Ladies and gentlemen, come this Pesach, I will be hosting my very first seder. Yup, you heard me right. Do any of you care? Well, I hope you do. Cause all of you were once where I am. Soooooooo, I need your help, wisdom, advice, money and ideas. What can I do to make it lively? What do you guys do? Do you guys buy fake frogs and put it in your borsht? Do you put on costumes? I cant take a seder that lasts till the next morning, but I also dont want to speed read.
I would like to avoid the midrashic tales. You know, the ones that say 5 billion Jews were in Egypt but only a few left. I kind of want to gear it more towards a historical take on the Exodus. Infact, do any of you have a recomendation for a good haggadah?
Here is a custom that I can share with you. It comes from our persian friends, the Persians. When you get to the song "Dienu" you beat eachother with large green onions. I guess it is supposed to symbolize the onions the egyptians used to whip the slaves with. Shifra, this would be a great custom to have handy when your mother-in-law comes for a visit. Sorry, that was uncalled for. I will delete it.
Anyways, I look forward to hearing some suggestions from Ezzie's loyal readership (all 5 of them)
I don't know if this is your speed, but the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Haggadah is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteIt will take a fair amount of pre-planning to use his Haggadah at the seder, but his insights are inspiring.
Check it out
http://www.amazon.com/Rabbi-Jonathan-Sackss-Haggadah-Commentary/dp/0826418287
How many guests?
ReplyDeleteMake the food very simple. We have fresh horseraddish along with the lettuce.
Urim Press put out Nechama Leibovitch and Shlomo Carlebach Hagadot.
You can't go wrong with those.
I have not hosted a seder.
ReplyDeleteHowever.
What always made my family's seders fun was that everyone used a different Haggada, and we read it almost all in English (except for Kiddush and stuff like that)... and we would make fun of the different translations and how silly some of them sounded.
We use the Hartman Haggadah(Noam Zion & David Dishon) chock full of "extras" in addition to the traditional haggadah. We have sometimes done "themes" related to the story, such as last year we did "Survivor: Egypt" and sent out 'challenges' everyone had to create and bring to the seder. the rest of the guests had to accomplish the challenges brought by the other guests. Winner got a special passover gift. This year we are doing "Egyptian Idol" and everyone is assigned a portion of the haggadah that they have to 'perform' in a genre of their choice (rock, opera, country-western, reggae, etc.) and guests vote for best performance, and again, the winner gets a prize. As myself and my husband come from strong musical traditions and backgrounds, we are also brining unusual but traditional melodies to the table for certain pieces. Should be fun!
ReplyDeleteYou want to have fun with "Historical" takes on Exodus Ez?
ReplyDeleteLet me send you a copy of Exodus Decoded.
Fun stuff and good for making at least one guest try to hurt you!
Ezzie,
ReplyDeleteDefinitely go around the table and let others share the reading. The nicest seder I ever attended was like a meeting at the United Nations. Everyone, like Steg said, had a different Haggadah, and read in the language that accompanied the Hebrew in their Haggadah: We had English, Hebrew, Russian, Afrikaans, German.
Don't let the divrei Torahs overtake the reading; let the guests talk about what they recall from their seders, what they enjoyed/hated...that made for their memories.
One of my haggadot is an Artscroll Haggadah of the Chassidic Masters; when I'm at seder, I like to read aloud some extracts from the Chassidische stories. Hopefully your guests will have haggadot that also offer some wonderful interpretations that they can read for all.
I'm sure you'll do great, Ezzie.
Just as a note, Holy Hyrax wrote this post. :)
ReplyDeleteIt comes from our persian friends, the Persians.
ReplyDeleteThey must know our cleveland friends, The clevelands. ;)
We threw out a similar question at Beyond Teshuva last year, maybe some of the comments will help. The link is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beyondbt.com/?p=270
Like torontopearl, I enjoy using stories from the Artscroll Haggadah of the Chassidic Masters.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, the lengthy haggadah tomes are fascinating but aren't so great to use at the seder table, except for pre-selected bits and pieces. These are good to read in off-seder moments because of all the detail.
