Hesh at Frum Satire, brings up a very important point about the Seder Pesah: Many people dread it.
Check out his post, Why do Pesach Seders Suck So Much? (my best seder of all time)
Hesh's post inspired me to give you a brief recap of my Seder here in K'far Tapu'ah, and my 10ag about the Seder in general.Rabbis often ask themselves, "Why are Jews turned off by Torah?" Hello?!
But, watering things down, being overly creative, making it up according to your feelings like the so-called "liberal Jews" are none of the appropriate answers for combating this attitude.
When you look at the halachah, and see what is actually required in the Seder, you'll be surprised. It's just not that long. See the Nusah Hagadah of the Ramba"m, for example.
Like Hesh, I was worried this year, too. Appropriate or not, I expressed my fears to my host the week before, when I found out that my Shabbath/Seder options were limited, and that I was "stuck" in my yishuv instead of being able to go to Jerusalem, my first choice.
Fortunately, I was at the right Seder for me. Here are the reasons why:
1) There wasn't any "suffering."
2) Qiddush was said very soon after tefillath aravith (evening prayer)
3) There were not any posers trying to outdo each others divrei Torah.
4) There were not any symptoms of starving to be seen at the table, while waiting for the shulhan orekh (main meal), and thus...
5) There was not any constant checking of the page number in the Hagadah to see how much farther we have to go. 6) Several interesting divrei Torah, medium and short, mostly during the meal.
7) Great food.
8) There was a focus on the misswoth of the day INCLUDING Simhath Yom Tov (experiencing the joy of Yom Tov), which unfortunately sometimes gets forgotten, albeit unintentionally.
Also, toward the end of the shulhan orekh host also said, once someone who wasn't feeling well made a mezumin, bench when you want, and say Hallel and Nirtzah according to your custom, and come and go as you please, discussing Yitziyath Missrayim (Exodus from Egypt) all night if you like.We ended up singing together anyway, but this statement sort of took the pressure off. It was one of my favorite Seders, and certainly one of the most meaningful.
It was me, and few single guys, two divorced guys, and some kids. Yet, it felt like being with family.
A public thank you to my hosts for having inviting me to join them.
1 comment:
I'm glad you had a meaningful seder. Mine was good too. My family is pretty traditional on the side of secular, except for me, so I pretty much ran it. No real divrei Torah, but it was till enjoyable. All my little cousins like to show off their mah nishtana and everything they've learnt at school. I actually had a high fever for days so that didn't help make the seder any more enjoyable. We have two here is galus. I'm full of brisket and matzoh balls. Yum!
Chag sameach.
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