Passover 2017
As I write every Spring, each year we hold a Passover Seder at our house inviting anywhere from 15-25 people over. It is a very special time for both Ellen and myself. Since I have… Passover 2017
Passover Seder 2014
For those who read this blog – Hello? Hello? Knock knock, anyone there? – well, anyway, and for those who know Ellen and I well, you will realize as we come up on Passover that we do our own version of a Seder. While based on a standard Haggadah based approach, we typically add some kind of theme which leads to the readings we select to accompany the regular material. In addition, I have gotten in the habit of putting quotes on 3 x 5 cards associated with our theme. As we go around the room during the seder, each participant reads from their quote as well as their reading.
Over the years we have moved us made adjustments because of the size of the crowd, this year at 25. I used to sit at the end of one table, now both Ellen and I sit in the middle. Also when we started doing seder’s at our house we would have participants selected one after another around the table(s). When we recognized that this meant that the readings would tend to be in only part of the group for a period of time, we changed it to have the assigned participant/reader selected sort-of-randomly moving the conversation back and forth.
Our Passover Seder 2013
I have been posting information about our Seder now for a number of years; for those interested they can look at one of the following links:
- https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2012/04/01/this-years-passover-sedar/
- https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/10/our-annual-passover-seder/
- https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/11/our-passover-seder-quotes/
This year our focus is to look at the choice for freedom that was made in the Exodus story and to consider some of the reasons people might have to support a change to freedom or to resist it.
The Haggadah we use is called A Different Night, http://www.amazon.com/Different-Night-Family-Participation-Haggadah/dp/0966474007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363877819&sr=1-1&keywords=a+different+night+haggadah.
Below the jump I include the beginning of the instructions I wrote up to help me organize the evening as well as the quotes we will be using this year. Those who have looked at my previous entries much that is repeated and a bit that is new. The instructions explain how we approach going through the Haggadah.
This Year’s Passover Sedar
I have previously posted about the Passover Sedar we hold at our house each year:
https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/10/our-annual-passover-seder/
and
https://www.ourownlittlecorner.com/2011/04/11/our-passover-seder-quotes/
In 2008, one thing we focused on was “We think about from what, to what, and what we have to accomplish to initiate and complete the transition.” This year we want to expand a bit on that: thinking about what risks have to be taken in order to successfully achieve freedom and have to happen to enable people (or communities of people) to take those risks. Perhaps we can consider what implications this has for the current day.
Our Passover Seder – Quotes
As I mentioned in my entry yesterday, each year at our Passover Seder we put together a series of readings and activities focused on a theme (or set of themes).
We pull the readings from an Haggadah named A Different Night.
In addition to going around the table asking people to read selections from the Haggadah we also pass around 3 x 5 cards with quotes on them that I have selected and Ellen has approved which each person reads and is encouraged to comment on.
The themes this year start with the broad issue of freedom from slavery which is the foundational message associated with Passover. We include some thoughts on the revolutionary activities going on in the Middle-East. We also will touch on the issue of how the Bible and the Exodus story deals with how Jews were dealt with as strangers in a strange land and the general issue of the ‘other’ in society. Finally we will talk a bit about the issue of the role of women in society. It remains my contention that how women are treated is a societal “canary in the coal mine”. That is, how well societies deal with women tell one a lot about the society in general.
The quotes we will be using follow:
Our Annual Passover Seder
For a number of years now we have a Passover Seder at our house on the first night of Passover.
We have between 15 and 25 people (I recognize that is a bit of a range) including family, friends, guests from various sources, Jews and non-Jews.
Each year we try and focus on a few themes to focus the more general topic of the Exodus and its implications to us today.
The following is what we are sending out to the participants this year. In addition to the readings we do, we put quotes that at least loosely tie to the themes we are focusing on, on 3 x 5 cards. During the course of the Seder we ask participants to read the quotes and comment on them. Tomorrow, if I remember, I’ll post the quotes we are using.