Monday, April 02, 2007
Redeem at Local Outlet!
Hag sameach, everybody. Tonight is night ! (that’s “1”, capitalized) of Passover, the festival of redemption. Once tied closely to the rites of Easter, the relationship has been (probably intentionally) attenuated over the millennia, and now it’s mostly celebrated as a commemoration of the exodus out of slavery. But we all know that the slavery thing lasted around 200 years, and the commemoration has lasted three thousand – so there is probably more to it than a hearty rendition of “Let my people go” and a fistful of crumbly jewcrackers.
I really love Passover and its message of a possible better future: redemption comes from personal righteousness, and though all of us struggle through out own “narrow place” of slavery, we can find inspiration for that struggle in the tendrils of new flowers and in the mysteries of wine and horseradish. It’s a holiday with fabulous symbolism, a killer liturgy and – if done properly – great food.
For 15 years or so it’s always been a huge social event for me, too – as many as 40 people gathering at friends’ houses to bring specially-baked goodies and carouse and ask four questions and play the part of four students and generally to greet Elijah with a brimming goblet of really good wine. I’ve officiated at these shindigs for years, with my big honkin’ hagadah (guidebook to the celebration), which I wrote over the course of the last few decades. We all party and hug and watch our kids knock each other over, and it’s a great time.
The resonance of this particular festival is so profound that even my friend Simon, the “Jewish as George M Cohan” jew with whom I grew up and remain a child, has gone whole hog to co-host a big ol’ public seder for “second night” (Tuesday, this year). He’s gone and started (with a friend) a site about being jewish without being zealous or overly religious or getting into people’s faces, and it’s a very funny and interesting site (check my links for “VHJews”), and more power to him, his partner, his wife, and their respective and very lovely families. Simon is hosting a big seder. That is redemption of some sort all by itself, though exactly what kind remains under consideration.
I’ll be considering that tonight myself as I sit with my family for a little seder of our own. This year the burnout done hit and nobody wanted to host the seder. Too many people, too many details, everybody having fun but you…. It just never came together, and now it’s not going to. We got invited to Mitch and Cath and Eli’s hipster seder later this week, and I am really looking forward to being there as a guest in their lovely house, listening as a spectator to the litanies and proverbs…. But as for me leading the big old friends’ seder, wait till next year.
It felt so strange to me to be without this annual benchmark in my spiritual loingirding that I decided to mount a little service here at home tonight. I’ll use my sister’s “not just for kids” hagadah, and we’ll be having all the basics – really good chicken soup with matzo balls, some smoked sturgeon (instead of gefilte fish, as to which, why?), a roast chicken with lemon and rosemary and garlic surrounded by yam-carrot-plantain tzimmis (really tasty), a matzo-mushroom kugel (un-freaking-believeably good), and seared brussel sprouts(shouldn’t suck), and then some panfried pesachdik bunuelos with maple and cinnamon (who knows if these will be edible; I bought a fall-back dessert from Israel’s Kosher Grocery just in case). We have two good bottles of pinot (one French and one Californian, which I opened last night for charoset-making) and everything else is home- and hand-made. I’ve got about 3 hours before kickoff and most everything has been made or prepped, and now the boy is up from his nap. Time to get a little redemption in ahead of time. I love me a good seder, and tonight will rock – but let’s be honest, nothing burnishes the soul like a really good hug from a two-year-old. Happy Passover, blog peoples. May your two zuzim buy you all your heart desires.