Passover

The seder last night was a fine one. The master of the seder was a bit rusty and had to be reminded of a few things by she who lights the seder candles, and by he who traditionally reads the passage about the four sons, but other than that, it went well.

It was nice to get all the accoutrements out again, put on the tallit, dig up a dollar coin for the redemption of the Aphikomen, review the Haggadah and assign reading parts to the guests. It had been a while.

And a couple of very tumultuous years have gone by since the last time hosting a Seder. This year felt.. more settled? Like one could breathe a bit again, and get back to what had been a normal part of the rhythm of life.

The meal was simpler this year than most, due to the exorbitant price of leg of lamb. $70.00!!! No thanks. The frugal Mama went with lamb stew instead, and the exotic Papa got back from his business trip just in time to taste it for seasoning, and add the necessary marjoram and rosemary. Mmm.

On the way home from KC, a quick stop at the butcher was needed to bring home a lamb shank bone for the seder plate (oops! none was in the freezer, since there was no seder last year..), and it wound up coming off the grill just in time for the ritual explanation of the ritual foods.. praise be to The Eternal for cell phones and text messages!

Six college kids were there, equal parts boys and girls, so a good dynamic around the table. Plus, Matisyahu's hip-hop Haggadah on CD as background music was a great success! ("he's cool; how did *you* ever hear about Matisyahu?" oh.. i have my sources. ;) )

And afterwards an 8-handed game of Diminishing Returns with ample laughter. Even more laughter ensued when the subject of winter colds came up and the host played his favorite YouTube clips of people using the neti pot for nasal rinsing. :) Oh, and the mint/lime sorbet added a little zip to the end of the evening - the expressions on people's faces! Almost as good as the ones on the YouTube clips...

All in all, my favorite parts were the usual ones: the communal telling of the exodus from Egypt, where we go around the table and limp our way through the story:

"So, Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. Then what happened?"

"Alright, so when after 400 years God heard their cries for deliverance, what did He finally do about it?"

"And when Moses saw a cruel Egyptian slave master abusing a Hebrew slave, what did he do?"

"Tended sheep in the desert, did he? What, all by himself? Who did he meet there? Are there any girls in the desert?"

"So how did Pharaoh respond to Moses' demands?" and so on.

It's cute to see everyone struggling to remember when they learned in Sunday School - or referring to the movie The Ten Commandments, instead of the Bible. Sometimes they need a little prompting by the host (which the teacher in him is happy to do.. ;) ) Funny.

The other highlight of the evening is the little song at the end when the hosts sing a parting blessing over the children (improvised from the sabbath prayer from Fiddler On The Roof.) It's something we added years ago; a lovely and tender moment, and always touches hearts. Including mine. :)