Wednesday, April 08, 2009

An Orange Seder

Feminist Gal talks about creating a feminist, all-inclusive Passover Seder (via Feministe).

Passover is tough in a new location. Normally I travel on Passover to be with my family, but with the stresses of 1L year, that's not possible this year. So I'm left to find a Seder on campus. Since Jill is visiting me (coming in today), it has to be a Seder that she can attend as a non-Jew, and one we'd both feel comfortable with. That's a bit tough to do on the fly.

3 comments:

chingona said...

Hope you found something that worked for you.

We used to have a big group of Jewish friends here and have these awesome seders that brought together a lot of different traditions, as well as drinking shots of Manischewitz before, after, and in between the four cups of the good wine.

One by one, everyone has moved away (hazard of making friends through a grad program), leaving just us, so I did a very, very, very pared down mini-seder with my son tonight.

But he made it up to me at the end of the night by doing something ridiculously cute. He was trying to tell me that we don't take baths on Passover, and I was saying that we do. He said, "Mama, give me that book, and I will explain it to you." He grabbed the Haggadah, opened it up to random page, held it up and read with great authority, "On all other nights, we take baths, but on this night we do not take baths."

Daisy Bond said...

Are some seders not open to non-Jews? I thought one was supposed to leave the door open, not just for Elijah but for anyone hungry.

Good luck finding a seder that suits you both!

Cory said...

I remember, years ago, my ardently feminist cousin jumping up mid-Seder and rushing to find an orange because she had forgotten about it. She explained why it was there and it stuck with me. I was young at the time, but now, no matter where I'm celebrating a Seder, I repeat the story and orange or not, people are interested.

I know some people are reluctant to break with the strictest observance of the Seder tradition, but it is a holiday of symbolism and whether there is an orange or not, simply telling others the story and the reason for the orange makes the point.