So over the next few days will come the final push to get the house clean from that last particle of bread, that hidden Cheerio, that elusive broken cracker.
Pressure on families, but most especially on women can be come intense.
Menus get planned, shopping is done, and we get ready for hopefully a hopefully meaningful observance.
For some families, there is the chametz that goes uncleaned. It’s the chametz of abuse, be it sexual, physical, insulting or humiliating.
Your house might be the cleanest one on the block come Passover, but if you are hitting your wife or child, if you are placing your family or the children of other families in danger, you are missing the entire point of Passover.
This holiday is about freedom. Leaving Egypt is a universal concept. We all have an “Egypt” we’re trying to leave. For some of us, “Egypt,” is to lose weight. For others, freedom, means not being dependent on drugs or alcohol.
If you are a survivor of abuse, may you find strength in the Haggadah of change this Passover season. May true “seder” or order come to your life. May you get help that will end your suffering immediately.
And if you are an abuser and have the courage enough to read these lines, then stop your hitting, stop your language, stop your molestation. May your journey out of “Egypt” include therapy.
There is nothing weak about getting therapy. It’s the strong among us who can admit there is a challenge to overcome.
But if you are hitting, molesting or humiliating, you are not “kosher for Passover.” Fact is, you are treif when it comes to what is really important in life.
Hug your wife.
Tell your children that you love them.
And make everyone in your life feel that they can be safe around you.
That is true freedom.

I read what you wrote and I wanted to share the following prayer I got off The Awareness Center’s web page.  I thought others might find it helpful.

Passover Prayer On Behalf of Abused and Neglected Children
(2007) Author Unknown

The prayer below was written for protective parents and their loved ones, child abuse advocates, and all who care about children to recite at their passover seder.  A spring onion is added to the seder plate, or placed on the table as a symbol.

The Passover Seder is a time to celebrate our freedom and remember those who still struggle for the freedoms they deserve. Freedom from tyranny, violence, and oppression is a core value for us as our ancestors have known slavery, and our heart goes out to the enslaved and the imprisoned of any race, culture or creed. Tonight we remember a group of individuals often forgotten, trapped by a kind of slavery so cruel, that society often looks the other way—-children (including adult survivors of child abuse) enslaved in lives of abuse.

Today I remember ____________ (fill in name of a child or children you know trapped in lives of abuse. or substitute… “these children.”) Though many of us have tried to free them, the Pharaohs in our generation have blocked our efforts or looked the other way. Our hearts ache knowing the pain these children live with day after day. They are not forgotten. With this prayer we share our commitment to find a way to liberate them from their lives of exploitation and tyranny.

This spring onion on the Seder plate is our symbol for these children and their plight. The shape of the onion reminds us of the whips used on slaves to keep them subjugated. The tears we shed from the onion remind us of the silent tears of these children waiting for rescue. The newness of the onion reminds us of the promise of hope, that one day these children can grow healthy and free from the tyranny they are living with today.

We pray for the wisdom to find an effective path to liberate these children. We pray for the courage to stand up to the Pharaoh’s of our generation and speak the truth of what we know. We pray for the strength and fortitude to keep on fighting for their freedom.

May these children (including adult survivors) soon know the sweetness of freedom from violence and oppression and share Passover Seders and other celebrations of freedom, safely, with loved ones next year!

Amen.