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April 4, 2008
Some new ideas for Pesach
Retelling the same story year after year can get a little boring.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
It's amazing how different people's seders can be, given that the general structure is the same and the basic story being told doesn't change from household to household. But some people observe Passover in a very traditional way, others stress its social justice side and yet others add a feminist or environmental twist for additional contemporary relevance. The following publications won't replace the Haggadah you've been using or adapting for years, but they offer some ideas that may make this year's seder a little more meaningful or engaging.
Add a mystic touch
Chassidic tales, gematria, kabbalistic meditations and the traditional Haggadah text combine in A Mystical Haggadah: Passover Meditations, Teachings and Tales by Rabbi Eliahu Klein (North Atlantic Books, 2008, paperback, $20). The perspective isn't starkly different from what most of us will be used to, so there's a homey feel to A Mystical Haggadah, but it's refreshing and there are several items in it that you may wish to incorporate into your celebration.
Klein lives in Berkeley, Calif., and is the Jewish chaplain for California's Department of Rehabilitation. He has taught kabbalah, Jewish meditation and Chassidism for more than 30 years throughout the United States, Great Britain and Israel. Given his expertise, Klein could have bogged A Mystical Haggadah down with detail, but instead errs, if anything, on the side of too much brevity. More explanation would have been helpful in parts, especially in interpreting some of the Chassidic stories, such as the one in which a Chassid, after having received untold advice from his master teacher, walks behind his wagon day and night, rather than riding within it, until finally the driver gets angry about the trip taking so long and the fact that the Chassid has therefore missed all his prayers. The one-liner from a Chassidic rebbe, cited by Klein, is, "With this story, we can see how deep, significant, profound intentions can be embedded within a simple action." Frankly, it's not so simple to understand either the story or the purported meaning.
However, most of the tales, which have supposedly never been presented to an English-reading audience before, are elucidating rather than confounding. Also, the numerology is interesting, as are some of the translations of the prayers and blessings, which are all transliterated.
A Mystical Haggadah is meant for Jews of all denominations from Conservative to Renewal, or anyone interested exploring the mystical and meditative aspects of one of the most important Jewish traditions.
Worldly questions
"Questions have played a critical role in Jewish life from the very beginning," writes Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in the introduction to Why is This Night Different from all Other Nights? The Four Questions Around the World by Ilana Kurshan (Schocken, 2008, hard cover, $19). Most of those queries are directed to God, he continues, but the Four Questions, the Ma Nishtanah, are directed to parents. (And the rabbi gives his version of the answers, for those parents who may not know them.)
According to Telushkin, one of the things that makes the seder unique is the Ma Nishtanah, which has been recited by Jews around the world for generations: "As long as children are chanting these questions, the Jewish people will go on," he writes. And now, with Kurshan's new book, we'll be able to recite them in 23 languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Ladino, Latin, Marathi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Yiddish.
In addition to translating the Four Questions into all of these languages, Kurshan, where necessary, gives transliterations. Most interestingly, she provides short histories of the Jews in the countries where the languages are spoken and an illustration or photo of either historical or contemporary interest.
Kurshan's essays and reviews have appeared in Lilith, the Forward, the World Jewish Digest and elsewhere. She works for a literary agency and studies Talmud in Jerusalem, where she lives.
Why is This Night Different from all Other Nights? is well worth adding to your Passover repertoire and it would make a great gift for the seder host.
Seeing seder anew
Marge Piercy is a prolific and accomplished writer of many genres, so it shouldn't be too surprising that she has published her own interpretation of the Passover seder: Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own (Schocken, 2007, hard cover, $29.95).
Piercy offers her own take on various aspects of the seder and provides dozens of family recipes, as well as Passover poems, blessings (avoiding masculine terms), historical perspectives, advice and childhood recollections in Pesach for the Rest of Us. In Chapter One, she notes that Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays for her and that she has been working on her constantly evolving Haggadah for some 20 years.
About Pesach for the Rest of Us, she writes, "I am looking for a significant contemporary interpretation, rather than an emphasis on what is strictly 'correct' or traditional. I want to encourage you to fashion your own seder in a way that speaks honestly and powerfully to you and your circle, whoever they are – family, friends, an organization."
She openly notes that this book is not intended for Orthodox Jews, but as an introduction on making the seder more meaningful for secular and moderately religious Jews.
"Many of us remember seders of our childhood, where the Haggadah was read mostly or entirely in Hebrew as fast as possible, usually by the patriarch of the family or some older man assuming that role," writes Piercy. "It had the emotional content of the directions for installing a DVD recorder."
With her suggestions, she wants "the bored or deracinated adult" to understand why Jews bother doing this every year or why someone should feel "bereft" if they have no seder to attend.
Certain aspects of Pesach are less compelling than others – such as some of the poetry and a few of the seder improvement ideas – but the recipes sound delicious, some of the newer rituals worth trying and the other tidbits good for seder conversation.
Piercy's intent in writing Pesach was "to stimulate your practice and make it more resonant, more enjoyable, more engaging, more thoughtful and conscious." This she does.
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