Rabbi Peter Berg’s Message for Passover 2026

Those who opt for a shortened Passover seder often begin with a famous joke: All Jewish holidays can be reduced to three brief sentences: They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat!  Nine words to tell the story of Passover (or most Jewish holidays for that matter) are quite economical, but I can do better! I can reduce the Passover story to a singular word.

The word is adam – person.  To truly understand the word adam (human being) we have to look at the foundational text of the Haggadah that explains why this holy season is central to us as Jews. Chayav adam lirot et atzmo ki’eelu hu yatza mi’mitzraim – each person is obligated to see herself or himself as if she or he personally went froth from Egypt. That sentence is the essence of Passover. Once a year, we gather together at our seder tables not only to remember Passover but to relive it. We are reminded that had G-d not taken our ancestors out of Egypt we might still be there today. By tasting the bitter herbs and munching on history in the shape of matzah, we experience both slavery and freedom.

But here’s the rub. The Passover story is not only about us. It’s no accident that the key passage in the Haggadah begins with the phrase “each person is obligated.” It doesn’t say “everyone at the table is obligated” nor does it say “every Jew is obligated” to see him or herself as if he or she went forth from Egypt. The Haggadah uses the word adam (every human), and there is no more universal or inclusive word than adam. Each of us is ben adam – a human being who is literally the child of Adam.

The first human is called adam not because his name is Adam, but because he was the first human being. We have, after all, another Hebrew word for a man (ish). Adam is a generic term that includes all human beings. Adam is of this world and represents every human being. Adam is a frail creature who came forth from the Earth and will eventually return to the Earth.

When we say “every adam” at our Passover seders, we are saying that the story of the Exodus is not more than our personal and national saga as Jews. If it is the story of every person, then it ought to remind us loudly and clearly that before we can be Jews, we must understand what it means to be a human being. The story of the Exodus is the story of cruelty that human beings sometimes show towards one another. It reminds us that we are humans first who have a responsibility to every other human on the planet.

The story of the Exodus, then, is a paradigm. It is not about our unique experience as a nation but about our experiences as human beings. We, Jews, do not have a monopoly on suffering and oppression. Every page of human history has known blood and tears, and we cannot close our eyes to pain when human suffering exists.

The beauty of Passover is that, by telling our own stories, we become aware of our connection to other people; we are also challenged to develop a deep sense of empathy for all human beings who are subject to suffering and victims of injustice.

As we celebrate at our seders this year, let us speak the only word that really matters at this moment: adam. We are all human beings. We cannot be Jews if we are not humans first. We cannot tell our own stories unless we are willing to live our stories in the present. Elie Wiesel teaches that the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. This year, let us speak this word and remember that it includes all of us: adam.

Rabbi Peter Berg is the Lynne and Howard Halpern Senior Rabbinic Chair for The Temple.