The Time Machine

Well, it’s that time again – Passover season. For the 14th year in a row, I’ve led the Seder for my J.A.P.S. group. We were a smaller group this year. Instead of the usual group of just over 30 adults and children, we were a cosy collection of 15 people. There were no small children this year – teenagers only, five of them. Several families had other commitments they couldn’t change but we met anyway in the small party house that residents in my co-op can rent for events that don’t fit in their apartments. As usual everyone chipped in with food and wine and Seder things. Some came early and helped set up. Two Seder plates had to be outfitted and two matzah covers filled. Others came later and stayed to help clean up. We used the same Children’s Haggadah that we have been using since our kids were small. I bought them in a Judaica store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1997. I chose it out of the dozens of others they had for sale because the illustrations in the book were so beautiful. To me as an artist, how it looked was as important as what it said. I didn’t want a children’s haggadah that was very cartoony and childish that one soon outgrew. This one fit the bill then and we use it still.

Our Seders usually run on Jewish time. Which means that you don’t bother to set your watch by when things will happen. First come those who have the table cloths and the nosherei – the hummus, the chopped liver and the cut-up veggies to eat with them. We nosh on them while we arrange tables and chairs. While the chicken soup is simmering on the stove with the matzah balls ready to be thrown in, the main dish is readied – lamb with potatos and parsnips. The salad is prepared and all the desserts are looked over – home-made macaroons, chocolate matzah cake and fruit salad. Our teenagers are all hanging around together maintaining the correct attitude of studied boredom. They have known each other since they were little and now they treat each other like cousins.

The big question is, “What time will we be eating?”

“Who knows”, I answer, “It depends on what time we manage to start.”

Finally everyone has arrived and all the kitchen things seem to be under control. Its time to gather around the table. Everyone settles in their seats. I like to start by first welcoming everyone and to say a few words before we start the seder. The following is what I said this year.

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I want to welcome everyone to our Seder. I’m so glad we all could be here this afternoon. Our group is a bit smaller this year than usual but we will keep in mind those who couldn’t be here to join us. Once again we gather to celebrate the Passover. Soon we will pick up and open our Haggadahs. But what you hold in your hands is not merely a book….

When I was a kid, younger than most of you here now, (here, I point to our group of teenagers, all sitting together) once a year my family would gather – either at our house or at my uncle and aunts house. The Haggadah that we used was called Haggadah for the American Family and had ads for Chase and Sanborn coffee on the inside front cover. My mother got them for free at our local supermarket. It was like a Haggadah for Dummies. It had very detailed instructions and was color-coded. Red was the leader, green was the participant. Blue was for the prayers. All the Hebrew that needed to be said had transliteration so all the dummies could follow along. And I was one of those dummies. We took turns going around the table reading passages aloud from the book – reading the words but without any understanding. I came away from those Seders thinking that Passover was just another one of those holidays that we Jews got together to celebrate, like Purim or tu’bisvat or Chanukah. It wasn’t until I was much older that I actually realized that Passover and the story of the exodus was the story of the very beginning of the Jews as a people.

The original Haggadah was first conceived of during the first century after the birth of Jesus. This was a time period when 2 big events caused the Jewish people to be wrenched away from its thousand year old roots and to find itself divided. One of those events was the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the other was the growth of Christianity. With the destruction of the temple in 70 ad by the Romans, the sacrificial system of Judaism, with religious festivities performed by a priestly class was no more and the new sect of Christianity was changing the way Jews felt about their Judaism. One event destroyed the connection to the Past and the other was changing the Present. The Haggadah was created so that Jews could gather once a year to recall their Past, to explain their Present and to envision their Future. What you are holding in your hands is a time machine.

So now let us begin our journey through time.
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With those words, like the generations of Jews before us, together with Jews today and as the Jews who will follow us, we started our Seder. As three generations sat around our table, we lighted our candles and began to tell the story of why we were here.