"And you shall tell your children..."

So with the wave of finals crashing down on us here at the Jerusalem Center, I haven't been able to escape the center since Monday. So what do we do if we can't escape the Center? We have cool cultural experiences within the Center! Today was our last day of our Judaism/Israel class, and we celebrated the momentous occasion this evening with a Passover Seder. Naturally, it is not Passover season, but we're celebrating Christmas in July with an upcoming trip to Bethlehem, so a Passover in June isn't that weird. 

Passover is one of those elements that has held the Jews together as a people for millennia. Regardless of doctrinal preferences or level of orthodoxy, Jews regard Passover as an important yearly event. It commemorates what is arguably the most important event in the Jewish historical consciousness: Israel's deliverance from Egypt. It's a very lengthy, ritualistic affair (we were there for the better part of three hours, and Ophir told us that it was a 'condensed' Seder), but we all loved it. Pictured above is the table setting Ophir had. The plate at the upper left is the Seder plate, which holds several symbolic foods that are used during the meal--for example, the bitter herbs that are eaten in memory of the bitter servitude of the children of Israel in Egypt. The decorative cloth to the right holds the unleavened bread that is used several times during the course of the meal, symbolic of the haste with which the Jews left slavery for freedom.

One of the moments that stood out to me during the night's proceedings was when we recited each of the plagues that God struck Egypt with. For each of the plagues, we took a drop of our grape juice (our stand-in for the traditional wine) and poured it out to remember the suffering of the Egyptians during the whole Exodus story. Ophir told us a rabbinic tradition that when the armies of Israel were drowned in the Red Sea, the children of Israel began to dance and rejoice. The angels in heaven saw this unfolding and began to rejoice as well. God immediately told them to stop, and answered their incredulous questions by responding that his children were dying. It's a strong reminder that God loves all of his children.

Exodus 13:8 records the Lord's commandment that the Jews hold the Passover and use it to explain to their children about the mercy of the Lord in delivering them from opression. Ophir had his daughter there with him tonight, so he was fulfilling the commandment in the strictest sense, but I also felt like he was even more deeply fulfilling the spirit of the commandment by helping us American goyim remember how the Lord helped Israel. It was a good night.