Thoughts from Rabbi Phyllis

#BlogExodus 14: Being

2013-03-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

As Passover starts tonight, I want to take this opportunity to remind us all that in the end...it is a holiday of celebration and joy.

No matter how much cleaning we do.
No matter how many batches of gefilte fish or matzah balls we make.
No matter how many times the wine is spilled.
No matter how many times we shush our chatty uncles.
No matter how many times we ask "when do we eat?"
No matter how many meals we plan or snacks we create or outings we plan.

No matter what we do to prepare....now that the holiday is upon us....

it's time to just BE.

Be in the moment of the Seder. As you sit at your seder table, just take a deep breath and look around. Revel in the now, in the doing, in the being. THIS moment will never happen again, quite like this, in quite this way.

On Seder night we stand on the precipice of great change, of great transformation.
The moon is full, our way is lit, we are ready for a monumental journey.

Don't forget to enjoy it. Don't forget to just....be.

If you've played along with #BlogExodus these 2 weeks, I hope you've been uplifted and inspired. Wishing you and yours a zissen Pesach, a sweet and healthy Passover holiday!

#BlogExodus 13: Changing

2013-03-24T20:07:00.000-05:00

The egg is placed on the Seder plate. But it doesn't have its own liturgy, or its own tradition. It doesn't have a song about it or a story that we tell.

But it has such a remarkable place in our saga of resilience and transformation.

When placed in boiling water, the egg becomes firm. When faced with adversity, we must strengthen ourselves. When placed in boiling water, the egg becomes portable, usable, and different. When faced with adversity, the Jews have been strong, we have transported and transformed ourselves. We have adapted and changed.

My family makes these Sephardic eggs for Passover, known as huevos haminados.

I think they are beautiful.

This year, for the first time, this happened:

I found the internal change to the eggs to be amazing. Beautiful.
It reminded me of this powerful lesson that the egg represents.
We have the power within ourselves to face boiling water and come out even more beautiful. Transformation and change can be painful, no question.

Sometimes it isn't our choice. Sometimes we fight and kick and scream against the water.
But either way, we are changed. We are transformed. And it leaves a mark.

How beautiful that mark is....that is up to us.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 12: Redeeming

2013-03-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

I was redeemed from Egypt.

It's hard to imagine that, isn't it? I know that we say it every year, I know that general Jewish practice teaches us to believe that we all crossed the Red Sea, we all stood at Sinai.

Some days I have no trouble envisioning it.
But other days? My imagination is a bit overtaxed and I'm not quite there.

So I let my mind wander to other forms of redemption.
I went to the library this week and picked up books for my kids along the lines of redemption stories.

The Underground Railroad
Rosa Parks
The Civil Rights movement

These are also ancient history to my children. To them, anything that happened before they were born is ancient! But if I'm having a little trouble seeing myself in the Exodus, maybe they are too. So I need to find other stories to tell them, other journeys to recount. I need to broaden their horizons...so I can broaden my own. If I spend my time coming up with new redemption stories...it's not just for their benefit. It's for my own too.

Redemption. It's not just from Egypt.
But sometimes we need a reminder that redemption takes other forms as well.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 11: Counting

2013-03-22T00:01:00.000-05:00

Reposted from last year's #BlogExodus

The conversation today turned to numbers.
How many people will be at our Seder?

Passover is so full of numbers.
I keep track of how many boxes of matzah to buy.
How many meals will we eat?
How many kugels will my mom make? (And how many will we eat!?)

And then there's the seder itself....the four questions, the four cups, the ten plagues...

So many Israelites came out of Egypt. Six hundred thousand.
Imagine each and every one of them.
Sons and brothers and fathers and uncles and grandfathers and daughters and sisters and mothers and aunts and grandmothers.
Each person who came out of Egypt existed in relation to someone else.
Each person who came out of Egypt mattered.
Each person who came out of Egypt counted.

And the same is true with us.
Each person who sits at a Seder table is a part of a relationship with another human being.
Each person who sits at a Seder table matters.
Each person counts.

As you set your table, as you prepare your menu, as you count out each piece of matzah....
think of all the billions of humans in the world....
how can you make a difference to just one?

