Introduction to the First Adoption Seder (Revised)
 ....I have retold the story of Moses in the literary form of the haggadah. A haggadah is the traditional booklet for the celebration of Passover that recounts Moses' leading the Exodus out of Egypt. Also contained in a haggadah are psalms, prayers, songs and rituals. They all act like synapses that make the main story that much more deeply felt....
Glossary and Objects
Hadlakat ha-Nerot/Lighting the festival candles
Kos Kiddush/First cup of wine
Kiddush/Sanctification
Shehecheyanu/Blessing for something done a first time
Urchatz/Ritual washing of hands
Karpas/Spring Greens
Yachatz/Sharing
The four questions ~ an adopted variation
The four kinds of children ~ an adopted variation
Maggid/The story of the Exodus from Egypt
The Ten Plagues
Dayenu (a song of gratitude)
Hallel/Psalms of praise
Kos G'ula/The second cup of wine
Shulchan orech/The shared supper
Rachatzah/Ritual washing of hands
Motzi Matzah/Breaking and blessing the matzah
Maror and Charoset/The bitter and the sweet
Koreich/A traditional dish
Rabbi Gamaliel's proclamation ~ and an adoptee's variation
Tsafun/Searching, finding, ransoming and sharing the afikomen
Bareich/Grace after meals
Kos B'racha/The third cup of wine
Kos Eliayahu/The cup of Elijah, and his story
Kos Hartsa-a/The fourth cup of wine
Nirtzah/Acceptance with silence/A pause for meditation
Eliayahu Hanavi/Elijah the Prophet (A song sung at farewells)
A different kind of hero on a different kind of quest To celebrate the process of Search and Reunion by an adult adoptee (or immigrant or convert or spiritual seeker), I blended the biblical story of Moses with commentaries on it from the Talmud and my own insights as an adoptee. At first recollection, the story of Moses may sound like an adoptive parent's worst nightmare, but....

The Story of Moses: An Adoption Haggadah
by Michele Kriegman, Copyright 1996

The four questions. At every seder four questions are asked that are meant to be answered by the story we will soon tell. Through history, the questions have varied with time and place, as have the answers.

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1. In Hebrew it says that Moses "turned aside" to see the Burning Bush, implying that the Burning Bush may have been there for others to see or for Moses to see sooner. Why was it Moses who saw the Burning Bush and why at that moment?

2. Why did Pharaoh's daughter disobey her father to save Moses and what did she do when her son crossed the Red Sea with the Hebrews, his birth family?

3. Did Moses ever actually meet his birthparents later in life and did he reach the Promised Land?

4. Why did God harden Pharaoh's heart -or- as Moses' adoptive mother says to Moses: why such harsh plagues visited on your adoptive Egyptian family?

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