Passover 2026: Ground, Connect, Rise

Passover Seders, Classes, Resources, and more!

Passover arrives each year with its ancient invitation: to gather around the table, ask questions, and remember the long journey from narrowness to possibility. This year, many of us arrive carrying a particular heaviness—in the world around us and in our own lives. Some are navigating uncertainty, grief, fear, or change.

Passover does not ask us to set these feelings aside. Instead, the holiday offers rituals and language to help us see the narrow places we are in—our personal Mitzrayim—question them, and ask: How can this night—and this year—be different? How can I bring more meaning, connection, or transformation into my life and the lives of those around me?

The story of the Exodus reminds us that growth often begins in these tight, challenging spaces, unfolding step by step as people gather together to imagine new possibilities and ways forward.

We invite you to enter Passover with all that you are carrying: your questions, your longings, and your hopes for freedom, peace, and renewal. See below for opportunities to connect in community and explore our Passover resources.

Chag Kasher v’Sameach - Wishing you a meaningful Passover. May it be a time of healing and peace.

Passover begins on Wednesday night, April 1st and ends on Thursday night, April 9th

Also be sure to explore the Den’s upcoming year-round classes and gatherings.

Passover Classes + Gatherings:

Stories of Liberation and Freedom: Then and Now

Monday, March 23 • 7:00pm - 9:00pm

The Passover story begins in Egypt and moves through plagues, courage, and ultimately, the journey to freedom. Jewish tradition has been telling and retelling this story for thousands of years, and each generation adds new layers. Join Nathaniel, fellow in the Den’s Sacred Facilitators Fellowship, as we explore a range of texts - ancient and modern - that grapple with slavery, plagues, and the ongoing fight for liberation. Together we’ll ask: How have Jews across time understood oppression and freedom? What feels resonant or challenging for us today? Sign up by 3/20.

18th Annual National Rainbow Seder

Sunday, March 29 • 5:30pm - 8:00pm

Join GLOE (the LBGTQ+ community at the EDCJCC) with support and sponsorship from the Den Collective and other DMV organizations at this annual event to celebrate Passover through an LGBTQ+ lens. Sign up here.

Passover: Freedom +Responsibility

Sunday, April 5 • 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Join Richard Swanson, fellow in the Den's Sacred Facilitators Fellowship, to reflect on the moral weight of liberation. Once a people steps into freedom and self determination, what responsibilities arise? To protect the vulnerable, to use power with care, and to ensure that our own freedom does not come at the cost of another’s? Sign up by March 31.

the Den’s Community-Led Passover Seders

Celebrate Passover with the Den Community

Want to Host or Join a Seder?

1. If you've signed up to host a Seder on OneTable, please let us know if you would like to open your home to Den community members! Be sure to check out OneTable’s deadlines for hosting seders on April 1 and 2 as well as Passover Shabbat on April 3!

2. If you find a Den Member’s Seder via the OneTable platform, when you sign up, please let your host know that you are part of the Den community!

Passover Resources:

Passover Learning Guides

• the Den’s Festival Guide: Blessings for the 3 pilgrimate festivals: Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot.

• Pardes’ Passover Companion: Discover a collection of thought-provoking essays by Pardes faculty members, offering fresh insights into the Passover narrative against the backdrop of a post-October 7th world. Explore the intersection of tradition and contemporary events as we reflect on these pivotal moments in Jewish history.

• Jews of Color Initiative’s Passover Resource Lists: includes events, haggadah supplements, articles, recipes, music, and more that center Jews of Color.

• AJWS Pocket Haggadah: If you want more conversation-sparking questions check out AJWS’ global justice take on a traditional seder, featuring current human rights struggles in Bangladesh, Kenya, South Sudan and Thailand.

• If you’re worried about painfully charged conversations with family this year about Israel and Palestine, you are not alone. Rabbi Amy Eilberg provides a helpful framework to approach the topic in healthy ways and manage disagreement in a way that strengthens, rather than strains, relationships. You can view Rabbi Eilberg’s handout here.

• Avodah Passover Resources: Avodah has collected Haggadot + Passover resources from partners and allies in their social justice work. You can use these materials to help foster dialogue, lead prayers, and build community during this holiday of liberation.

• HIAS Passover Resources: Connect the Jewish experience of flight from persecution toward safety to the journeys of today’s refugees and asylum seekers with HIAS’ Seder Plate resource, Haggadah, and video.

• Counting of the Omer: The 49 days between the exodus from Egypt (Festival of Passover) and the receiving of the Torah (Festival of Shavuot), known as Sephirat HaOmer, or the counting of the omer, a time for spiritual exploration and introspection. We begin counting on the second night of Passover.