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 10: Leaving

2013-03-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Exodus is all about leaving slavery behind.
It's all about moving forward and stepping out into the great unknown.

It's a scary idea, really.
Who likes leaving?

And yet we celebrate it. We lift it up.
We praise it and sing songs about it.
Going forth from Egypt is just a fancy way of saying that we're leaving town.

One of my favorite readings in Mishkan Tefillah is this one from Rabbi Norman Hirsch:

Once or Twice in a lifetime,
A man or woman may choose
A radical leaving, having heard
Lech Lecha...Go forth.
God disturbs us toward our destiny
By hard events and by freedom's now urgent voice
Which explode and confirm who we are.
We don't like leaving.
But God loves becoming.

It reminds me that as much as I would rather stay put, sometimes moving forward is the only way to go.
We don't like leaving.
But God loves becoming...

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 9: Asking

2013-03-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

If my family were leaving Egypt today...
What do you mean, we aren't going to be slaves any more?
What should we pack?
What do you mean, we aren't coming back here?
Where will we live?
What will we do?
What will we eat?
Who will tell us what to do?
Where are we going?
Did we pack enough flour?
Where did my doll go?
How come the baby gets to ride in the cart but I have to walk?
What's happening?
I can't see. Can you lift me up?
Who is speaking to us?
Where did the water go?
Can you see the fish?
May I please have a drink?
Why are we singing?
Can I dance too?
Are we free now?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
What's next?

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 8: Learning

2013-03-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

What will you learn that is new for this year?

Perhaps a new recipe?

A new melody for a favorite song?

A new Haggadah?

A new story?

What I love about Judaism is that there's always something new to learn.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#blogExodus 7: Blessing

2013-03-18T22:59:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, my congregation honored me for my 10th anniversary as their associate rabbi. It was pretty remarkable to be celebrated for the work I've done for this past decade. Let's be honest here, it's a rare thing when people tell you how wonderful they think you are when you're not retiring, dying, or leaving. It's also pretty amazing that there was such an outpouring of love for me, the associate rabbi. I really and truly was overwhelmed.

It does seem quite fitting that today's topic is "blessing."

I use this word a lot. I know that my life is full of blessings. I answer the question "how's everything?" with "thank God, my life's a blessing."

In June of 2008, I wrote a "Six Word Memoir."

Since then, they've become mighty popular around my shul.

My memoir? Blessings abound. It's not over yet.

I like it. It's a good personal motto.

One of the most incredible things that happened this weekend was this gift:

It's a tallit, made from my children's clothing. With my six-word memoir as the atarah.
A gift from my senior rabbi, presented to me on the bima on Friday night.

To say that I was speechless is perhaps an understatement.

It's one thing to talk about blessings. It's another one to receive them from others.
I feel so incredibly lucky to have shared ten years of blessing with this congregation, and I look forward to many many more.
Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#blogExodus 5: Matzah

2013-03-16T20:00:00.000-05:00

Why did the matzah quit his job? Because he didn't get a raise.

Recipe for Matzah Toffee....this is just how I make it.

How to make your own matzah.

Meet the Matzo Ball Boy...

What's the difference between Matzah and Cardboard?
Cardboard doesn't leave crumbs on the rug.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 4: Chametz

2013-03-15T00:01:00.000-05:00

fluffy
puffy
full of life

inflated
excited
enthusiastic

bouncy

standing out

chametz is
full of
energy
full of life.

it is who we are.

but we
almost
never think
about it.

except for
one
week.

when we give it up.

and yet
it's
all
that
we
can
think
about
all week long.

and so
we appreciate it
all
the
more.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 3: Slavery

2013-03-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Rabbi Ed Feinstein tells a story about two men amongst the Israelites who left Egypt. They were accustomed to looking down at the ground, like good slaves do.

When the Red Sea parted and the Jews walked through on dry land, one of these men asked the other what he saw. "Mud," was the reply. The two agreed. "What is all this freedom business?" they asked each other. "We had mud in Egypt. What's the difference?"

Then these same two men came to stand at Sinai with the rest of the people. They heard the words of the commandments and one asked the other what he heard. "Someone shouting commands," was the reply. The two agreed. "What's all this Torah business?" they asked each other. "We had commands in Egypt. What's the difference here?"