Shticky reworkings of the Pesach/seder theme don't move me.
What made some seder nights special for me was the people and atmosphere more than any techniques.
I know you don't want to make it too long but for some attendees at a seder, you can never make it too short!
ReplyDeletei.e. as soon as you do anything beyond reading the Hagadah, even if it is a one minute insite, you'll be told to get moving.
...even if it is a one minute insite, you'll be told to get moving.
ReplyDeleteLOL, right
thank you everbody I appreciate it.
I am not sure how I would work out the giving everyone to read. See, my mom is coming, and she kind of doesent care too much for these things. She is not religious, and I know she won't want to read it. So do I skip over her, or just skip the whole thing as to not embarass her?
Try Nachman Cohen's Historical Haggadah for some interesting non-midrashic thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWhile I try to collect a different Haggadah each year to add to my understanding and provide insights, if (as we often do) you have a large group not all of whom are FFB or otherwise confortable with the seder lituragy and mechanics, I would suggest you get copies of the smae haggadah for all so that you can announce pages and allow everyone to follow. We use the Artscroll Family Haggadah for that purpose as it comes with an easy to read translation and clear instructions.
Try Nachman Cohen's Historical Haggadah for some interesting non-midrashic thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThank you lynn, I was actually looking into it, but have not found much info on it. What can you tell me about it?
In previous years we would use the Haggadahs from that Playdoh Pesach Seder. The pictures were quite funny
HH: Are there going to be kids there? What ages? How Many?
ReplyDeleteHere are some things to do;
Walk around the seder table with matza on your shoulder (singing ha lachma anya).
Let everyone say part of the hagadda (go around the table).
If there are kids; get plastic frogs (and other accessories) for the 10 makot.
Make sure you open the door and scream "Shfoch Chamatcha Al Hagoyim" as loud as you can ;-)
Do the "wave" when singing Echad Mi Yodea.
Songs are good. I have lots of suggestions if you want.
Sing all of Hallel out loud.
Make sure the afikoman is hidden (or you hide it, depends on your minhag).
So many possibilities...
Yes, there will be kids. All under 6. The thing is, I dont want to become one of those brainwashing parents and indoctrinate my kids that these things actually happened. Ya, Here comes my angst Hahahhaha. I mean, I want them to come to their own conclustions. And yes, I know they are young so they can't. But if they cant, then whats the point. I might as well do this for the older guests, print out some stuff from XGH and be done with this. Right? :P
ReplyDeletearrrggggghhhh. I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea.
I think you can always use the frog in the upper left hand corner of your blog..you know the one at the bottom of those scrolling pics you got....what do you think?
ReplyDeleteMake sure to put a pillow on everyone's seat.
ReplyDeleteI don't like it when people skip parts, and I don't like it when people add extra material.
May this be the first year of many for you.
(Ezzie: For guest posts, can the guest poster's name somehow be in the title of the post?)
Sorry I'm late on this, but if you have kids under six you need to direct the seder toward them as much as you can. Save your historical comments for later after the kids go to sleep (but if they are up and paying attention you know you have done a good job!)
ReplyDeleteGet props for the ten plagues (plastic frogs, ice cubes). Ask questions on their level and give out prizes. Have them look out for different parts of the seder. Make sure they have haggadahs with lots of pictures if they don't read.
By teh way, we don't do anything that involves seder prep other than looking over the haggadah-- we are lucky if we get the kitchen kashered on time. But you asked.
A couple years ago I bought the Bag of Plagues from my local Judaica store. (They also had the Deluxe version box of plagues, but I couldn't afford it at the time).
ReplyDeleteComes along the 10 plagues and I appoint parts to everyone. One person gets to be God, one Moshe, and one Pharoah. If you need an extra part, you can have God give the plagues to the Enforcer who actually does the plagues.
