RITUAL FOR THE PALM SUNDAY-FREEDOM SEDER PROCESSIONAL

The ritual was performed on April 1, 2012, during an Interfaith Palm Sunday/Passover Processional preceding a Freedom Seder,  organized by Occupy Faith NYC, Occupy Judaism, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, The Shalom Center, Congregation Kolot Chayeinu and Judson Memorial Church.

Check out pictures from the processional and seder

on Occupy Judaism's Facebook page.

On this Palm Sunday we commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. As an itinerant healer and teacher who preached love he chose to enter Jerusalem riding, not on a warhorse, but on a humble donkey.

During the Passover Seder we recite the 10 plagues of the Exodus story, visited by God on Pharaoh to push Pharaoh to let the Hebrew slaves go free.  And Moses said, “Let my people go!” 

Today we walk as Jesus rode to speak truth to power, today we yearn for the freedom Moses urged.

1) CHASE BANK:  (Hold up card)  This is a high-interest credit card.  It symbolizes the plague of the corruption of Wall Street and our enslavement to debt.  

Reader:   Bankers and Corporations too often ignore human needs and destroy human lives. 

Everyone:  Today we walk as Jesus rode to this center of power saying,  “Watch

out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed…”

Let Our People Go! 

2) MCDONALD’S:  (Hold up big Mac):  This is a big Mac.  It embodies the lack of healthy food for poor and working class people.  

Reader:  It symbolizes the plague of agribusiness and the bad health it engenders

Everyone:  Today we walk as Jesus rode to this center of power saying, “Blessed are the hungry for they shall be fed.”

Let Our People Be Nourished!

3) VARICK STREET DETENTION CENTER:  (Hold up letter) This is a letter from a prisoner.  It represents the evisceration of American civil liberties in the wars on terrorism and illegal immigration                                                                                        

Reader:  We shout out for just immigration laws, the return of our civil liberties and an end to repressive surveillance, solitary confinement, indefinite detention

Everyone:  Today we walk as Jesus rode to this center of power saying, we “have been sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and to release the oppressed.”

Let Our People Go!

4) BP GAS STATION: Hold up: This is a gas can.  It represents environmental devastation wrought in the callous pursuit of profit

Reader:  We call for sustainable energy and an end to environmental devastation and bewail the destruction of our planet by greed driven Corporations.

Everyone: Today we walk as Jesus rode to this center of power saying, "Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.  You shall not destroy.”

Let Our People Live!

5) NYU FINANCIAL AID OFFICE: Hold up:  This is a student loan form.  It signifies the crushing student debt that cripples young people’s futures                                                     

Reader:  We demand affordable, accessible education and express our anger and grief at crushing student debt.

Everyone:    Today we walk as Jesus rode to this center of power saying, “When one of us is chained, none of us are free. When one is hurting, all are affected.”

Let Our People Go!

WHO IS TO GO?

We say, with Moses, “We will all go, young and old,” richer and poorer, angry and resigned, desperate and hopeful.  Together we walk toward a future in which, as Deuteronomy tells us, there should be no needy.  But if there are people in need, we will stretch out a hand, which will join a hand, which will join a hand as we build community and refuse to be satisfied with the world as it is. Today we welcome the sacred in the midst of the profane. 

On this Palm Sunday we celebrate our freedom and commit to the path of liberation for so many others and ourselves.

This ritual was written by Emma Missouri and Rabbi Ellen Lippmann.