This Jewish Life: Matzah, Matzah Everywhere
Posted By James BesserThis Jewish Life: Matzah, Matzah Everywhere
It seems like my trips home are gradually getting shorter and shorter. I flew to Phoenix for Passover and was there for about 72 hours-not quite enough time to feel relaxed. Between Seders, family members, errands, and high school friends, I barely had time to sit down.
But, it was worth it to be able to spend Passover with my family. My parents and all four of my grandparents reside in Arizona, so going home truly allows me to see the most important people in my life. It's wonderful.
And Passover is definitely one of my favorite holidays. I love the rituals of the Seder and the ways that different families incorporate their own quirky traditions into their evenings. In my family, we put an orange on the Seder plate to represent the people who have been excluded from full participation in the Jewish community because of gender, sexual orientation or some other characteristic.
This practice in itself is an aberration from the classic Seder model, but the "quirky" tradition in my family is that someone always behaves as if this is the first time that an orange was seen on the Seder plate. Despite the fact that we have put the orange there for as long as I can remember, someone always asks (in an overly dramatic tone), "What is this orange and why is it here?" or "Is this one of those feminist things?" These comments generally make me and the rest of the women at the table roll our eyes at whoever is talking, but it's our tradition and it does, on occasion, give rise to substantive discussion.
The best part about this year's Passover was returning from home to an office where everyone (to some degree) was keeping Kosher for Passover. There were boxes of Matzah on nearly every available countertop-desks, tables, kitchen counters, etc. And there were crumbs everywhere. It was a mess-but, it was a wonderful, constant reminder that we were celebrating Passover.
In the past, Passover has always made me feel different from my peers-with my special meals and my inability to participate in certain events because of my observance. But this year, for the first time, Passover was a reminder of the religious/cultural connection that I have to the people around me. It was a welcome change.