Passover post-mortem
Apr. 3rd, 2018 02:35 pmI generally haven't done followup posts to Passover Seders. Although we often have guests and enjoy the presence of friends and relatives at the Seder table I rarely find much worth writing about. But since we had some interesting discussion beforehand I want to just put out a few bullet points about this year.
Seder 1, first night, was with ourselves and Pygment's GF (husband was traveling). We were not entirely pleased with our traditional Haggadot and didn't have time to assemble our own on https://www.haggadot.com/ (I'm not surprised this exists; I'm surprised that it's a build-your-own and good grief there's a lot there.)
We borrowed a variety of them from Pygment's sister and everyone got their own to read from. The text itself is fairly standard, though we find different variations (four sons versus four children) and sometimes it's hard to tell what order things are supposed to happen in. Like, it appears you pour the first cup of wine, then do Havdalah, and the wine blessing there serves for the first cup at Seder, but you light the candles AFTER in that case, because Shabbat, and only drink the first cup at its normal drinking place in the Seder, which is after the candles.
Remember when I mentioned that Jewish law and custom is complicated? No, seriously, people get into this stuff. Yo, I heard you like ritual? Here, have some ritual with your ritual rituals. It's best if I can laugh at the whole thing, I find.
Seder II was half a seder, with Sister-in-Law and family. We did the bits up to the meal and then after the meal... punted. If you're into the hymns and the singing more power to you. It's not the part that grabs me.
We had some obvious rejects in the Haggodot selection, and several interesting commentary points. Highlights:
- Thing 1 and 2 saying that when they write their own Haggadot it'll be annotated with Dad's snarky commentary. I, um, might do a lot of that, yes.
- There's a traditional story in the Haggadah about the virtue of dwelling on the Exodus story, about how a group of sages spent so long discussing the story that they were still at it when their students came to tell them it was time for morning prayers. The proverbial all-nighter. Except, as the commentary noted, this story is contemporary with the Maccabean Revolt. Given the place that rabbinic figures had in the community at that time, it's quite possible those sages were up all night plotting revolution, and using the Seder as cover for what was going on. When the "students" arrived for "morning prayers" that was quite possibly messengers arriving to tell the leaders that the revolutionaries were in position and it was time to go out and declare the rebellion, an act that would have been preceded by prayers and blessings. (Asking for G-d's favor on military ventures has a long history.)
- A note in one of the commentaries to the effect that in Egypt, Israelites responded to the decree declaring death for male children by divorcing. In the male-centric culture one imagines that the Egyptians would question their male slaves - is this your child? No, I am not married, I have no child. Peasant Survival Strategies (a hobby of mine).
- The notion that Moses is only mentioned once in the text, by name. If you look at Americanized views of the story, famously Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, Moses is centered in the story. But as written (and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tpau reminded me) the story is one of a partnership between G-d and the people. In the text, we read that G-d remembered the promise that was made to the Israelites (wholly, as a people). We (plural, inclusive) were slaves in Egypt and G-d brought us out. Including the notion that sometimes people can become too comfortable with the known, even if the situation you're in right now is painful and objectively awful, the new (freedom, requirements to live a more complex and ritualized life) is scary. People sometimes need to be strongly compelled to do what is good for them in the end. Not that any of us know anything about that here...
I continue to love Passover, even as I find it complex, confusing, and contradictory.
Seder 1, first night, was with ourselves and Pygment's GF (husband was traveling). We were not entirely pleased with our traditional Haggadot and didn't have time to assemble our own on https://www.haggadot.com/ (I'm not surprised this exists; I'm surprised that it's a build-your-own and good grief there's a lot there.)
We borrowed a variety of them from Pygment's sister and everyone got their own to read from. The text itself is fairly standard, though we find different variations (four sons versus four children) and sometimes it's hard to tell what order things are supposed to happen in. Like, it appears you pour the first cup of wine, then do Havdalah, and the wine blessing there serves for the first cup at Seder, but you light the candles AFTER in that case, because Shabbat, and only drink the first cup at its normal drinking place in the Seder, which is after the candles.
Remember when I mentioned that Jewish law and custom is complicated? No, seriously, people get into this stuff. Yo, I heard you like ritual? Here, have some ritual with your ritual rituals. It's best if I can laugh at the whole thing, I find.
Seder II was half a seder, with Sister-in-Law and family. We did the bits up to the meal and then after the meal... punted. If you're into the hymns and the singing more power to you. It's not the part that grabs me.
We had some obvious rejects in the Haggodot selection, and several interesting commentary points. Highlights:
- Thing 1 and 2 saying that when they write their own Haggadot it'll be annotated with Dad's snarky commentary. I, um, might do a lot of that, yes.
- There's a traditional story in the Haggadah about the virtue of dwelling on the Exodus story, about how a group of sages spent so long discussing the story that they were still at it when their students came to tell them it was time for morning prayers. The proverbial all-nighter. Except, as the commentary noted, this story is contemporary with the Maccabean Revolt. Given the place that rabbinic figures had in the community at that time, it's quite possible those sages were up all night plotting revolution, and using the Seder as cover for what was going on. When the "students" arrived for "morning prayers" that was quite possibly messengers arriving to tell the leaders that the revolutionaries were in position and it was time to go out and declare the rebellion, an act that would have been preceded by prayers and blessings. (Asking for G-d's favor on military ventures has a long history.)
- A note in one of the commentaries to the effect that in Egypt, Israelites responded to the decree declaring death for male children by divorcing. In the male-centric culture one imagines that the Egyptians would question their male slaves - is this your child? No, I am not married, I have no child. Peasant Survival Strategies (a hobby of mine).
- The notion that Moses is only mentioned once in the text, by name. If you look at Americanized views of the story, famously Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, Moses is centered in the story. But as written (and
tpau reminded me) the story is one of a partnership between G-d and the people. In the text, we read that G-d remembered the promise that was made to the Israelites (wholly, as a people). We (plural, inclusive) were slaves in Egypt and G-d brought us out. Including the notion that sometimes people can become too comfortable with the known, even if the situation you're in right now is painful and objectively awful, the new (freedom, requirements to live a more complex and ritualized life) is scary. People sometimes need to be strongly compelled to do what is good for them in the end. Not that any of us know anything about that here...I continue to love Passover, even as I find it complex, confusing, and contradictory.