The same men continued to wander in the desert with the rest of the Israelites. As the time came to enter the Promised Land, one asked the other how he felt. "My feet hurt," was the reply. The two agreed. "What's all this Promised Land business?" they asked each other. "My feet hurt in Egypt, my feet hurt now. What's the difference here?"

And so they missed the miracle of the Sea, they missed the revelation at Sinai, they even missed the celebration of entering our own land. Some say that they went back to Egypt. Some say that they continue to wander around the desert and complain.

And, Rabbi Feinstein concludes, some say that they are still among us -- "living right here and now, wandering about with their eyes cast down, missing all the miracles that are taking place around them all the time. They haven't any idea where they're going. And they continue to miss all the many chances to know what life is all about." (Story adapted from Capturing the Moon, by Rabbi Ed Feinstein, one of my favorite story books!)

Have you ever found yourself walking around in this kind of daze? Do we forget to notice the blessings in our lives? It wasn't enough just to free us from the physical bonds of slavery. There were and still are mental bonds from which we must free ourselves. Freedom is a gift that we sometimes take for granted, forgetting that with it comes the responsibility to not only appreciate it, but to revel in it. Passover comes along to remind us of it, and to remind us of our greater responsibility in the world. Yes, we celebrate freedom when others are not free. We do so in order to remind ourselves that freedom is worth having, worth celebrating, and worth fighting for on behalf of all peoples in the world.

Other posts you might like:
Busy Being Busy
Musings on Mitzrayim
Enslaved
Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

#BlogExodus 2: Retelling

2013-03-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's the same story.

Every. Year.

But we don't get tired of it. Why not?

My children love to look at the family photo albums. They love to recall what they looked like, what they were wearing, what they were doing. I watch them, as they sit enthralled with their own images of their own history...and I marvel at how far they've come.

On the eve of Passover, we open up our family photo albums. We relive and retell the stories of what we looked like, what we were wearing, what we were eating, what we were feeling and believing and knowing and doing.

We refresh our memory of those days when we were slaves, and we recall what it was like to feel that first breath of freedom. In the remembering and the retelling, each time we find something new. Each time we notice a detail in the photographs that we hadn't seen before, or we hadn't noticed last year. Each time we come to the memory with the experiences of the past year. We are not the same people who told this story last year...so it is not the same story.

We retell and retell, and each time, we bring to life the ancient story.
The albums get a little stained, the pictures get a little bit faded.
But as we read through the story, as we tell our tales, they crisp up into focus, the tattered edges become whole again, and the story returns to life.

In the retelling, there is life.

on Seder night...
matzah crumbs
horseradish stains
wine drops
parsley blooms

salty tears
same old jokes
same old stories

like a well-worn sweater
not ready for Goodwill yet.
add a little flower and it's like new again.

on Seder night, we come home again each year...

(poem once posted here)

#BlogExodus 1: Believing

2013-03-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

Belief.
It had to carry us so far.
Imagine...being a slave for as long as your family can remember...and then one day being told that you're going to be redeemed. By an unseen God. That you barely remember.

Now imagine being told that you're escaping...that freedom is on the horizon.

To believe that you will be saved is one thing. To actually experience it is another.
And to be thwarted almost immediately by the waters stretched before you? It's almost more than one can bear.

But the story of Nachshon....ah, now there's a story of belief.
Did he believe in God? Did he believe in freedom?
Did he believe in the strength of his own will?

Yes.

And as the story goes, he stepped one foot into the water, and then a few more steps and a few more, until the water was rising higher and higher around him...and just as the water was about to swallow him up, this newly-former slave who so firmly believed in freedom that he was willing to drown for it, just then...the waters parted.

Did he make it happen? Did Nachshon believe God into doing something?

Or did God finally begin to believe in us?

When Nachshon stepped forward, when his belief in the truth that freedom was far preferable to slavery finally came fully into being, perhaps then God believed that yes, this people would be able to cast off those burdens. Yes, those people would be able to become the great nation that would stand at Sinai.

Bumps in the road? Sure.
But God could see that the potential for belief was in us.

