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I'm tired but we had a good Passover seder this evening at our church.  This morning I got those pre-event jitters that there wouldn't be enough food ( I was the planner) and so I added some matzoh ball soup to the menu and made a phone call or two.  There was plenty of food of course.  I sometimes wonder if those worries are part of the process that has to be gone through to make sure something comes off well.

Anyway there were about 35 people there including lots of families and children.  So it got a bit lively at points.  But one thing I love about Jewish holidays is that they are for families to celebrate together.  So active children have a place.  And there are things for the children to do through out as well.  I love that kids aren't sent off to a dumbed down children's event (Okay, you can see my opinion about children's church now can't you).  Instead they hear the same thing the adults do and get something out of it. 

So I'm going to bed.  It has been a busy day.

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Next Wednesday evening is the first night of Passover.  We will be celebrating it at our church with many of our friends from the church.  I am in charge of putting it together as I am the one with a passion for these holidays.  But this will be our 6th year of doing this so it is getting easier. 

Passover centers around a haggadah (order of service) that commemorates the story of the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt thousands of years ago, the story found in Exodus.  We use a haggadah from a friend who is a Gentile reaching out to share Jesus with Jews and he has written a haggadah that is Messianiac, incorporating Jesus into the story and bringing out the rich symbolism of how Jesus is seen in it.  In the midst of this service there is a meal together of some traditional foods.  Our meal last year was quite good - chicken, kugel (noodle pudding), apple salad, vegies, potatos, and fruit salad for desert and of course matzoh. 

Passover lasts then for 8 days and we usually try to stay away from unleaven bread and eat matzoh during that time. We all like matzoh but it does get tiring after about 5 days.  I don't know how closely we will stick to it this year as Easter is only a few days later and I am cooking an Easter dinner(just found out my parents will be here for which we are all glad). 

I love Passover because it is a family holiday that centers around Biblical history, something that is much more meaningful to me than what happens in our culture with Christmas or Easter anymore.  I do celebrate both of those holidays, but try to avoid most of the hype of our culture and focus back on the Bible events behind them as well.

For anyone who is interested in knowing more check out the website www.chaim.org    That is where we got our haggadah from.

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I didn't get to post this that night but a week ago we celebrated Purim at our church.  This is the Jewish holiday celebrating the book of Esther.  It is really a fun holiday as it centers around telling the Esther story and often acting it out as well.  Everyone listening makes a big deal when everyone Haman, the bad guy's name, is mentioned, booing and hissing, etc.  We had one of the young men in the church who loves drama did a dramatic reading of Esther dressed up as Mordecai.  We also made masks  relating to the royalty and had a parade of them with the kids. Then after the activies we had a simple supper of food brought by the families who came.  And after we had a praise service led by our pastor.

It was a fun time celebrating the Biblical history and I was thrilled to not only have a few families come but also two grandmothers/widows in our church.  They were a bit concerned,  "We didn't know it was for kids", but I assured them we were delighted they had come.  They rounded out our party.

The next holiday coming up in Passover. We are having a seder at our church the first night which is the Wed. before Easter.  We also did that last year and it was a very special time.  We went through the order of service and ate a meal together. 

The Jewish holiday are so good for kids as they are visual teachings of God's truths.  Not hard to believe as He is the one who designed them.

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We are not a Jewish family, but we have incorporated a number of Jewish traditions into our family life over the last few years.  We celebrate some of the Old Testament holidays, including Purim (story of Esther), Passover, and Shabbat.  I love these traditions because they are Biblical, comng straight out of the Old Testament and so often a wonderful picture of God's truths.  These is especially true of Passover. 

Last night we celebrated Shabbat, something we try to do every Saturday evening that we are home.  The Jews celebrate Friday evening, but since our Sabbath is Sunday we celebrate Saturday evening.  I try to set a nicer table than usual, although last night I didn't do much, because of the sickness around here.  We always add grape juice and bread, challah bread if possible, to the menu.  And I sometimes make a nicer dinner, but sometimes we just dress up the soup, like last night.  Then we do a blessing over the candles, the juice,  and the bread.  It is a very simple blessing, something like  " Blessed are you, King of the Universe, who brings light to the world, or fruit of the vine, or bread from the earth,"  Then while we eat we try to share things we are grateful for from the past week with one another.  And between dinner and desert (usually I have a real desert this night in contrast to just fruit other times) I read a story to everyone.  Right now we are reading WISE WORDS by Peter Leithart, a collection of family stories written like fairy tales that bring the proverbs to life.  It is an excellent book.  Over Advent we did our advent reading from Barthlomew's Passage.  And when we finish the Leithart book I think we might go on to Bill Gothard's Character Sketches from Nature. 

I have been inspired to this by a friend Cecelia Toth who I lived with 20 years ago as single woman in Philadelphia.  She is part Jewish and is a Messianic believer and first introduced me to incorporating Jewish traditions into my life.  I also have recently read some articles by Nancy Wilson, wife of Douglas Wilson of Credenda magazine and Canon Press, about how there family observes the Sabbath meal on Saturday even as an extended family.  Her thoughts encouraged to start this tradition by regularly with my own family.

As the other holidays come up I will be sharing how we celebrate those.  But for anyone who reads this and wants some resources to help in adding this to your own family traditions let me know.  I will be glad to share.

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