BlogHer - Honoring Jewess Bloggers on Passover - Comments

This is just a cool thread

Jill Miller Zimon — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:53:04 -0500

So thank you for kicking it off.

I'm procrastinating on making the kosher le pesach rocky road brownies and matzah caramel crunch right now... :)

Cousins

Toby Bloomberg — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:49:21 -0500

Brings back memories of Passovers when the tables went from the dinning room into the living room to end with the 'cousin tables.'

Thanks for the links to the Jewish Women bloggers.

Thanks All!

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:18:10 -0500

Thanks everyone, for writing and reading. Happy Passover, chag sameach. At this time next year, may we all celebrate peace. "Next year, Jerusalem!"

Rachelle Mee-Chapman http://www.magpie-girl.com

Clearing the Decks Today

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:16:47 -0500

Thanks Jill. I was frantically navigating through your site, trying (too late in the day) to put my post together. For some reason -- brain damaged cause by birthing children no doubt--I couldn't find your "What Jews Do" posts for Passover. So I'm super glad you've linked above!

I'll be looking for your About.com contribution!

Rachelle Mee-Chapman http://www.magpie-girl.com

Celebrating Passover with Friends

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:14:29 -0500

Thanks Vered! I'll take courage in the idea that our table will fill again someday.

-Rachelle

Rachelle Mee-Chapman http://www.magpie-girl.com

lovely

imabima — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:21:52 -0500

what a nice post - it's nice to see how the holiday can touch so many in so many ways....i do love the seder.

and thanks for the link:-)

chag sameach, may this passover bring us all freedom and hope.

Passover

MMarquit — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:27:27 -0500

As a non-Jew, I've always enjoyed Passover with my Jewish friends growing up and in college. Although in our new town, it's harder to find a seder. But I've been inspired to look harder this year...

Thanks for the great post!

So great

Jill Miller Zimon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:27:30 -0500

And so much a part of the Exodus story in a way! Thanks you. :)

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

My Favorite Holiday!

Pam — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:53:42 -0500

We're getting ready too. A few years back I was in Austria for Passover and we had a helluva time finding a seder. I was really depressed. I emailed the synagogue in Graz to see if they had a community seder and the woman that answered my mail said, 'Yeah, we have one, but it's tiny and very formal. Why don't you come to my house, instead?"

We accepted with great delight and it turned out she was a displaced Jewish California girl married to an Austrian guy (he'd since died, which was very sad) like me. We loved being there and every year I think of their perfect kindness to strangers on Passover.

Nerd's Eye View

Clearing the decks today

Jill Miller Zimon — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:38:18 -0500

For a seder for 24 on Saturday. :)

Thanks for sharing. I've posted this link before so ignore it if you've already been there, but here's a list of Passover memories I've blogged since 2006.

I'm working on another for About.com this week, and the memories are always a little bittersweet, even though I enjoy creating new traditions.

Hag Sameach, however, wherever and whyever you celebrate.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

A Story To Share

Elana Centor — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:31:06 -0500

Thank you for sharing this story. It made me smile, it made me cry and it definitely made me look foward to celebrating Passover.

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness

Celebrating Passover with friends

Vered — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:16:09 -0500

Your childhood story is moving. Thank you for sharing it.

We came to the States 9 years ago from Israel (I can't believe it's been nine years already). At first we needed to get adjusted to small Seders. I found it a little depressing, but you definitely get used to it.

But gradually, as we made new friends, we went back to big, bustling, fun Seders that are shared with friends - Jewish and non-Jewish.

It's a fun night... I am looking forward to it.

Vered DeLeeuw
www.momgrind.com

Honoring Jewess Bloggers on Passover

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:59:28 -0500

When I was about ten years old, a Messianic Jew came to our Lutheran Church and taught us how to celebrate Pesach (Passover) by holding a Seder meal. My parents were captivated by the ritual: the lifting of the afikomen, the passing of the bitter herbs, the salt water on the tongue. It is commonly held, though not entirely un-debated, that the bread broken and the wine poured for the disciples by Jesus at this last meal were remnants of their Passover feast. And my folks, much enamored with the connection, decided to invite a few friends to our home for a Seder on Maundy Thursday – the night of Jesus’ Last Supper, which is celebrated the Thursday before Easter.

