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

[q10.livejournal.com]

I would love to have a look at this and discuss it at some point, but that some point would be some point next month. Would that be okay?

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I don't plan to print it out until a few days before next Passover, so I figure you've got almost a year ::grin::. Well, and, after that, I should have results from the first round of user testing which should also be interesting. Seriously, I would love to hear your thoughts however far in the future we end up having that conversation(s), yay!

[crystalpyramid]

As one of three kids with a mother who's even less Jewish than you are (my mom was raised midwestern Southern Baptist, although there's a rumor that her great-grandfather's mom was Jewish, unless that's the person who ws rumored to be Native American and I have it mixed up), I think it's awesome that you're doing this. We were grateful for every scrap of heritage our mom "fostered without sharing with us", and we kind of wish she'd done more of it — I think she and we would have both been happier, but there was a lot of anxiety about what my dad would think, partly due to his own conflicted relationship with his heritage.

That said, I am not in any way qualified to comment, because my childhood upbringing did not include seders. Sigh.

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

We'd love to chat about seders (among other things) next month, too.

In the interests of attention span (and parental energy) we've trimmed way back. This year was basically brisket, with the occasional story about letting-my-people-go or Elijah coming to dinner, plus the afikomen. I suspect that's what we'll be doing for the next few years, but after that it could get interesting. (I confess I have embraced Kaia's recent designation of people as poopheads, peepeeheads, or candyheads--a scale of meanness to niceness, with Ozai and Azula as the original poopheads--and if I had to put together a haggadah right now I'm not sure I would be able to avoid using those designations when describing Exodus.)

[rose_garden.livejournal.com]

Your haggadah is very beautiful and inspiring.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I can totally see the "anxiety over what the other, conflicted, parent would think" thing. At some point Josh and I are actually going to have to make the Hebrew school decision for Junie (like "is she going to prep for a bat mitzvah in the traditional fashion") which is like an unavoidable major referendum on How Jewish The Kids Are, and gaaaaah. It's a huge commitment, in terms of soaking up opportunity to do other extracurriculars, particularly since we really don't want to overschedule her, that sounds no fun for anyone. And, you know, heritage good, but music/sports/Scouts also good? Seder, in comparison, seems very doable ::grin::. (I know it sounds like I'm leaving Q out here - I think it would be weird for him to do something different with him than we do with Junie, so really we'll be deciding for both of them, it's just going to be time-critical for her first.)

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Sure, that would be awesome. Hee to the poophead Haggadah. I'm now sort of imagining our actual four children - the child who will probably relate it all to Disney princesses, the child who will call Pharaoh a poophead, the child who will spend the entire meal dipping things, and the child who is too young for the afikomen throwdown ::grin::.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[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. :)

[motyl.livejournal.com]

I love the idea and considered adopting it for us, but it invites a lot of questions I sadly don't know the answers to. Maybe I'll crib it and plan a Seder with auntie M, who has the background to answer any curve balls my theoretical (likely cursory) research wouldn't cover