God redeemed us from Egypt. But it was a two-way partnership.
Once we believed it to be so, the partnering was real.

Want to play along? We're sharing #BlogExodus for the next 2 weeks. All you have to do is use the hashtag and there are suggested prompts on the graphic above (feel free to grab it). Maybe you just want to post on your Facebook or Twitter about these topics...or maybe you want to try #Exodusgram, a new idea to post photos related to these themes? I'll be posting my #blogExodus posts here, at this blog, my #Exodusgram pictures on my tumblr site, imabima.tumblr.com, and other miscellaneous Passover posts over at imabima.blogspot.com. It's going to be a busy fortnight!

Chanukah Gift For You!

2012-12-05T12:10:00.001-06:00

You didn't know you needed this, but here is a Chanukah gift for you!
(isn't that the best kind of gift, one you didn't know you needed?)

These are Chanukah backgrounds and lockscreens for your iPhone 4 & 5.
All you have to do is open this blog on your iPhone, tap-hold on the picture that you want, and save it to your Camera Roll. Then you can choose to "Use as Wallpaper" and choose "set lock screen" or "set home screen." (If you're using your computer, you can right-click and save these pictures and email them to yourself and open them on your phone.)

It's a fun way to make your phone a festive reminder of the holiday.

For your iPhone 4:

Wallpaper (Homescreen)

Lock-Screen - see this happy message each time you unlock your phone!

Another Wallpaper for your iPhone:

And for the iPhone 5: (This is for YOU, Mom and Dad...)

(Stay tuned for Tu BiShevat, Purim, and Pesach wallpapers in the coming months!)

Happy Chanukah to all my wonderful readers!

Chanukah Fun from Am Shalom

2012-12-03T08:19:00.003-06:00

We had so much fun making this video for Chanukah this year!

Refresh your knowledge of placing the candles in your Chanukiyah, hear the blessings, sing along with our religious school students, and hear a (sorta) funny joke!

What's Next? #BlogExodus

2012-04-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

As #BlogExodus comes to a close, I ask the question...what's next? So much energy and effort dedicated to the lead up to Passover, so much work put into creating those moments of the Seder. And then we live in it. For a week, we live with the matzah and the macaroons, the special Coke and the cream cheese. For a week we share a solidarity with Jews around the world, and we all enjoy a sense of family not really shared any other time of year in quite this way.

So how can we hold onto it? How can we continue that feeling of Jewish solidarity after the matzah crumbs are swept away?

Wishing you and your family a sweet and healthy Passover holiday!

Thanks for sharing #BlogExodus with me. I hope you enjoyed following #Exodusgram over on my Tumblr blog too. A final wrapup will go up (bli neder) on my other blog after Seders.

Whadaya know? #BlogExodus

2012-04-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite parts of the Seder is the Four Questions.
This year, I've been working hard with Sam to help him learn them so he can have his big moment. I had to convince Yael that she could wait until next year and then she would have her turn.

We've added the following section to our seder before the Four Questions. I no longer have the source, but I didn't write this.

The eldest reads:

Nobel Prize winning physicist Isador Isaac Rabi's mother did not ask him: “What did you learn in school today?” each day. She asked him: “Did you ask a good question today?”

The oldest teenager reads:

Why do the same questions get asked each year? I probably have more questions than the youngest, why does a child ask the questions? How come we ask these questions, but you rarely give a straight answer?

The leader reads:

Questioning is a sign of freedom, and so we begin with questions.

To ritualize only one answer would be to deny that there can be many, often conflicting answers. To think that life is only black and white, or wine and Maror, bitter or sweet, or even that the cup is half empty or half full is to be enslaved to simplicity.

Each of us feels the challenge to search or our own answers. The ability to question is only the first stage of freedom. The search for answers is the next.

Does every question have an answer? Is the ability to function without having all the answers one more stage of liberation? Can we be enslaved to an obsessive search for the answer?

Do you have the answer?

What do you think about the Four Questions? Who asks them in your family? It's hard when there aren't any kids present, but someone has to ask the questions no matter how old the participants, since they are the basis for the whole Seder!

