who brings forth bread out of the earth." Then return the bottom matzah to the Seder Plate.

We feel an affinity with the bread we eat: We too are a miracle "out of the earth" and we share a common journey. Bread begins as a seed buried beneath the ground. And then, a miracle occurs-the seed decomposes and loses its original form, then it comes alive, and begins to sprout and grow. As Spring arrives, it pushes its way above the earth to find the sun, and bears its fruit for the world.

We, too, began buried in Egypt, our identity all but lost. But that furnace of oppression became for us a firing kiln, the ground from which we grew to become a nation. In our liberation, we bring our fruits of freedom to the world.

Step 8 MATZAH (Bless the matzah)

Recite the blessing on the top and (broken) middle matzah: ". . . Who commanded us concerning eating matzah."

Break off a piece from each of these two matzahs for yourself and for each of those sitting at your table. Everyone eats at least two ounces (about two thirds of a matzah). To do this, you may need an auxiliary reserve of matzah. Lean to the left while you munch.

The Zohar calls matzah "food of mehemnuta." "Mehemnuta" is Aramaic for "faith" but it means a lot more than "I believe." Faith often is something people claim when they don't care to think too much. "Mehemnuta" means reaching the place where your soul and the Infinite are One. It's a place that nothing can describe. There are no words. No doubts, no uncertainty, no confusion. Nothing but a magnificent Oneness before which nothing else exists and within which the challenges of life withdraw.

By eating matzah, we digest and internalize "mehemnuta" and become one with the One.

Step 9 MAROR (Bitter herbs)

Maror is the bitter taste of our slavery in Egypt. Dip at least one ounce of bitter herbs (horseradish, romaine lettuce or both) in charoset, which recalls the mortar of our enslavement, then shake off the charoset. It's a delicate balance: You want bitter herbs, but you want to sweeten the bitterness. Say the blessing: ". . . Who commanded us concerning eating bitter herbs."

We can never get used to Egypt, thinking, "They are our masters, we are their slaves, and that's the way it is." Being stopped from true self-expression must remain something we feel bitter about, something that is not right and needs to change.

If we get used to Egypt, it's very hard to escape. In fact, many Jews said, "Egypt is our home. How can we leave?" and they died there. When Moses announced the time had come, it was only those who felt bitterness that had the faith to leave. This is the sweetness that is connected with the bitter herbs: Bitterness without faith is self-destructive, but mixed together, it can become the springboard to freedom.

Step 10 KORECH (Sandwich)

Take two pieces of matzah, totalling at least an ounce (using the bottom matzah). Take an ounce of maror, dip it in charoset, then shake off the charoset. Place the maror between the matzah pieces and say: "So did Hillel in the time of the Holy Temple . . ." Lean to the left while eating.

Hillel understood the words of the Torah about the Pesach lamb, "with matzah and bitter herbs you shall eat it," in their literal sense. So he invented the sandwich.

The world, when viewed from within Egypt, looks to be a mess of fragments. It's a "Passoverly Challenged" perspective-plain materialism. Mitzvahs appear to be a mishmash of dos and don'ts; the Jewish people are a collection of irreconcilable individuals; daily life is a cacophony of hassles.

But once we escape materialism's gravitational pull, we can look back and see a new perspective. Mitzvahs are multiple expressions of a single spiritual path; Jews are multiple faces of a single soul; the elements of tonight's journey harmonize together as a symphony playing a delicate melody. The bitter and sweet fragments of life wrap together in a single package.

Step 11 SHULCHAN ORECH (Festive meal)

It is the custom of some to begin the meal with eating the egg on the Seder Plate, dipped in saltwater. The egg symbolizes the cycle of life and is also a sign of mourning. At every festive occasion, we mourn the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now you can eat.

Step 12 TZAFUN (Out of hiding)

At the conclusion of the Passover meal, the Afikoman (which had been in hiding) is returned. Everyone eats two-thirds of a matzah, after which nothing else is consumed tonight, except for the two remaining cups of wine.

There is the soul, and then there is the essence of the soul. If the soul is energy, then that essence is its generator. The Kabbalah teaches that this essence remains elusive. It is called "tzafun," meaning hidden, locked away and out of reach. We can be inspired, we can meditate, we can pray. But to touch this essence-to access our essential self-takes a power from Beyond.

Tonight, we have that ability. But only after journeying through the steps of the Seder. Then, when we have connected every facet of ourselves with the Divine, that's when that ability comes to us. Whether we sense it or not, the matzah we eat now-the matzah of tzafun-reaches deep into our essence, empowering us to transform our very being.

Step 13 BAIRACH (Grace after meal)

The third cup is now filled. Once you've said grace after the meal and the appropriate blessing for wine, drink this cup while leaning to your left.

Now fill a special cup of wine, the Cup of Elijah, and set it in the middle of the table. You won't drink this one-it's for Elijah the Prophet, who comes to announce the imminent arrival of Moshiach. Then fill your fourth (and final) cup, from which you will drink a little later.

Open the front door of your home to welcome Elijah and recite the prayer, "Pour out Your wrath . . . " from the Haggadah. Watch Elijah enter. (Can't see him? Maybe you had too much wine.)

Our Sages taught: Whatever G-d asks of us, He also does Himself. Of course, there's a difference. We do it in our little human world, while He does it on a grand cosmic plane.

He asks us to open our doors, and tonight, He opens every spiritual door and gateway. Regardless of our past, tonight is our opportunity to enter the highest of spiritual levels.

Step 14 HALLEL (Praise)

"Songs of Praise" are now offered. It's all there in your Haggadah. Sing them to your heart's content. At the end, say a blessing and drink the fourth and final cup while leaning to the left.

Does G-d need us to praise Him? It is we who need to. When we praise G-d, we become more conscious of His presence. We open the channels through which we can perceive His kindness. This is also mirrored in the human sphere: When you compliment someone as "kind" or "fair," you are revealing those qualities.

Step 15 NIRTZAH (Acceptance)

The steps of the Seder have been integrated into our consciousness and accepted. Now we pause, take a deep breath, and reflect on our experience: We examined our personal challenges through the slavery of our ancestors, and we achieved a personal freedom by reliving the Exodus. We completed our part in good faith; the rest is up to you-know-Who.

The last song of the Seder echoes our hope and that of our ancestors that G-d complete our broken world, and that His promise for a world of peace and wisdom become a reality. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor study war anymore," and the entire world will dwell "in a city built where all are united as one."

Next Year in Jerusalem!

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi did not include the passage "The order of Pesach is concluded" in his Haggadah, for indeed, the Seder never concludes. Its message endures throughout the year. A Jew leaves Egypt every day by transcending his limitations, reaching ever higher levels of holiness.