Wednesday, April 04, 2007
I had a thought at the first seder:
When I was growing up, sedarim were fun. OK, they weren't kosher. We barely read from the hagada. But we told jokes, and Mom made great matzo balls. There was Pop-Pop, in his satin yarmulke and all my cousins. Uncle Jay cracked jokes, and I read the 4 questions like a star.
Now Pesach has become serious business. We're religious. Now there is a certain amount of matzo we are required to eat. We have to drink 4 cups of wine. We read the entire hagada, and the seder lasts at least 5 hours. The preparations for pesach are laborious.
At the seder, we're in a good mood. We still sing and enjoy, but there's a lightheartedness that's gone. It's a religious and spiritual event, involving work and responsibility. Now my children read the 4 questions, in hebrew and yiddish. It's startles me.
I can't go back to the casual passovers of my youth, where we'd eat at restaurants (but avoid the breadbasket). I can't go back to the Maxwell House hagadas and the Manischewitz. I can't shake the line from the hagada that says, "If G-d hadn't taken us out of Egypt then, we'd still be slaves there now."
Love, Maven @ 
4 Comments:
At 9:51 PM,
torontopearl said…
You've come so far in your Yiddishkeit, but it's somewhat sad to read that traces of the lightheartedness are gone. Even with the seriousness of seders and fulfilling mitzvot, it really shouldn't be gone.
While growing up and while hosting our own seders, a definite lightheartedness is always present with the songs, especially with Chad Gadya, as we try to speed it up more and more each year. As kids, we'd sing it with a Latin beat to each stanza and laughed our way through it, not losing its meaning in the least.
Hope you can recapture some lightheartedness at future sedarim.
A gutten moed to you and your family.
At 10:00 PM,
Maven said…
I *did* sing "Exodus" by Bob Marley. Does that count?
At 12:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
My mom does things throughout the 10 plagues, such as turn water red with a special capsule for "dahm" and throw plastic locusts and ice. Over the top, yes, but it makes for a fun seder.
At 7:37 AM,
Wendy said…
I'm with TPearl - it seems feasible to have some lightheartedness tucked in somewhere.
And yes, it does count that you sang Bob Marley!
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