Counting Heads #BlogExodus

2012-04-04T17:06:00.000-05:00

The conversation today turned to numbers.
How many people will be at our Seder?

Passover is so full of numbers.
I keep track of how many boxes of matzah to buy.
How many meals will we eat?
How many kugels will my mom make? (And how many will we eat!?)

And then there's the seder itself....the four questions, the four cups, the ten plagues...

So many Israelites came out of Egypt. Six hundred thousand.
Imagine each and every one of them.
Sons and brothers and fathers and uncles and grandfathers and daughters and sisters and mothers and aunts and grandmothers.
Each person who came out of Egypt existed in relation to someone else.
Each person who came out of Egypt mattered.
Each person who came out of Egypt counted.

And the same is true with us.
Each person who sits at a Seder table is a part of a relationship with another human being.
Each person who sits at a Seder table matters.
Each person counts.

As you set your table, as you prepare your menu, as you count out each piece of matzah....
think of all the billions of humans in the world....
how can you make a difference to just one?

Plague Masks #BlogExodus

2012-04-03T22:51:00.001-05:00

Do you use these at your family's seder?
We do.

It does seem a little bit unfair to have so much fun with someone else's unhappiness.
The plagues should be the hardest part of the story to tell.
After all, we benefited from a moment that was probably very painful to our enemies.

Then again, there is so much to celebrate, and even as we take drops of wine from our cups, we find a sense of inner peace in even this moment.

How do you feel about plague masks, or plague toys, or plague puppets at your seder?

Karpas & Spring #BlogExodus

2012-04-02T21:42:00.001-05:00

Have you heard of the "nature deficit disorder" that it seems so many of us suffer from?

I think that those of us who follow the Jewish calendar must suffer it less.

Consider, how many of our holidays revolve around the outdoors, around nature, around the earth and greenery?

We eat apples on Rosh haShanah, and we go to an outdoor, flowing body of water for Tashlich.
Sukkot, of course, we embrace the outdoors.
Even Chanukah, which we spend indoors usually because of the weather, requires us to display our chanukiyot to the outside.
Tu BiShvat, the Birthday of the Trees, can't help but draw our attention outside.
On Purim we traipse outside to deliver mishloach manot...
On Shavuot, we embrace the sunrise after a long night of study.

And of course....Pesach. The green springtime that we celebrate has sprung so beautifully around my home, with blossoms on the trees, gorgeous daffodils, and that soft sweet green of new leaf growth. To breathe the spring air, one can truly understand how a freedom festival must be in the springtime. Freed from the bonds of winter, we step forth into the freedom of springtime! We place the karpas, the green parsley leaves, on our seder table, to bring that beauty inside, to fill us with the newness and the glory of springtime.

Redemption #BlogExodus

2012-03-30T09:23:00.004-05:00

For many years, my family used the Maxwell House Haggadah. Yes, the same one that it is used at the Obama family seder. And we, for the most part, loved it. The flowery old-fashioned language, the tiny print, the long-winded explanations...and we read almost everything out loud, round-robin around the table. As I got older, there were some personal attempts to re-read the text with gender neutral language, an issue that had begun to weave its way to the forefront of my mind as I came into my teen years.

Then one year, I felt particularly put upon by the language. I don't really recall what triggered it, but I'm sure it was a crack about the four sons, and how if we were going to neutralize it, then we should probably make the wicked one a daughter...either way, I came home from the first seder in a terrible state, and that night and the whole next day, I typed and copied and pasted and created....a whole new Haggadah.

Yep, that's right. In one day. Most of it was the Maxwell House language, just neutralized. But I managed to change a few things by searching, in the early days of the internet, for creative stuff.

And I showed up at second seder, slipped into the dining room, and quietly replaced all the Maxwell House Haggadot with "Phyl's Haggadah: A Seder for the 90s."

Do you want to know something? My family handled it with grace and respect, and ever since, we have used Phyl's Haggadah...well, now a very-updated-oh-I-wrote-my-rabbinic-thesis-on-the-Haggadah-so-I-know-a-lot-more version.

With that, I felt redeemed. Out of the narrow place of the Haggadah that no longer spoke to me, I found redemption in new and different language, in words that followed the ancient text but were no longer bound to it.

