invitation for commentary: a haggadah

[psocoptera]

So I want my family to do a Seder of our own next year, on the first night, in addition to Chaos's second-night Seder. I love Chaos's Seder, but the room of strange adults is intimidating for the kids, and I felt like Junie in particular was neither participating nor comprehending to the extent of her actual ability to do so, so. I thought about reading a bunch of family-oriented haggadahs (uh, haggadot, I guess) for research, but in the end I put this together from a) Chaos's existing haggadah (which she also wants to revise, but for adults, not kids), b) the Velveteen Rabbi's haggadah, c) Wikipedia, d) my own arrogant rewriting of your sacred texts, sorry Judaism!

No, seriously, I am aware that this is a somewhat problematic project, fostering my kids' Jewish heritage while not sharing it. My own Jewish ancestors very deliberately abandoned and suppressed their Judaism, so while I would love to learn what Seder was like on Curacao in the 19th century, there is no sense in which whatever I do now has plausibly evolved from that, unlike Josh's Seders as a kid, which were directly descended (if however much changed) from the Seders of his ancestors in Belarus etc. I did elicit input from Josh and Chaos and Betsy about their general thoughts about key elements of Seders before putting this together, although they haven't seen the finished draft yet (I figured I'd collect feedback in one fell lump), and I had a whole list of goals of my own, which I will mercifully omit (but if anyone actually wants to discuss this thing with me, I would be very happy to talk about what I was thinking).

pdf of draft of Haggadah for Small Smifts

Comments

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know a haggadah from a hole in the ground, but in a related narcissistic reflection, this spring I've somehow ended up reading a piece of non-fiction, "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean" (I kid you not! It's a great read, if unbelievably depressing about human history), and fiction "People of the Book", both of which were eye-opening to me about the history of anti-semitism, the unbelievable, ingrained stupidity of my Christian ancestors, and the equally unbelievable courage and tenacity of anyone who could survive that institutionalized oppression and abuse for so many centuries. How there are any Jews left at all at this point, I have no idea.

That said, I am strongly in support of you and the kids digging into their Jewish heritage and beliefs and practices. It is one to be proud of. So, go you! (Even if it is none of my business. :)