Dayenu!

Last Tuesday evening, we celebrated Passover with Bonnie and Bob.  It's such a wonderful way for us to usher in Easter, laughing with friends and family and welcoming Elijah...then remembering the disciples huddled behind the locked door and their fear when Christ walked among them again.

And of course, we get to sing Dayenu!  Very catchy, and I hum it for days afterwards.

We had the Passover plate, which has several elements -- some of which we had to improvise because of local availability.  Instead of horseradish for bitter herbs, we had to use chicory (which Bob spiced up with a local salsa -- it's the red & green at the top).  The charoset was made with hazelnuts instead of walnuts (I think walnuts & pecans are better in this one, but it was still delish!), and the parsley was Italian parsley (with the flat leaves) instead of the curly, which is what we often have.

A little singing and silliness

The orange has a neat significance: during a time of questioning the role of women in the synagogues, a prominent rabbi (correct me, please?) said that women have no more business being on the bima than an orange has on a seder plate.  This was the most ridiculous comparison he could come up with...which immediately resulted in the annual inclusion of oranges on many seder plates.  And as those oranges were included, so were women in the liturgy.  This year, we included a blood orange (they're still in season and I think I've consumed the output of an entire orchard on my own) on the seder plate.

In order to fit everyone, we borrowed the table from apartment B (the apartment next door).  Doesn't it look great?

Elijah didn't come in this year, but (being cold this week) there was quite the draft -- but it didn't cool our joy in being together!

Love,

Alexandra