How do you find a Haggadah that speaks to you?

P.S. over at my other blog today, there's a review of the New American Haggadah.

Thoughts on Freedom #BlogExodus

2012-03-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. ~Napoleon Bonaparte

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. ~Adlai Stevenson, speech, Detroit, 1952

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. ~Moshe Dayan

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~William Faulkner

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus

Do you have a favorite quote about freedom? Share it in the comments...

Enslaved #BlogExodus

2012-03-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of noise lately about "unplugging." (Yes, this unplugging business is just a modern way of saying Shabbat.) We are addicted to the digital world, to our constant connections, to information at our fingertips, to instant gratification of so many kinds.

But we are also enslaved to it.

Did you see my email?
Did you get my voicemail?
I texted you, why didn't you answer?

How many times do we feel that we couldn't possibly go anywhere without our phones, not because of our fear of missing out, but because we know that someone would be annoyed if our response was less than instantaneous?

Or maybe you don't feel enslaved to the communication device - maybe you are enslaved to something else. Maybe to your past...or to tradition...or to a love that isn't real...or to objects or things...or to ideas or beliefs that hold you back....to a bad or good habit...

To enslave yourself is the worst form of slavery. (paraphrased from Henry David Thoreau)

As we prepare for Pesach and our celebration of freedom from slavery - think about it. In what way are you enslaved? How can you free yourself? What will it take? What do you have to do?

This post is part of #BlogExodus. What's your take on these topics?

A Spoonful of Sugar #BlogExodus

2012-03-27T00:30:00.000-05:00

Last night we watched the classic film Mary Poppins.

My children were fascinated by the scene in which Mary Poppins plays "Let's Clean Up the Nursery," a game better known for the song "A Spoonful of Sugar."

Jane asks, "it is a game, isn't it, Mary Poppins?"
and Mary Poppins wisely answers,
"That all depends upon your point of view."

We get very very very wrapped up in the cleaning aspect of Pesach. So much time is spent making sure our homes are clean and free of chametz. We worry and fret and stress that we won't get it all done, that we won't "turn" our kitchens in time, that we might miss something important.

Thank goodness, then, for the statement that we make when we complete our search for chametz right before the holiday: "any remaining chametz shall be considered ownerless and as the dust of the earth." Whew. It's like a get-out-of-jail card. In case I messed up....in advance I apologize.

So it really does depend on your point of view. People always feel a need to justify their practices to me, as though I'm taking confession. (wrong religion...) To me, it's in your own point of view. Each person cleans and prepares for Pesach in their own way. Each one of us stands individually before God, even as we stand collectively in our celebration of freedom.

No matter how you clean, though, Mary's advice is strong: "in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. Find the fun...and snap! The job's a game!"

Zman cheruteinu, the time of our freedom, is a time of rejoicing. Celebrate and find the joy!

#BlogExodus To Learn and To Teach in New Ways

2012-03-26T00:30:00.000-05:00

The Passover Seder is all about learning and teaching. It's a whole lesson plan, repeated yearly and adapted and adopted for generations. It's the ultimate inter-generational family learning program.

Which is what makes it so much fun to start anew each year, and to add something, anything, new into the Seder each time we do it.

"Why do we dip at the Seder?" asked my 6 year old today.
And I think about the dipping that he did at dinner tonight - french fries into ketchup, carrots into hummus, and I realized that dipping twice is actually a regular part of his life.

So what to do?

Thankfully, we don't dip into saltwater or charoset every day. So I'm safe there. But the very foundation of the question...oy.

"In every generation it should feel as though we went forth from Egypt."
And so we have to find ways, each year, to reinvigorate the teaching, to meet our families, our children, our guests, right where they are.

So what will be your innovation at this year's Seder table? How will you be creative and how will you enable the learning to add on, to grow for the next generation and the next? To me, this isn't just about finding ways to make the Seder interesting for kids (although that certainly is a focus for me!), but it's about helping all the Seder participants to find meaning and value in the ancient rituals.

Share your ideas in the comments, please!
Have you checked out these creative Pinterest boards for Pesach? More than just recipes, there are games, ideas, etc.