Happy Passover, Jewish Peepstars


I tried to explain the Passover Seder to my colleagues the other day. One of them had a meeting, so I had to deliver the Coles Notes version. I'm glad I did. Suddenly, there's a new aura, a Twilight Zone dimension, to a holiday I always just, well, did.
I took for granted the craftsmanship involved in each step of the tradition.
Do yourself a favour. Take any ritual you take for granted, and strip it down to brass tacks.

For example. The Passover Seder in thirty seconds.
The purpose of the Seder is to commemorate the deliverance of Hebrews from Egypt. The same story immortalized through Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner's epic landmark 'The Ten Commandments'.
To kick things off, we draw attention to a platter of things on the table that represent aspects of slavery. Like parsley, horseradish, and a baked egg.
To further enunciate the Hebrew experience, we dip our fingers into our wine and shout out each of the ten biblical plagues -. from locusts and blood to beasts and slaying of the first born. Etc.
At this point, the family shares a glass of wine with an invisible man who's shown up in a flaming chariot (also invisible).
Then we eat lots because the first bits took a couple hours.
Post-feast, the children flee the table to find the matzoh cracker hidden somewhere in the house.
...for cash prizes!

I've included a picture of an ad I found on the inside cover of the Passover Haggadah (kind of a Seder manual) I was handed this year. It was published by Maxwell House in the 70s.

I have a new appreciation for my heritage.