Why is this night different? Let me tell you about it.....

After a couple of tumultuous couple weeks, I was not looking forward to getting ready for Passover, or Passover itself.

Anyone who hangs out with Jews who observe kashrut knows Passover is a giant undertaking that just gets worse every year. This year would be my second vegetarian seder (my first was parve, not dairy)  and that's a whole new set of challenges to this person who believes in the sacred healing power of chicken soup. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized I wasn't eating that much meat anymore and maybe it was time to rethink how I did Passover. So I did.

This year and going forward, Passover is a dairy/pescatarian/vegetarian kinda holiday. I toiveled Mom's Passover china, her old, everyday meat silverware, and the pots. I'm sure it wasn't the greatest halachic (according to strictest Jewish law) toiveling on the planet, but it was intentional and it was done. I would serve eggplant parmesan on Mom's formerly meat pesadik (for use only on Passover) china, and I'm sure I heard the "oys!" coming all the way from Beth David in New York. But dairy it all is now, and it will stay that way.

Cooking with someone I love

There was the traditional gefilte fish with horseradish, instead of chicken soup with matzah balls, there was vegetable broth with matzah balls. I finally got to cook with Mrs. Senior Son...a pescartarian, a fine cook in her own right, and a teacher of catering technique in Milwaukee. Such gorgeous platters! Who knew???? We get so little time together and this made prep all the more precious.

Besides the eggplant parm, there was Salade Niçoise with fresh, certified, fair-trade tuna with a bit of crumbled feta on the side, quinoa with vegetables, and for dessert, a cheesecake made with a crust of kosher l'pesach graham crumbs. There was butter on the table. Lots and lots of butter. Cream for the coffee. It was really good. Different from any Pesach meal I'd ever made, this one gave new meaning to the question: Why is this night different from all other nights? 

Miss Lorraine

The weather was perfectly balmy after such a horrendous spring. We gathered outside in the front with the kids; no one really wanted to go inside. Even Little Miss asked for her deck chair to be brought up from the garage so she could sit outside. (More about that later.) We had an extra-special unexpected guest join us: 95-years young Miss Lorraine, retired preschool teacher to much of my age group who grew up in Jewish St. Paul, and brilliant woman extraordinaire. Miss Lorraine may be living over at Sholom (where my parents had lived that last year) but she still makes it to morning minyan over at Beth Jacob three days a week (with a lift from Henry.) We were so thrilled to have her grace our table! Little Miss was beyond overjoyed because her good friends Sean and Katherine were joining us. She reminded me they are good to know because they have a great sukkah in the fall. What a merry company! 

Discussing on the deck.

Junior Son served as Rosh Seder, and he was great. Senior Son used his best Ziggy voice for Hagaddah reading and I don't know if anyone else noticed, but I was comforted  by the sound. The conversation was free-wheeling and thoughtful. We sang, we talked, and, of course, we ate. And then we sat around the table and talked some more. 

There was a particularly lovely moment while one set of dishes was being cleared. Little Miss asked Uncle Senior Son if he would sit on the deck with her. The two of them out there were clearly deep in conversation. He told Little Miss that when they were little kids, Zayde would march them outside to sit on the deck while Bubbe and Savta (that's me) did the dishes. "I'm carrying the tradition forward," he told me later and I that made me glad.

First seder: Monkey Girls Unite!!!!!!

Passover is about a lot of things, but it's serious Jewish family time. This was the first time I had all the kids and the kiddies at both seders. Little Miss was so excited that first night was at Cousin Laurie and Tom's house because her cousins would be there. The two big ones may be in high school, but there is fun to be had with the two littlest ones.

 The guests at our second seder table weren't really guests....they are part of our extended family...and that now officially includes Miss Lorraine (who just happens to read the WP each week on her computer....so there.) These are people we love. People we share our lives with. Four generations at one table. It doesn't get any better than that. 

When asked why I do this Passover thing, why I observe traditions, why I set aside Shabbat as an island of time, I explain that I am just the latest in a long line of women stretching all the way back to the foot of Mount Sinai.  I will not be the last. There will be more after me who think the same thing: if it's lasted this long, if it's kept our families together, if this has made us a distinct people in this world, who am I to break the chain?

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Best defense for giving up meat:

there is nothing on this planet that cannot be improved with a bit of butter.