This was in the 70’s, during the recession, when Dad sometimes had extra ‘vacation’ (unpaid layoffs) and we seemed to eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly on bread purchased at the day-old factory outlet. So when the invitations for the Seder spread via word of mouth, and the numbers of attendees snowballed, my mother worried over how to make our meager food budget spread to so many. Dad prayed, and Mom prayed—and Mom probably mentioned her worries to one or two of the other church ladies. Like manna from heaven—or perhaps more appropriately, like quails in the wilderness—chickens appeared on our doorstep. Frozen chickens, ready to be made into Matzo Ball Soup for our Seder supper. So did wine, and bottles of grape juice—freeing my parent’s budget to purchase the horseradish and the matzah bread, the apples and the honey. By the night of our Passover celebration, the bounty had spread so far that my parents had to abandon our small track-house dining room (really a glorified eat-in kitchen) and Dad resorted to borrowing folding tables from the church, setting up a dining hall in the two-car garage. Mom hung sheets to mask the tools hanging on the walls, we three kids helped polish silverware, and finally it was time for Pesach.

My father read from the Haggadah, and we passed the ceremonial foods down the long tables. Around the third cup of blessing, we ran out of grape juice, so the older kids got to drink a very-grown-up-feeling glass of wine. I distinctly remember sitting next to several of the Lai children (there were seven) and their ancient Grandmother, who had the funny habit of greeting you repeatedly with her only English phrase, “How-are-you-I- am-fine.” Young and old, we were together, all we goyim, passing this and reading that, and experiencing, actually experiencing, the journey our spiritual ancestors had made in the desert when they fled from captivity and into freedom.

Now, as a mother myself we continue that pattern my parents established long ago, hosting groups of friends so large we have to lay down make-shift plywood tables from one end of the living room, through the dining room, and right up to the kitchen door. My favorite part of the Passover meal is diminishing the cup of joy – in which the leader reminds us “A full cup is a symbol of joy, but we cannot fully celebrate when our siblings suffer. So we diminish our glass to remember those held hostage by the plagues of old, and by plagues of modernity.” Then together all the guests dip their fingers into their glass of wine, removing one drop for each of the ten plagues, and for the modern plagues of hunger, slavery, war, and injustice. Every year, it moves me to tears.

This year, our Passover platters and Haggadot were on a slow boat to Europe, trapped somewhere in customs while our interfaith date for Passover passed us by. Now that our things have arrived, Pesach his here too, but in our new country we are only we four, passing matzah and haroseth around the table. Still, even in our quite celebration we are, in our own flawed and unorthodox way, joining millions of our siblings who every year stand in remembrance and say, “by the strong arm and outstretched hand of G-d, freedom can be found.”

During this season of Peach, this silly goy girl would like to honor her Jewess sisters who are blogging away about the wonder and challenge of being a practicing Jew. Danya Ruttenberg’s book Surprised by God recently received a good word in Publisher’s Weekly. Phyllis Sommer over at ImaBima helps new practitioners out by providing a list of music for Pesach (reggae anyone?) and list of books to help you host a Seder. For the little’s, A Mother in Isreal has a great craft idea for the tiny tots – a simple pictorial Haggadah you can cut, color, and paint. Anddid you know that after years of persecution, it’s suddenly hip to be Jewish in the USA, according to Yo Yenta. And finally, in the most poetic entries of the bunch, Rachel Barenblat over at Velvteen Rabbi offers one of my favorite Haggadot (to download, click on Ceremony Archive), while Barbara at Women on the Verge of Thinking writes a lovely birthday card to the nation state of Israel. Happy 60th Birthday Israel! May peace greet you this year and every year of your long life. L'chaim!