There is a famous poem by William Wallace that goes: “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”
The ripple effect that comes from the loving attention received by family can be enormous. In a personal weigh-in, I asked someone I thought to be Jewish because of his name, “What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?” He said, “Passover, because it’s a lot like Thanksgiving.” What the man said in a few words could be expanded upon enough to fill a book.
He was, of course, referring to the Passover Seder (the combination ritual ceremony /prayer-service/and religious festive meal held on the first night of Passover).
The prayer book and ritual guidebook for the ceremonial Passover Seder is the “Haggadah” which means “telling” as in “telling over the story of Passover.”
This year Passover begins the night of April 5. Although many synagogues and temples hold a congregational Seder, the Haggadah text makes it clear that the Seder is designed more for a family service at home than for a synagogue service.
A family that prays together stays together. I think that the “coincidence” that people so often have the same religious beliefs as their parents is more about family ties, family belonging and family trust than about philosophic analysis of the reasonableness of some religions compared to others.
On our American Thanksgiving, geographically distant family members come together in a family reunion to bond in a mutual festive celebratory meal.
For the Passover Seder, like the Thanksgiving get-together, the family also comes together for mutual festive rejoicing and religious expression of gratitude.
The Haggadah text is very interactive. Children ask about Passover and receive answers about the holiday. The Haggadah encourages the whole family and company to put their own personal input into the Passover discussion “ though we may be wise and learned…it is incumbent upon us to tell of the departure from Egypt … and whoever expands in telling the story is praiseworthy.”
The Passover Seder can hardly be observed in the ideal way by someone at home alone. The Haggadah encourages families to invite outsiders to the table.
The Seder ceremony begins by pointing out the matzah and announcing” This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt, let all those who are hungry enter and eat, and all who are in need come and celebrate the Passover.”
Toward the conclusion of the Seder the company reads the Haggadah message that basically says, “The Passover Seder is now completed according to the order. As we have merited to do it (this year) so may we joyously merit to do it next year.”
The annual Jewish-family story-telling goes on and the tradition grounded in Jewish-family-life continues unbroken.
Hersh Goldman
Swampscott
