Good morning,
THE TWO GREAT FOOD HOLIDAYS OF GRATITUDE
Monday begins the eight days of Passover with the first seder (although, truth be told, given the travel schedules of various family members, we’ll be getting a jump on Passover this Sunday!).
Those who have been reading these Musings for a while know that I enjoy celebrations. Life has enough challenges and whenever there is an opportunity to celebrate, I’m all in. You also may recall that my two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Passover. Why? They each possess a number of attributes:
· Food. Who is going to pass up on the food in plentiful quantities?
· Family and Friends. More than any other holidays, these are holidays that celebrate coming together as family and friends
· Gratitude. Each of these holidays, properly understood and celebrated, is an opportunity to remind ourselves of those things for which we should be grateful in life, framed in historical context and ritualistic practice.
In my opinion, there is no happiness without gratitude. Most of us quickly can tick off a list of things for which they are grateful—health, family, freedom, comfort, parents, this country, our heritage, nature, to name a few. But we live in a world today where we constantly are reminded that maybe things aren’t quite right. These reminders often come from cable news ads and social media. Marketing has its place but it also preys upon insecurities, feelings of inadequacy, and the need to “keep up with the Joneses.” Thanksgiving and Passover remind us that, regardless of the challenges of the moment, there is always something for which to be grateful.
MAKING THE HOLIDAYS PERSONAL AND UNIVERSAL
On Thanksgiving, Americans across the country and around the world recall the bounty and blessings of this country. On Passover, Jews around the world recall the Exodus story and celebrate a festival of freedom. Some of my fondest memories are of these two holidays, beginning at my childhood home, through our own children’s childhood, until today.
There is no fixed requirement for the Passover Haggadah, the booklet from which participants read and tell the story. The Passover story is most meaningful not for its exclusivity, but for its universality. The story of seeking freedom is not one only of the Jews. For years, the Sonnenberg Passover Seder has included selected readings related to freedom, including the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Nelson Mandela, Frederick Douglass, FDR, and others.
Seders notoriously can go on too long for some participants. Mindful of this, I try to streamline the evening and pepper in interactive moments, games (who’s up for a game of “Jewpardy”?) and topical readings.
Taking this a step further, many holiday nerds like myself like to put together our own Haggadot (Hebrew pluralization). There are a number of websites available to pick and choose readings. There also are themed Haggadot, including feminist, Gay, Persian, Progressive, humorous, and oriented toward children.
PASSOVER IN DIFFERENT CONTEXT
Sometimes the times and circumstances can provide inspiration for that year’s seder. In 2017, we used the “Bigglyest Haggadah” (in Trump’s first year). For the first year of the pandemic in 2020, we had a Pandemic Haggadah for our Zoom seder. For 2021, we had a “remote” seder in our yard—where each family group sat at its own table. Remember those days? 2022 saw the Russian invasion of Ukraine, assaults on democracy, and increased mental health challenges in America. For that year, our Haggadah began:
Freedom takes many forms
Freedom from slavery
Freedom from want
Freedom from violence
Freedom of thought
Freedom to choose
Freedom to read and study what one chooses
Freedom to vote and choose one’s leaders
We think of Ukraine this year
REMEMBERING UKRAINE
In 2023, we added a poem by Ukrainian poet Serhly Zhadan:
Take only what is most important. Take the letters.
Take only what you can carry.
Take the icons and the embroidery, take the silver,
Take the wooden crucifix and the golden replicas.
Take some bread, the vegetables from the garden, then leave.
We will never return again.
We will never see our city again.
Take the letters, all of them, every last piece of bad news.
We will never see our corner store again.
We will never drink from that dry well again.
We will never see familiar faces again.
We are refugees. We’ll run all night.
In 2023 we held a brief Seder at a local restaurant with several other couples. We did a short seder, to the amusement of our server. For the occasion, I produced a Haggadah entitled “Short and Sweet: A Haggadah for Hungry Adults.”
MODERN PLAGUES
In Haggadot in recent years, I’ve included something like the following, about Modern Plagues:
“The plagues are symbolic. Every era is presented with its version of the plagues. Today, we’re not nearly as concerned with locust, frogs, cattle disease, or boils. In the 14th century, the plague left 1/3 of Europe dead, with no vaccines, no therapeutics, only death. In the 20th century, devastating wars were fought against the twin curses of national socialism and the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union. In our time, we too have our plagues [we’re talking to you, Putin!], just as challenging, just as complex. But today, we can confront our plagues with science, reason and the benefit of history. Whether we can conquer these plagues requires the resilience of people like those who wandered 40 years in the desert.
· HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY
· RACIAL INJUSTICE AND INTOLERANCE OF THOSE DIFFERENT FROM OURSELVES
· POLITICAL EXTREMISM AND GUNS
· STUPIDITY, SOCIAL MEDIA, LACK OF CRITICAL THINKING
· CANCER, HEART DISEASE AND OTHER DEBILITATING ILLNESS
· MASS INCARCERATION
· THE RISE OF AUTHORITARIANISM
· LONELINESS, ISOLATION, AND MENTAL ILLNESS
· CLIMATE CHANGE”
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Freedom is precious and the story of Passover is universal. We all should remember, in these days of autocracy’s increasing attractiveness across the globe, that freedom is hard to attain, easy to take for granted and even easier to lose, as we are reminded each year.
Have a meaningful weekend and Passover,
Glenn
Thanks for the kind words. Best wishes to you and yours as well. And let's get a lunch scheduled!
Wishing you a nice weekend with Your Family and a Fantastic Pass Over