• Moon Messages: At the Well seeks to to enhance women’s well-being through ancient Jewish practices. The Hebrew calendar has always been tied to the cycles of the moon. In fact, marking time by the moon was the first commandment given after liberation from slavery in Egypt. Each month — even each day! — brings its own spiritual energy, and we’ll help you connect to that essence.

Passover Kitchen Prep, Foods, and Recipes

• Passover Prep Manual, c/o The Rabbinical Assembly: Wondering how to prepare your home and kitchen? Which foods to buy before Passover and which you can buy throughout the holiday? Check out this guide and of course, reach out to us with any questions!

• Passover Guide from Mechon Hadar: Wondering about how to prepare your home and kitchen? How to prepare all of your dishes so they’re ready for Passover use? Check out this guide in addition to the one above!

• Kosher for Passover Questions? Check out Exploring Judaism’s Passover Kashrut/Kosher Questions and Answers.

• IKAR's How to Prepare Your Seder Table: Check out this great guide on how to prepare your seder table from our friends @ IKAR-LA. Includes great tips such as: if you don’t happen to have a shank bone lying around, a beet will do.

• Kosher for Passover Fair Trade Chocolate: Equal Exchange is now selling eight flavors of fair trade, Kosher for Passover chocolate.

• Tlaim Passover Zine: A grassroots community cookbook compiled as part of Bechol Lashon’s work to uplift the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the Jewish people. 

Seder Resources and Haggadot

• Online Haggadot: Leading your first Seder? Your fifteenth? Check out these cool online Haggadah options from our friends at Haggadot.com.

• Keshet Seder Resource: As LGBTQ+ Jews and allies, each of us is unique. This Passover, the Keshet team shares seder plate foods and objects to represent our communities.

• NCJW’s Feminist Supplement to the Haggadah: From our friends over at the National Council of Jewish women, a new seder supplement with short readings honoring each of the 5 women of the Exodus story (Shifra, Puah, Yocheved, Batya/Bat Pharaoh, and Miriam) to be added for each cup of wine.

• Blue Dove Foundation Seder Resources: The Blue Dove Foundation addresses mental illness + addiction in the Jewish community and beyond. Take advantage of the Passover season to bring more mental wellness to your community by purchasing mental health kippot, educational resources or the new Mental Health Passover Seder Companion.

• The Friendseder Haggadah: Check out this cool Haggadah from our friends over at The Well, based out of Detroit.

• The Velveteen Rabbi’s Haggadah: A seder text that cherishes the tradition and also augments that tradition with contemporary poetry, moments of mindfulness, and a theology of liberation.

Pre-Passover Rituals + Candle Lighting Times:

Pre-Passover Ritual Prep:

Learn about the Steps for Ritually Cleansing Your Home from Leaven (Chametz), here:

1. Search for Leaven (Bedikat Chametz) on Tuesday, March 31st after sundown (7:59pm)

2. Sell the Leaven (Mechirat Chametz): Grateful to our friends at Ohr Kodesh Congregation for graciously sharing in this ritual experience with us. Complete your Sale of Chametz Form by Wed. April 1st @ 12pm.

3. Eat Chametz on Wednesday, Apr. 1st until 11:04 am

4. Burn the Leaven (Biyyur Chametz) by Wednesday, Apr. 1st @ 12:08pm

5. Nullify your Leaven/Chametz with the following declaration: “All leaven and anything leavened that is in my possession, whether I have seen it or not, whether I have observed it or not, whether I have removed it or not, shall be considered nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.”

6. ”Maot Chittim: “Wheat Money,” this centuries-old Passover custom encourages food access to those in need. Jews collected wheat in order to provide matzah for the poor. Today, some communities hold food-drives or donate to food-related charities, like Mazon, as a way of honoring the tradition.

Candle Lighting Times + Blessings:

• Candle Lighting - 1st Night Passover Seder: Wednesday, Apr. 1st @ 7:14pm

• Candle Lighting - 2nd Night Passover Seder: Thursday, April 2nd @ 8:13pm

• Shabbat Candle Lighting - 3rd Night Passover: Friday, April 3rd @ 7:16pm

  The final two days of the week of Passover are also observed festival days. Candle lighting times are:

• Candle Lighting - 6th Night: Tuesday, April 7th @ 7:20pm

• Candle Lighting - 7th Night: Wednesday, April 8th @ 8:20pm

  Passover Holiday ends on Thursday night, April 9th @ 8:21pm

Want In? Have Questions?