Passover Seder

What a night last night! I don't even know where to begin. This is going to be a long post. I attended a Passover Seder. It was hosted by a friend named SR. He has been doing this for the last several years. He was awesome! My father is Jewish and during this Seder I kept having flash backs to when I was a child and we had everyone over during Passover. I would consider my childhood as a very unorthodox Jewish family. We would celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. I know strange. You have to know my parents. Anyway, I invited my dad to this thing last night but I had to explain to him it was more of teaching Seder than an actual Seder. You see my dad did grow up in a Jewish home and did attend Hebrew school. He had a Bar Mitzvah at 13 and still observes all Jewish holidays. SR, well here is some background information on him. He is a Baptist and grew up with a strong religious background. As and adult he decide to study Judaism. He knew that Jesus was Jewish man and the last supper is in fact a Seder. But he wasn't satisfied with that knowledge. He wanted more and so his journey began. He has done years of research and has a wonderful collection of Jewish religious pieces which he brought last night. So off my dad and I go and when we get to the church he puts on his yarmulke (Jewish skullcap) and pulls out his copy of a haggadah. (a book containing the ritual service for the Passover Seder) Now don't you feel educated? SR started by welcoming us and then he proceed to about Jesus and his family and his followers. He gave us all the Hebrew names and pronunciations. My dad said he would make a good Jewish man because he can hack like he has a chicken bone stuck in throat which is necessary to make all the proper pronunciations. The next thing was the order of the Seder and why the Jewish people do what they do and how they do it. Every thing in the Seder has an order to why it is done and how it is done. Very interesting. Right down to the washing of the hands and the drinking of the four glasses of wine. If one weren't careful you might get drunk. But alas we were using good ole' sparkling grape juice. (which I happen to like) This whole part of the service is long but very interesting. It takes about and hour and a half to get through just this part. After this section dinner was served. We ate and then finished the Seder. There was more to learn. To put all of this into a time frame for you we stared around 6:30-7pm and it ended around 9. I know I am leaving out so many of the details but if I didn't I would be here until 1AM and I still have laundry to fold. If you ever get the chance to attend something like this I highly recommend it. It was so interesting to learn. SR, I will be there every year! You did great. I asked my dad at the end how he did and he said this. "He is spot on! His pronunciation is excellent and his attention to detail is great. This is the best Seder I have been to in years!" For my dad to say this means SR was awesome. I am so glad that I asked my dad to go with me and share this experience. It is one which I will never forget.