Passover with Strangers

This year I celebrated Passover with Chabad, KU’s Jewish Life Center. I’ve been to Seder dinners before, but this year I wanted to experience something a little more authentic and… well, more Jewish. I have also been on this kick since I have been back from China to try to get out of my comfort zone, and this fit the bill. I was nervous the entire drive to Lawrence- that’s how I know it met the requirements for Comfort Zone Abandonment.

It took me a while to find the house that the dinner was held at, but when I actually spotted the place I was like “How could I have missed this?” It had a large Menorah situated on the front lawn.

I felt that it wasn’t really the kind of place that insisted you knock on the front door before entering, so I just walked in, which took some chutzpah. Inside, there were long tables arranged in a giant “E” shape and I sat down in one of the empty plastic chairs. It took some coaxing to break the ice with the strangers around me, but eventually I was able to draw them out by pelting them with questions.

The Seder took about 3 ½ hours. It was overseen by a joke-loving Rabbi, and we didn’t eat until the tail end of the event. I was sent an e-mail before I came that encouraged me to grab a bite ahead of time, and afterwards I was glad that I followed the advice. At the beginning of the evening I tried to mumble Hebrew along with the rest of the group, but I gave up on this endeavor after the first two minutes- realizing that I had been “reading” the script backwards. Throughout the meal I washed my hands twice, both times in special ways. I’m not sure why, and the girl next to me didn’t know why either. In addition to this, I clapped my hands during the songs, ate beef brisket, swayed in a circle, was blessed by the Rabbi, and danced to Jewish songs with a group of women.

I don’t know if I’ll run into these people again; KU’s campus is fairly large, but I’m grateful that they let me catch a glimpse of how they celebrate the holiday of Passover. And even though we were strangers, we did have a common bond. We both wanted to remember that God saved His people Israel from the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt, and performed miraculous wonders in the process, including providing a covering from the death angel through the blood of an innocent lamb. Even though that common bond doesn’t entirely unite us, it makes a solid start. And overall, I view it as having been a successful evening.