{"id":525,"date":"2009-04-07T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/04\/thoughts-from-a-jubu-part-2-passover.html"},"modified":"2009-04-07T10:00:26","modified_gmt":"2009-04-07T10:00:26","slug":"thoughts-from-a-jubu-part-2-passover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/thoughts-from-a-jubu-part-2-passover.html","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from a JuBu, Part 2: Passover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year at my dad\u2019s Passover seder, I made more than my fair share of comments about how out of touch I felt the Haggadah we were using was. For the non-Jewish Buddhists out there, a Haggadah<\/em> is the special prayer book we use on Passover. It contains all the prayers and rituals for the seder<\/em>, the Passover dinner.<\/p>\n

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I complained about this old Haggadah’s masculine tone (God always = He\/Him), the language of the story of Passover sounding about as comprehensible as a Shakespeare sonnet, and a lack of commentary on the story. Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays there is, and here we are using a throwaway Haggadah that did not bring the story to life. It\u2019s a pretty exciting story \u2013 the Jews were slaves in Egypt, the ten plagues, Let My People Go, the parting of the sea, etc. You could make a movie out of this!<\/p>\n

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\u201cOkay Em,\u201d my dad said, having had enough of my complaining, \u201cYour job is to find a new Haggadah for next year\u2019s seder.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ugh. Crap. I just had to open my big mouth.<\/p>\n

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I didn\u2019t even remember about my task until about a month ago when my dad sent me a link to a Judaica store in my neighborhood. You know, just a friendly reminder of my assignment. It was a challenge. How would I know when I found the right Haggadah? What would it be like? What the hell was I even looking for?<\/p>\n

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Some early contenders were:<\/p>\n

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A Different Night<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"differentnight\"<\/p>\n

“The “customizable” haggadah \u2014 enables you to fashion a seder that works for any age and interest level.” <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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A Night to Remember<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"nighttoremember\"<\/p>\n

“Wisdom from the Four Sons and the Four Daughters. Social Conscience. From Moses to Martin Luther King. Discover contemporary stories of liberation and social action from Egypt to Los Angeles.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Holistic Haggadah<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"holistichag\"<\/p>\n

“THE HOLISTIC HAGGADAH is a fascinating guide to the inner journey that the Passover Seder evening offers us. It is a daring commentary that challenges each of us to go down into our self-imposed Mitzraim (Egypt) and face our attachments and the false gods that confine us. It then beckons us forth to true freedom and a more meaningful relationship between ourselves and God” <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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These all sounded interesting to me, but I also had to think about what would appeal to my other family members who would be at the seder. <\/span><\/p>\n

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I went to the bookstore to browse through the Haggadahs, and I didn’t love any of them. The first two seemed cheesy and too textbook-ish, and the third was just too much reading.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Flipping through tons of books that were all imperfect, I began to despair, and then, I found this:<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Journey Continues<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"journeycont\"<\/p>\n

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“The text’s grounding in Jewish tradition is firm, its borrowings from recent feminist writings insightful, its innovations both creative and poetic….It includes gender inclusive English blessings and transliterated Hebrew, as well as both traditional and feminine Hebrew blessings. This revised edition contains explicit directions and suggestions for activism.”
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This seemed like a winner:<\/span><\/p>\n