by Dr. Ron Wolfson
I don't know what the tradition is in your family, but
in ours, Seder night is a dress-up affair. Suits and ties, dresses, new clothes
for the kids - "Shabbes" clothes we call them. Imagine when our surprise when
one year we arrived for Seder at the door of our friends David and Shira
Milgrom-Elcott in our dressy clothes and they greeted us wearing the long,
flowing robes of Beduins! "Welcome to our Seder!" they exclaimed. "Please take off your shoes before you come in."
We dutifully took off our shoes and entered their home. On the right, we saw the formal dining room, the table set with fine china and crystal, seemingly ready for the Seder guests. David and Shira, however, led us right past the dining room, down the hall and into their large family room. We should have known what to expect from the desert garb worn by our hosts, but we were hardly prepared for the sight of that room.
Draped from the beams if the vaulted ceiling were large white bedsheets, forming a tent-like structure encompassing the center of the room. All the furniture had been taken out, except for some beanbag chairs and overstuffed pillows scattered around the floor, in the center of the "tent," on a low coffee table, was the Seder plate.
"Welcome to our home in the desert," David and Shira explained. "The Seder ceremony is a simulation of what really happened on that first night of the Exodus from Egypt, so we've decided to conduct our Seder in this tent. Please make yourselves comfortable -- take off your ties and jackets -- and recline with your kids on the floor."
Well, you can imagine what followed next! In a masterfully-led, fun-filled experience, the families in attendance enjoyed a delightful, relaxed telling of the Passover story. Once we completed the Maggid section of the Haggadah, we moved into the dining room for the Seder meal. After opening the door for Elijah, we returned to the tent to complete the Seder ceremony.
It was a Seder we'll always remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment