Very belated Pesach
May. 7th, 2018 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livSo there was a meme going round FB suggesting that your seder is a microcosm of your Judaism. Which is somewhat unsurprising, since that's basically the point of a seder. And also, we're over five weeks into the omer and I haven't written about how I celebrated Pesach yet, which is probably also typical of me: I get behind on blogging.
I attended three seders: my Judaism contains multitudes, and obligations to more and disparate communities than I can fit in a room. I led two of them, because liturgy is what I do.
They all started from the standard Orthodox hagaddah (though a whole mass of different editions), with a more or less Reform style of actually running the service. I'm somewhat traditionalist liturgically, but definitely Reform in my actual approach to Judaism.
They were all milchig (dairy and fish, not meat): I'm veggie and all the groups of people I celebrated with have too disparate standards of kashrut to manage the complications of a meat meal. They all had several alternative dishes available for people with medical or ethical as well as religious dietary requirements: my Judaism is inclusive.
They were all on the large side, 20 guests first night, 30 third night, and 15 last night in my rather small home: my Judaism is all about communities and wider networks. They all included non-Jewish guests: interfaith is a major priority for me religiously, and I like educating and being the explainer of Judaism.
They were all noisy and lively and not as musical as would have been ideal: I'm good at debating and bad at singing. Oh, and all three had R' Hulbert's tradition of doing the animal noises for the silly song at the end, because that is the best tradition.
First night with my family of origin, plus our respective partners, plus a bunch of guests who for one reason or another couldn't manage a seder in their own household. Well, in my case only my husband, since it was Good Friday so we couldn't invite my Christian partners as we usually would. My Judaism: very middle class English in some ways, the big table in my parents' big Victorian house with the family portraits on the walls and the family silver and fancy dishes laid out. And completely not in others, actually eating the food is mostly a free-for-all and everybody talks over eachother and there are always lots of overlapping conversations or debates. Some about the seder, some about politics (we argued quite a bit about Corbyn), some about whatever random philosophical comment happened to come up. And we all gave eachother more books than we're reasonably going to be able to read, and it was just a really fun evening.
Third night, because the community decided that trying to run a seder on Saturday evening was too difficult, I led a communal seder for my old shul in Stoke.jack drove me up, and all my old friends were happy to see me, and there was good food and good discussion, and even though leading a large seder like that is quite hard work, it was in many ways quite relaxing and delightful.
And last night, I invited my OSOs and their children, andghoti_mhic_uait's sister and her family, and fivemack, and my parents. And the wonderful angelofthenorth who helped me immeasurably with the meal planning and the actual cooking, as she's much more experienced at feeding large groups than I am. I was absolutely delighted with how that seder went. It's taken me a little while to get it just right, but I think I have something now that works for everybody. There were some excellent questions, including from the children, but the discussion didn't drag on too long. I found some scored music for the four questions lurking in the back of a hagaddah I've owned for 10 years, and cjwatson turned into useable staves so the musical Christian guests could sing that, at least, plus they had a nice setting of the Song at the Sea which we'd used in a previous seder, so it was a lot less hopelessly unmusical than most of my seders are.
So basically my Judaism is that I have a lot of really wonderful people in my life, and when I get a selection of them together, we have food and noise and fun and connection. That sounds about right!
I attended three seders: my Judaism contains multitudes, and obligations to more and disparate communities than I can fit in a room. I led two of them, because liturgy is what I do.
They all started from the standard Orthodox hagaddah (though a whole mass of different editions), with a more or less Reform style of actually running the service. I'm somewhat traditionalist liturgically, but definitely Reform in my actual approach to Judaism.
They were all milchig (dairy and fish, not meat): I'm veggie and all the groups of people I celebrated with have too disparate standards of kashrut to manage the complications of a meat meal. They all had several alternative dishes available for people with medical or ethical as well as religious dietary requirements: my Judaism is inclusive.
They were all on the large side, 20 guests first night, 30 third night, and 15 last night in my rather small home: my Judaism is all about communities and wider networks. They all included non-Jewish guests: interfaith is a major priority for me religiously, and I like educating and being the explainer of Judaism.
They were all noisy and lively and not as musical as would have been ideal: I'm good at debating and bad at singing. Oh, and all three had R' Hulbert's tradition of doing the animal noises for the silly song at the end, because that is the best tradition.
First night with my family of origin, plus our respective partners, plus a bunch of guests who for one reason or another couldn't manage a seder in their own household. Well, in my case only my husband, since it was Good Friday so we couldn't invite my Christian partners as we usually would. My Judaism: very middle class English in some ways, the big table in my parents' big Victorian house with the family portraits on the walls and the family silver and fancy dishes laid out. And completely not in others, actually eating the food is mostly a free-for-all and everybody talks over eachother and there are always lots of overlapping conversations or debates. Some about the seder, some about politics (we argued quite a bit about Corbyn), some about whatever random philosophical comment happened to come up. And we all gave eachother more books than we're reasonably going to be able to read, and it was just a really fun evening.
Third night, because the community decided that trying to run a seder on Saturday evening was too difficult, I led a communal seder for my old shul in Stoke.
jack drove me up, and all my old friends were happy to see me, and there was good food and good discussion, and even though leading a large seder like that is quite hard work, it was in many ways quite relaxing and delightful.And last night, I invited my OSOs and their children, and
ghoti_mhic_uait's sister and her family, and fivemack, and my parents. And the wonderful angelofthenorth who helped me immeasurably with the meal planning and the actual cooking, as she's much more experienced at feeding large groups than I am. I was absolutely delighted with how that seder went. It's taken me a little while to get it just right, but I think I have something now that works for everybody. There were some excellent questions, including from the children, but the discussion didn't drag on too long. I found some scored music for the four questions lurking in the back of a hagaddah I've owned for 10 years, and cjwatson turned into useable staves so the musical Christian guests could sing that, at least, plus they had a nice setting of the Song at the Sea which we'd used in a previous seder, so it was a lot less hopelessly unmusical than most of my seders are. So basically my Judaism is that I have a lot of really wonderful people in my life, and when I get a selection of them together, we have food and noise and fun and connection. That sounds about right!
