The Jewish Theological Seminary – Parashat Aharei Mot / Shabbat Hagadol

Friends: Our Passover haggadah talks about the Four Son/Four Children, each with a different style of question to ask, each with a different response.  This text can be a challenging one, as it appears to address a child’s challenging questions with a dismissive or angry tone. I want to recommend the following piece by Rabbi Arnold Eisen about how different generations can connect — or fail to connect – at the Passover seder. Rabbi Miriam introduced this piece on Shabbat, and I’m sending the link along to everyone. Eisen asks questions like: Who are the Four Parents that correspond to the Four Children? Perhaps the Wise Parent is the one who always invites further questions and discussion; the Wicked Parent, one who has no patience for doubt or disagreement; the Simple Parent, the one who thinks the text of the Haggadah is meaningful without further exploration; and the final parent, Who Does Not Know How To Ask,  has no idea where to begin to bridge the gap between generations.

Or perhaps you have a different take! At any rate, I highly recommend the following article, and hope that it, and the other resources I have sent out this year, make for a thought-provoking and rich Passover!

The Jewish Theological Seminary – Parashat Aharei Mot / Shabbat Hagadol.

Review of New Haggadot

‘Why Is Your Haggadah Different From Others?’ – Forward.com.

This article by Jay Michaelson at the Forward reviews several new Passover Haggadot – including the amazing new website Haggadot.com.

More Passover 2011 Resources

The Forward has a wide-ranging section on Passover this year.

I found this article on Mormon Seders particularly fascinating.

This article by Rabbi Jason Miller on the Four Children of the seder as applied to special education was thought-provoking and moving.

Passover Videos 2011

Friends, here are some Passover videos that have been shared with me over the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Moses Rap

Dayenu/Coming Home

Youtube’s Shalom Sesame Channel has many Passover videos

20 Things To Do With Matzah

Google Exodus

For CBT-BI Members: Selling of Chametz

According to the Torah, during Passover, no Jew may possess hametz: storing it away is not sufficient. The Rabbis recognized that many people would suffer great economic loss if they destroyed all the hametz in their possession; so they proposed the idea of the sale of the hametz to a non-Jew, who would own it until after the holiday.

The sale of hametz is a legal contract on the part of buyer and seller. To execute it, please download, sign, and either fax back, scan and email, or give the form to me by Sunday evening, 4/17/11.  Please note that the hametz is sold for the entire eight days of Passover, and will not be owned by you until about an hour after the end of Pesach. This form is for a sale which will be in effect from late morning  on Monday, April 18th until Tuesday, April 26th , appx. 8:50 pm.

As you are avoiding substantial loss by using this form, I strongly urge you to make a contribution to an organization fighting hunger and poverty. One great example is Mazon. Another is the American Jewish World Service.

You can download the contract and explanation here: Selling chametz 2011.

Chag sameach!

Resources for Passover 2011

Friends, Passover 2011 is almost upon us. Are you interested in making your seder more meaningful? Finding new

recipes this year? Getting tips on what Passover cleaning is actually necessary (and unnecessary?) Look no further:

Passover Food and Cleaning

For basic information on what’s kosher for Passover and what’s not, see:
The Conservative Movement’s guide to Passover. (This is a PDF file)

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner has a take on Passover cleaning that may surprise those who think it needs to be oppressive and all-consuming. Take a look at:

How to Clean for Pesach in One Day.

Haggadah and Supplements

There is an amazing Passover resource site, Jewish Freeware, which has recipes, haggadot that you can print or customize, audio files, seder games, and a lot more. It has resources for all ages.

Another new site  lets you generate a personalized haggadah drawing from many different movements and traditions, as well as uploading and sharing your own haggadah material. It’s available at http://haggadot.com.

The Absolut Haggadah is new to me this year.

The Velveteen Rabbi has a new revision of her excellent haggadah available for download.

You can download audio of much of the Haggadah as well as most of the Shabbat prayer service at:
SiddurAudio.com

Uncle Eli’s Most Fun Ever Haggadah for Kids is nontraditional but a fun addendum to a seder with children.

There is a terrific set of seder learning activities at Morim.org.

Rabbi Barry Leff has assembled his own roundups of seder supplements this year:

Seder Supplements on Israel and Jewish Peoplehood – these are from a variety of political and apolitical perspectives.

Seder Supplements on Passover and Human Rights

For creative ritual ideas from a feminist vantage point, check out:
Ritualwell.org’s Passover section.

And finally, a moving reflection on our ideal seder vs. the reality of what we can manage each year:

Other Passover Roundups and Articles.

Moment Magazine has this article.

And this year in particular, as we observe the 150′s anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning, the following two pieces have struck me as relevant reminders of what slavery actually looked like.

How Slavery Really Ended in America

Best wishes for a happy and kosher Pesach to all!

Jewish Mothers’ Day

This weekend is Mothers’ Day in the United States. While isn’t a Jewish holiday per se, the notion of honoring one’s mother and father is a commandment found in the Torah. There are many examples of mother-son and mother-daughter relationships in the Bible, many of them richly nuanced. And while the American stereotype of the overprotective Jewish mother makes many of us laugh and cringe at the same time, this post from MyJewishLearning.com explores the role of Jewish mothers through our history with surprising depth and insight.

In the meantime, a very happy weekend to all mothers out there — and particular thanks and love to my own mother, Marge Fessler, for her stereotype-defying, but always nurturing, presence in my life; and to Miriam, whose love and care for our children makes our journey of parenthood a blessed one.