FUJT

[drwex]

https://www.haggadot.com/

I am not so much surprised that it exists, but that it's a "build your own" site. This is quite a thing.

Non-Jews who have no idea what I'm banging on about are forgiven.

Comments

[reedrover]

I watched the video. So I'm confused... how do you celebrate a secular Passover? Isn't that a contradiction?

[drwex]

That... is a question with a complex answer. As a secular Jew I think it's something I do. The Seder isn't a religious observance, per se. There are religious rituals and prayers involved, sure. But it's a celebration of freedom, a remembrance of slavery, and a call to hospitality and welcome. It's a learning and storytelling/singing session.

[reedrover]

Freedom, hospitality, and welcome are definitely cultural regardless of religion. I can totally understand that. And storytelling is part of the warp of the cultural weave, in my mind.

[coraline]

i can send you a half-deozen secular haggadot if that's helpful! but i assume it wouldn't be.

[reedrover]

I don't know if it's helpful or not until I try it. Would you send me a link or two? I'm definitely curious. I have a sufficient number of Jewish friends and acquaintances that I took the opportunity to watch the video and read up a little on this web site, but I don't have the cultural insight to understand how Passover would be secularized.

Thanks!

[drwex]

As I said, I don't think it's going to help you to think of it as a "secularized" holiday. It's one of the "they tried to kill us; we're still here; let's eat" holidays. (Yes, we have several of those.)

It doesn't mark a specific religious event, but it has some directly religious elements. Whether one chooses to engage with those or not can make it more or less of a religious occasion.

Hmm, maybe I'll make this the theme of my annual Passover post, and see if I have anything coherent to say about it.

[reedrover]

Actually, that helps. I was focused too strongly on the "we were spared a Biblical plague by divine power" (what gets focused on in kids' Christian Bible school) and not enough on the "we survived, we are free from Egypt, let's celebrate."

[coraline]

also, there's a whole movement and congregations of secular jews who are establishing ways to celebrate and use their judaism as a focus for all the good things religion can provide (tradition, community, philosophical structure and focus) -- celebrating passover is just part of that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_Judaism
http://www.shj.org/humanistic-judaism/what-is-humanistic-judaism/
http://www.kahalbraira.org/about/humanistic-judaism

[coraline]

www.eszter.com/Haggadah.pdf
www.circleboston.org/sites/www.circleboston.org/files/Haggadah_2012_0.pdf
http://seder.today/haggadot/humanist-haggadah/
https://www.scribd.com/document/251038254/Humanist-Haggadah

[pygment]

We borrowed a few different hagadot from my sister and we'd be happy to look at the secular ones you have,

[coraline]

see the links I posted to RR!

[coraline]

this is awesome and would have been even more helpful if I'd found it a week ago , but... next year in jerusalem with better layout :)

[drwex]

Yeah, I played with it a bit and realized it's about a week's worth of work to assemble something I'd be happy with from their bits. Their traditional version is just too much in Hebrew and lacks a lot of the style and flavor I want. And there are fifty-bazillion more liberal and interpretive versions I'd want to pore over and pick-and-choose from.

I just happened upon it because my favorite Twitter rabbi mentioned it.

[coraline]

yeah i don't want to use any of their bits basically -- I want to use clips from the various secular humanist and my friend's haggadah's that spoke to me to assemble something that works for ME. but that's a lot.