Sunday, April 24, 2005

Passover

We held the first night of Pesach last night, using a new Haggadah, a slightly xenophobic one (if anyone knows a really good Haggadah, could you let me know? We've been looking for years: one year we wrote our own, but that feels like cheating) that went into detail about how cool it was that God slaughtered all those Egyptian babies for us.

But otherwise a good seder -- I mean, as good as seders can be. It's all about affliction and remembering we were slaves in Egypt, after all, as I kept reminding the kid when she had to eat the bitter herbs and the matzoh and the parsley dipped in salt water (to remind you of the tears you shed, I tell her, when you were a slave in Egypt). We invited our liberal friends, as we always do, even if they weren't slaves in Egypt, including the kid's intended, Miles, who by the time we were a quarter of a way into the seder was insisting he had been a slave in Egypt too.

The kid and I had dipped matzoh in melted chocolate for dessert. It didn't help much. They were still matzoh. The bread of affliction.

They also were not kosher for passover matzoh. Can't get those in Fort Smith. If we had planned ahead and ordered them on line...but we were bad Jews. We did have three bottles of kosher for passover wine, one of blackberry wine, one of cherry wine, and one of grape, fetched down from Fayetteville by one of our liberal friends. Mmmm.

The wine of affliction.

So today I have a thumping headache.

Oh, well. Better than being a slave in Egypt.

3 comments:

Ol Cranky said...

I think A Night of Questions is the Hagadah we used last night - it was the first time we used the Haggadah, so I'm not sure I'm 100% right (it's includes passages for Miriam's cup and the Dr. Seuss version of the 4 questions). AISH has a online Haggudah that can be printed if you find it suits you, and there are lots of resources for tweaking your Seder to suit your needs: Arthur Waskow made suggestions for flourishes to add to your Pesach celebration as well.

For what it's worth, I don't think writing your own is cheating at all (it may actually be more honest as it's more sincere).

delagar said...

ol cranky -- thanks! That one (A Night of Questions) does look good.

M. Mitchell Marmel said...

Say, where DOES one get matzoh et cetera in the NW Arkansas area? I'm jonesing for fried matzoh and Hebrew National salami... :)

-MMM-