My seder is specifically geared towards little kids. We speed through the reading and I tell them the story. I like to stick in Midrashim, but you don't have to.
Of course it might be a disappointment if you tell your kids that there were only 5 Jews in Egypt who were on vacation when these weird natural events suddenly started happening and then they took a bus to Israel and got there in a week.
Props, props, props!!!! (and skip the Maxwell House Hagaddah)
ReplyDeleteWith kids around, ping pong balls for hail are a must!
I know its past its time ... but you asked about R. nachman Cohen's Haggada, and I found this review and excerpt:
ReplyDeleteThe Historical Haggada
By Nachman Cohen
Torah Lishmah Institute
New York, 2002
147 pages
(also available in Hebrew)
Rabbi Dr. Nachman Cohen’s Haggadah is a treasure trove of interesting and engaging material, much of which takes a refreshing, novel approach to the Haggadah. Historical context and insights, along with comprehensive analyses (such as his tabular correspondence of the twenty-six lines of Hallel Hagadol to the twenty-six generations from Adam until the Exodus) make this a truly innovative work.
HaMakom
Referring to God as HaMakom (the place) began in Talmudic times. God is never referred to by this noun in the period of Tanakh. The Midrash explains that HaMakom infers that “God is the space (place) of the universe and the universe is not His space (place).” What exactly does this mean, and more importantly, what gave rise to the use of this connotation?
The answer can be elucidated with the aid of ancient Greek thought. Greek philosophers were enthralled with the problem of change. Simply stated: How is change possible? If an object, x, truly changes into another object, y, this would mean that when x changes into y, x is annihilated and y is created from nothing. The Greeks rejected the notion of creation ex nihilo [something from nothing].
Several attempts were made to solve this problem.… Paramenides … argued that change was but an illusion. Change was logically impossible. Hence, it does not occur. The world is really composed of an unchanging oneness.
Paramenides had a student named Zeno. To reinforce his master’s point, Zeno devised many paradoxes which showed that change was not possible.…
The Paradox of Space
To exist, an object must be confined within a physical area. The room I am sitting in is within my office. This is within my home, which is on my street in Yonkers, which is in New York State, which is in the United States of America, which is within North America, which is on Earth, which is in our solar system, which is in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is in the Virgo Supercluster, which is in the visible Universe. But within what is the Universe contained? Since we are faced with an infinite regress, that is, everything must be contained within something else, and since there cannot be a last item which can exist without being contained, this proves that space is but an illusion.
The Rabbinic Response
The Rabbis responded to this last paradox of Zeno. Their response consisted of calling God “HaMakom.” By this they meant that “the world is encapsulated within God and not that God is encapsulated with the world.” It was God who created space. Only physical entities require space [and time] for existence. God, the Creator of space [and time] does not.
This response was important. The fallacy of the Greeks was that everything had a physical component. The pre-Socratics did not accept the notion of a totally spiritual being. The use of the term “HaMakom” serves to emphasize that the Greek scope of the Universe was incomplete and insufficient.
Opening the door for Eliyahu
In this regard, the following excerpt from Josephus (Antiquities, Book 18: Ch. 2) is of some interest:
As Coponius … was exercising his office of procurator, and governing Judea, the following accidents happened. As the Jews were celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which we call Passover, it was customary for the priests to open the Temple gates just after Midnight. When, therefore, those gates were first opened, some of the Samaritans came privately into Jerusalem, and threw about dead men’s bodies in the cloisters; on which account the Jews afterward excluded them from the Temple, which they had not used to do at such festivals, and on other accounts also they watched the Temple more carefully than they had formerly done.
While Josephus gives no reason for the Temple gates being opened at Midnight on Pesach, there is no apparent reason to doubt his account … it is interesting to consider that our custom of opening the door after the meal might be as ancient as the Temple.
http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/9975/
judith