PASSOVER PICNIC

יום רביעי ט"ז ניסן תשע"ג
We celebrated the Seder Pesach (Passover Night) with the cousins.  Thank God for family. What a fantastic time we had.

The host family created a theme – just as a change from the traditional one – and called it Picnic.  The table had unusual decorations with all the traditional symbols, only in different places. A Picnic Theme.  Delightfully creative.

We read the Hagada and sang the songs and ate many delicious dishes and had fun and friendship and laughter and love.  Truly free people in our free land .

Stories around the table and explanations about various readings spread from east to west and I have no idea how reliable any of them are. Observing three generations around the table I kept thinking…   There are many words for “wisdom” (at least 10) and many names for God (over 20) in the Hebrew language. But there is only one word for love.  As if one word says it all.  Israelis tend to collect knowledge and show it off any chance they get, as if we are all teachers;  we describe God and our relationship to Him in many forms and in many words;  we returned to Israel from everywhere and brought with us cultures and languages and sense of humor that are foreign to each other and take many days and much effort to mash together so we learn to get along. But that one word – love – seem to cover us all through the many words of wisdom and all of God’s names.

Around the table was a true sense of freedom.  Free to be who we are, free to worship as we choose, free to love, to accept and to be loved and to be accepted. We were among our people.  We had a Passover Picnic with the family.

Thank you family for including us. Happy Passover and may we have many more happy times together.

Love, Orith and Willie