Passive reading doesn't keep me awake . . .
. . . and other Pesach tales (posted Friday, April 22, 2011).
I was the only person working in this office on Erev Pesach/Passover Eve ('til we were kicked out for the holiday), and have been alone here for the two weekdays of Chol HaMoed (Immediate Days, when one is permitted to work, of Pilgrimage Festivals). So I got daring and decided to read a book openly at my desk. (My usual practice is to surf the Internet between assignments, because reading a book at work has gotten me into trouble with previous bosses.) Though I made a good-faith effort to finish the essays at the back of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's Haggadah--which, judging by the tissue I found stuck in the book, I must have started last year--I was out of luck. Rabbi Sacks is a very fine writer, but, with the entire floor as quiet as a tomb, I found that I had to get back on the Internet, where the constant need to click was the only thing keeping me from falling asleep at my desk.
Those looking for a post-Seder round-up might find the report of DovBear and commenters interesting reading. As for us, we're apparently still among the not-yet-ready-for-Ortho-time players--we went to two non-Orthodox sedarim (both of which started earlier than halachically permissible) and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Well, okay, my husband and I disagreed about the second seder. I complained that, much as I'd enjoyed the seder, I was still not happy that the rabbi had skipped almost as much of the Haggadah as she'd read or led, and I suggested that, next year, we try the Orthodox seder that I'd originally wanted to attend. My husband protested that he was less concerned about the second seder being a standing-on-one-foot version than about being at yet another seder with no children. (Our first host, for the past couple of years and probably next year as well, is single and childless.) Stayed tuned for next year.
I was the only person working in this office on Erev Pesach/Passover Eve ('til we were kicked out for the holiday), and have been alone here for the two weekdays of Chol HaMoed (Immediate Days, when one is permitted to work, of Pilgrimage Festivals). So I got daring and decided to read a book openly at my desk. (My usual practice is to surf the Internet between assignments, because reading a book at work has gotten me into trouble with previous bosses.) Though I made a good-faith effort to finish the essays at the back of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's Haggadah--which, judging by the tissue I found stuck in the book, I must have started last year--I was out of luck. Rabbi Sacks is a very fine writer, but, with the entire floor as quiet as a tomb, I found that I had to get back on the Internet, where the constant need to click was the only thing keeping me from falling asleep at my desk.
Those looking for a post-Seder round-up might find the report of DovBear and commenters interesting reading. As for us, we're apparently still among the not-yet-ready-for-Ortho-time players--we went to two non-Orthodox sedarim (both of which started earlier than halachically permissible) and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Well, okay, my husband and I disagreed about the second seder. I complained that, much as I'd enjoyed the seder, I was still not happy that the rabbi had skipped almost as much of the Haggadah as she'd read or led, and I suggested that, next year, we try the Orthodox seder that I'd originally wanted to attend. My husband protested that he was less concerned about the second seder being a standing-on-one-foot version than about being at yet another seder with no children. (Our first host, for the past couple of years and probably next year as well, is single and childless.) Stayed tuned for next year.
posted by Shira Salamone at 1:13 PM
2 Comments:
Why should it matter whether there was children? There was a child at my too-short non-O 2nd seder, and she didn't seem real interested and didn't add much (though on the positive side she wasn't actively harmful either).
It doesn't matter, technically, but my husband likes to see the little kids around. Our only child is still in grad school and shows no current interest in marriage, so it's not as if we expect to have grandchildren anytime soon.
Personally, I enjoy the kind of intellectual discussions that one is more likely to have at an adults-only seder. Kids under Bar or Bat Mitzvah age need to be "entertained," and one can't expect them to sit too long without eating, so maggid gets shorter shrift, of necessity, when young children are present. Either that, or plastic frogs make an appearance at "10 plagues" time, along with at least one round of "frogs here, frogs there, frogs were jumping everywhere." :)
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