Photos: Courtesy of SaltwareDesign
10. Judaica: We know how much you enjoy celebrating Jewish holidays when you get to use your favourite Judaica items for the ceremonial part of the evening. Passover is the perfect holiday for this! You will get to use your gorgeous Seder plate and its matching Matzah plate, a beautifully made Matzah cover with its matching Afikoman Bag, your favourite Kiddush cup and of course a wonderful set of cups honouring the Prophets Miriam and Elijah for what has already been and what is going to come.
9. Hospitality: Passover is a wonderful holiday that shows us and teaches us, no matter how old or how young we are, that we are all responsible for one another in this world. It is an old custom to invite people for the holiday who are less fortunate than we are, and have no means to host their own Seder or lonely souls who have no place to go. The beauty of communal holidays is that a community comes together and that anyone can be part of it.
8. Questions: Not to be afraid to ask questions is something we all have to learn at one point or another. On Passover, children are encouraged to ask questions about rituals and traditions, showing them that being curious and inquisitive is something positive. It is very nice to see children being interested in tradition and wanting to understand them instead of merely following them because they have been kept for generations.
7. Challenges & Resilience: It is commonly known that we can only learn if we have a closer look at the past. Remembering the challenges our ancestors had to face so many generations ago and see how they have embraced and overcome them, teaches us to make the best out of any situations and what it means to be resilient. There is a lot to learn about it from the Passover story.
6. Respect: It is wonderful to see that there are more and more contemporary Haggadot available that emphasise a universal message of respect for every culture and every single individual we encounter with dignity and respect.
5. Hope: Every year, filled with hope and anticipation, the youngest member of the family opens the front door for Elijah the Prophet to join them at the Passover table. This element of the ceremonial part of the evening opens an excellent opportunity to discuss how we can improve the world we live in today rather than wait. Making the world a better place starts with us.
4. Inclusivity: Depending on our individual backgrounds and which Jewish stream our families identify with; we all grew up with different Passover customs and traditions. Something that is reflected beautifully in the many Haggadot available in our time and age. Making your Seder more inclusive on Passover does not mean you are taking away from your traditions but that you are enriching them instead. Making it even more relevant for today’s world.
3. Community: Community does not mean you have to forcefully meet with toxic family members or people from your local synagogue you do not get along with for one reason or another. Far from it. Community, in this sense at least, means that you should spend a holiday such as Passover with other people. To remember the Passover story, to talk about it, to see how it inspires you as a group to improve the world we live in.
2. Gratitude: Reading the Haggadah together teaches us a lot about gratitude. It reminds us what hardships our ancestors had to endure and how thankful we have to be, even during the hardest of times, for what we have.
1. Freedom: Passover is a holiday that gives us the opportunity to reflect on our collective history. To look back and see how far we have come from times of slavery to freedom. It is also a time to reflect on what we can to ease other people’s suffering and understand what we can do to help them end it. The Passover story is a story of inspiration. May we all be inspired to not just help our own community but do our part to improve life for everyone in this world.
Photos: Courtesy of SaltwareDesign
