Passover 5770: Holdin' it down in Golus

“They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.” This is the overall theme of the Jewish holidays. All Jews under the umbrella of Jewish religious observance will celebrate Passover. Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt, from slavery to liberation. Like other holidays, Passover injects a heightened sense of awareness to our reality. Now the theme of bondage is (in progressive households) applied to a type of “mental slavery.” We as a society are slaves to the mundane, to obligation, to the hustle, to time. (When will we ever be truly liberated?) This is how Judaism (and religion in general), is applicable to both a specific time period and also for eternity.

Josh and I ventured down to sunny Florida to celebrate Passover with his family. A trip to Florida marked another proverbial Jewish initiation rite that I could check off my list. This blog post was almost titled, "Crockpots and a trip to Florida."

We held the second seder (seder sheni) in our apartment in the Bronx. We invited our hip neighbors (also an asian and jewish anomaly), Jennifer and Greg, our friends Angela and Nguyen, and Angela's brother Joey. The seder was abridged and unconventional, and we had tofu curry rather than brisket.

This year in Palm Coast and the Bronx. Next year, who knows?

PS: Galut literally means "exile," and of course is in reference to the exile of the Jewish people from the land of Israel. At the end of every seder, we are required to say Next Year in Jerusalem. With the creation of the State of Israel, even Jews in Jerusalem say next year in Jerusalem. To answer this complication the rabbis state that this is a reference to a "heavenly" Jerusalem, and not a physical one. Go figure.