Just a Thought about Passover

Most of you will have noticed by now that Passover is in less than a week. I am still somewhat in denial about this and/or hoping that magically someone else will get all the Passover dishes out of the garage for me. Once the holiday starts though, things get much better. I hope that those of you joining us for the second night seder are as excited to celebrate together as I am. But those of you not joining us the second night, and well, I guess everyone on the first night, what will you do to make your seder a special event? I was reading an article from JTS in which Arnie Eisen, the school's chancellor, spoke about a talk he'd had with high school students. He was impressed by all the various things the students' families did to make the seder experience their own. Eisen observed that the rabbis had set us on the right track centuries ago because the traditional haggadah is really just the rabbis' best version of their "do it yourself" celebration and retelling of the Passover story. And it is telling the story that is the key thing. I am not going to get into a discussion about just how much of the traditional seder text you should say or you can skip or how to make the whole thing last less than an hour. What I do want to suggest is that each of us thinks about the larger ideas of Passover - slavery, freedom, service to others, service to God, renewal, identity, and many more - and think of new and unique ways to weave these ideas into our sedarim this year. The night somehow flies by and service never seems too long when we are able to breathe real enthusiasm for what we are doing into the seder. So this year, truly work to make it a night different from all other nights. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach, Rabbi Benson