Passover is one of our most creative holidays. The haggadah itself is an invention of our rabbis, tying together Torah stories, rabbinic texts, songs, blessings, and culinary delights. Each culture within Judaism has traditions that embellish the text – from Ethiopian Jews smashing dishes, to Afghani Jews swatting each other with scallions to stay awake, to Syrian Jews breaking the middle matzah into the Hebrew letters dalet and vav.

While last year’s Passover was a beginning-of-the-pandemic scramble, this year’s Passover can be a happily-anticipated celebration. We will be doing our First Night Congregational Seder remotely, but this year we need YOUR help. If you sign up before March 13 for our seder, you will be able to indicate if you’d like to help us lead a part of the seder, and we’ll assign a part to you and your family.

This is a place for your creativity to run wild. (Want ideas? Check out this clip of something Rabbi Benjamin did last year!) You can write a song or a poem to recite during rachtzah, while we are all washing our hands. You can create a video for Dayeinu. You can show off your artistic skills by illustrating one of the 10 plagues. You can lead a discussion on the philosophy of not rejoicing when our enemies are killed (right after Purim, when we are told to rejoice when our enemies die).

We are also looking for the polyglots among us. We have a book with the 4 questions in over 300 languages, and we would love to have your help in asking the questions this year. If you are fluent or have studied another language and would like to read the 4 questions in that language, please let us know. I for one will be brushing up my 3 years of college Sanskrit to add another ancient language to our list!

We are hoping to have a fun and engaging BYOF (bring your own food) seder this year. Please come and be a part of it, and if you want to lead, make sure to sign up before March 13. Our whole extended Temple Sinai family will be there to celebrate our freedom.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Sara Zober