Pesach

[cellio]

We "always" go to Toronto for Pesach. This year Dani's sister and her family will be spending Pesach elsewhere, which would complicate things for us. First, that's who we stay with when we go up there; second, I predict a lot of bored twiddling-of-thumbs were we to go up this year, as each parent (they're divorced) has seder preparations to worry about and (in one case) a lot of other relatives to deal with. We spend a fair bit of the time with our hosts when we go up, and that seems to work well for everyone.

Dani's sister suggested that we could take this opportunity to do something different, and I'm inclined to agree. Dani is, in principle, willing to not go for Pesach (if we then go some other time when everyone's there, which is fine -- the sister has a round-number birthday this year, so maybe for that). The problem, though, is what to do for the seder(s).

A large part of the appeal of staying home is that I could -- for once -- lead a seder myself. But Dani is opposed to the idea of us holding a seder. That means going elsewhere, if I can't persuade him to change his mind -- and if he's already giving in on not going to Toronto, I don't want to push him too far on that. My preferences for a seder are: (1) includes all the parts; (2) consists of people who want to be there; (3) is participatory. (The ones we usually go to fail one or more of those criteria, but you make exceptions for the sake of family relations.) Dani's preferences seem to be (1) people he knows and (2) not extremely religious.

I'm not sure what this will end up meaning yet.

But hey, I learned something: Dani does consider the seder important; it's not just a family thing. I didn't know that.

Comments

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

While in Ann Arbor, a number of us who thought seder was important (mostly Jewish, but some of us not) would gather with the person with the biggest house/who offered to host. Many of us being foodies, we would pick a Jewish regional cuisine, explore the recipes, and divide up the various foods involved as a pot-luck. We had several different seder texts in the 6 years I participated: one of the participants was a graduate student here from Israel, and he used the one his family always used (translated); one was sent from Toronto by the host's family; one was written by one of the participants. Duncan was 4 the last year we went, and he was the youngest person, and he remembers that night very clearly.

Thinking about it, I'm wondering if we can garner support around here, but the point was that it's possible to get people together, have a meaningful seder, but not have to have it at your house...

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

If you had a seder around here (though possibly not at your house), I would be interested in coming as long as it didn't conflict with one of my holy days. I would even bring something almost-kosher :-) (As in, I'd use kosher ingredients, but my kitchen isn't kosher).

Good luck figuring this out.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you need to plug into the nearest "orphan Seder."

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Or you could come up here and lead a seder with us! We have a guest room ... :)