{"id":708,"date":"2011-04-19T19:41:27","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projectconversion.com\/?p=708"},"modified":"2012-02-23T12:53:28","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T12:53:28","slug":"pesach-at-the-bowens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/04\/pesach-at-the-bowens.html","title":{"rendered":"Pesach at the Bowens’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shalom folks!<\/div>\n

Today I thought I’d share a few photos and experiences of Pesach here in the Bowen home. I was invited\u00a0to attend two different Pesach seders, however my wife’s work schedule made it impossible for me to attend. That’s the harsh reality of Project Conversion: I can’t do everything<\/em>. What I can do though, with the help of my ever-willing kids, is get creative and make things memorable for the whole family.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0idea behind Pesach is to remember the night the angel of the Lord passed over (Passover, get it?) the land of Egypt and slew the firstborn of all the Egyptians. This event broke the will of Pharaoh and thus precipitated the emancipation of\u00a0the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Aside from the symbology of the seder plate, the entire evening is filled\u00a0telling stories about the Exodus. Everyone\u00a0gets involved in this process and while things can get very ritualistic depending on your degree of orthodoxy, the end is the same: propagate the memory of where we (the Jews) came from, how God delivered us from slavery, and established us as his people.<\/p>\n

My kids are 5 and 6 years old, so their eyes started to glaze over as I went through the rituals and parts. Remember, my wife is at work by this point so it’s just the three of us. I want them to learn something from all of this, so why not bring things down to their level?<\/p>\n

Of course if we are re-enacting Pesach, we need to look like the Biblical Hebrews, so we played\u00a0dress-up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Disclaimer: while this isn't standard ancient Hebrew garb, my oldest (the one on the right) insisted that if she were a Hebrew at the time, she would have introduced the style and the trend would have caught on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Okay, now we’re Hebrews awaiting Pesach. Now we can get into the story of the Exodus! With great gusto, I recounted\u00a0the\u00a0struggle of the enslaved Hebrews and their epic flight from the land of Egypt. We\u00a0soon established a tradition in which every time I took a sip of wine, the girls would yell “Matzah!” and take a bite each of the unleavened bread.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Our seder plate. That's a chicken neck beside the egg, courtesy of my grandmother who happened to have roasted a chicken at the time. Lamb bones are hard to come by if you're a vegetarian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The girls had tons of questions, which is great because\u00a0question and answer sessions run throughout the traditional method. Soon we\u00a0run up against bedtime, but everyone is so into the story that we decide that the show must go on!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
"Daddy, are you gonna eat that chicken neck?" "No dear, that's for God...but from the looks of it, I don't think he wants it either."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matzah\u00a0crumbs are all over the floor by this point. I tasted the “bitter herbs” which\u00a0were decidedly too bitter because I used too much horseradish. Story time\u00a0soon ended\u00a0and it was time to hit the sack. I gave the girls a quick quiz before\u00a0tucking them\u00a0in. They both know\u00a0Passover as Pesach and that it celebrates the freedom of the Hebrews from Egypt.<\/p>\n

Mission (and mitzvah) accomplished.<\/p>\n

As the night deepened, I sat back and thought about the\u00a0evening as I\u00a0nursed a glass of wine. There’s such a build-up for Pesach; getting the food ready, gathering family and friends, orchestrating\u00a0the events of the Haggadah…it’s exhausting! One of Judaism’s\u00a0most endearing qualities is the heavy focus,\u00a0both religiously and socially, on\u00a0the community of family and friends.<\/p>\n

But what if you don’t have much of those? What if you are isolated? My\u00a0wife had to work and no one else around me is Jewish, so I had to celebrate with my kids.\u00a0This got me thinking about contemporary society; of how prevalent single-parent homes are now. What if I was divorced and this was my\u00a0Pesach with the kids? Is this how\u00a0we’d spend the holiday?<\/p>\n

The real question is, with all the focus on the crowd, does a Pesach like the\u00a0one my kids and I just celebrated hold water where it really matters? I think the answer is yes. The mitzvah associated with Pesach is to remember the slavery of the\u00a0Jewish people in Egypt, the Exodus God initiated, and\u00a0his subsequent covenant with the people. Our little gathering accomplished that, and we also managed to create some memories along the way. My daughters now know what Pesach is (give me another non-Jewish 5 and 6-year-old who does) and can say they experienced the holiday.<\/p>\n

No, I’m not discrediting the traditional process. What this all means is that in the rush and hype of tradition we often forget the “why” of it all. Our unique Pesach experience became another reminder that God\u00a0and his lessons are found where we look for them. The\u00a0most important thing is to look with sincerity and to remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shalom folks! Today I thought I’d share a few photos and experiences of Pesach here in the Bowen home. I was invited\u00a0to attend two different Pesach seders, however my wife’s work schedule made it impossible for me to attend. That’s the harsh reality of Project Conversion: I can’t do everything. What I can do though,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[16,129,789,225,233],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judaism","tag-andrew-bowen","tag-hebrews","tag-judaism","tag-pesach","tag-project-conversion"],"yoast_head":"\nPesach at the Bowens' - Project Conversion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/projectconversion\/2011\/04\/pesach-at-the-bowens.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pesach at the Bowens' - Project Conversion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shalom folks! Today I thought I’d share a few photos and experiences of Pesach here in the Bowen home. I was invited\u00a0to attend two different Pesach seders, however my wife’s work schedule made it impossible for me to attend. That’s the harsh reality of Project Conversion: I can’t do everything. 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Today I thought I’d share a few photos and experiences of Pesach here in the Bowen home. I was invited\u00a0to attend two different Pesach seders, however my wife’s work schedule made it impossible for me to attend. That’s the harsh reality of Project Conversion: I can’t do everything. 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