This past weekend, my immediate family, some cousins and friends celebrated Passover, the Jewish holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt. (If you are unfamiliar with the story, regardless of religion, watch the Prince of Egypt, haha.) For the first time since 1998, my immediate family held seder at our home (we haven't much felt up for it since my maternal grandparents were killed). It was wonderful to finally bring the tradition back and look forward to many more years of togetherness.
Although my father is the eldest in our immediate family and should have lead the seder, he asked me if I wanted to do it. I was surprised and honored that the leadership role in this special holiday (my personal favorite Jewish holiday) was being offered to me. All in all it would entail leading the story-telling / prayers / ceremony before and after dinner occurs, and I was nervous as heck to do it. As most know, I did not grow up in a religious household, nor do I consider it the end-all-be-all of life. But there is a certain heart-felt connection I have to my ancestral background, appreciating and loving my Jewish and Muslim heritage. So, yes, this was a big deal.
In true Sara fashion, I took one of the "Concise" Hagaddah's that we use and started highlighting everything I wanted to cover and what queues I needed to remember in order to stay on top of things as the leader. To keep the rest of the folks busy, I fed them 7-layer dip and they were quite content with however long it took me to prepare.
Everything went swimmingly well! I was so happy the whole time to have such incredible people surrounding me on this holiday, and of course (in true Sara fashion), was brought to happy tears during some parts of the evening. Now that I have experienced the leading of the seder, and now that the tradition is back in our immediate household to hold a seder, as opposed to just attending one, I am so excited for each year and the new faces that will sit around the table on this special night.
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