Seder at Temple Beth Israel

Katie D.

April 19, 2011 - 9:48 PM

Tonight I attended my first Passover Seder! By boss (and friend), Melissa Crabbe, is the wife of Temple Beth Israel's Associate Rabbi. So I attended my first Jewish celebration in full style, at the table with the rabbi. The community Seder was held at the synagog for members of the wider TBI community, including visitors and friends. Most people there had celebrated the first night of Passover the night before, in their homes with the friends and families. For me, it was a treat and an honor to be present as a part of a broad definition of community.

I went not knowing what to expect. Literally. Pretty much all I had been told was that there would be food and a lot of friendly people.

We sang almost the entire event. There were a series of ritual blessings of our food and drink, and short activities to help remember the Jewish people's story of the Exodus from Egypt. We at specific foods to remember those times, and to celebrate. Then we had dinner. Throughout the evening we sang songs in celebration, but also read pieces of the Exodus story. Sometimes this reading was in English, simply read aloud. Other times it was in Hebrew and was read in a chant or song.

I loved all of it. I even tried to stumble through the Hebrew. It was a beautiful thing to have the community all singing together, as they recited a story in celebration. Plus there was a delightful element of verses that were sung as "Li li li," which didn't have the same element of language barrier. I was really good at those verses.

What surprised me most were the consistent elements of social justice woven into the Exodus story. The message was very clear: we were oppressed in Egypt, let us hope for a world in which there is no more oppression.

I found the entire experience to be very uplifting. It is a wonderful thing to be welcomed into a community like that, particularly when I felt it was very obvious that I didn't know the way things were supposed to be. My hosts were gracious and kind, and made me feel very welcome. Melissa's family kept me on track, particularly her daughter, Clarice. She helped me stumble through the first few songs, and helped me figure out what food on the table was there for snacking, and what was part of the ritual of the evening. We shared a songbook and helped each other with the ritual hand washing.

In fact, that was one of my favorite parts of the evening: the hand washing. We took turns pouring water over each other's hands at our tables. It was a simple and really beautiful piece of ritual and community. It took some teamwork and organization, and meant some confusion getting everything organized. And it was lovely. We helped each other. When it was time to pour cups of wine or grape juice, no one poured their own: we poured for each other. I think that a large piece of my feeling of comfort and welcome was the nature of the Seder itself: that we were asked to make each other welcome and wash each other's hands.

So, many thanks to Temple Beth Israel for the welcome! I am really grateful to have been a part of this celebration.