Be-Seder

                 

Warning: I posted this a few days after I wrote it. Passover Started Monday night (25th of March).

My Haggadah at the start of the seder

Last night Passover started, meaning that it began with a Seder when the sun went down. I think it is interesting because when someone in Hebrew asks how you are doing “Mah-Knee-Shmah”, you reply with “Bah-Seder” if you are doing well. Beseder literally means “In order” and Seder means order. The family I had Seder with told me it is called that because everything must be done in order. Silly thought: The only moment you can use beseder and have it mean two things at the same time is during a seder. It could mean : I’m in a seder, or it could be the answer to “how are you doing” in order.

I was surprisingly invited to a lot of Seders. Almost every guest lecturer in our nursing program invited us to come to Seder with her (our instructors so far have only been women). From the beginning of the semester I had planned to go to a Seder with one of my roommates and her extended family. The family she chose to come to is from her Dad’s side and live on a Kibbutz  in the North. Before I came to Israel I knew that Israelis were really into farming, but my vision of what a kibbutz is was a little different. I knew that Kibbutzim (plural of Kibbutz) were communal and practiced socialism, but I thought it would be a group of people who only grew food. The kibbutz we stayed at for Passover is one that specializes in pipe making, everyone in the community either works in the pipe factory or in another position that helps the community as a whole (nurse, teacher, etc.). No one owns his/her own land and there is some sort of sharing element. Some kibbutzim require that all money and resources are communal, but this specific kibbutz is only partial. The money that is taken out of salaries to go into the community goes towards school, or events like religious parties- this Kibbutz used to have completely communal food, but has since changed. It is a nice environment, little kids can run around anywhere they want without the community being afraid of “strangers”, wifi doesn’t need a password, and everyone feels like they are a part of something. For some reason I assumed that a kibbutz would be a closed society, like it would be restrictive of freedom or something. It is definitely not like that at all. I felt like this kibbutz was more of a gated community, it reminded me of my grandparent’s retired-gated community in Arizona. The biggest similarity I saw between the two is that everyone drives golf carts to get around the neighborhood.

Roomie and I on the kibbutz for Seder

The Seder was SO nice, it is always nice to spend time with an actual family on a holiday. It was especially nice that someone was asking to make food for me all the time and do my dishes. I keep hearing this reference everywhere to Yiddish mothers who are always worried and want to make sure their children are always eating. I felt like that over this break. “Do you want anything else with your breakfast?” Me: “No, I am reallllly full”, “ Okay, I’ll cut you a tomato”.  It’s like in my Big Fat Greek Wedding: “You’re a vegetarian? Okay I’ll make lamb”.

Part of the Seder. Hitting each other with onion. Read link below if you have never been  to a Seder and don't know the rituals, etc.

http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm   Scroll down to "The Pesach Seder"

I want to be the kind of person/have the kind of family that is super hospitable. The kind of lady that invites people over a lot, cooks for everyone, and facilitates bonding. They treated me like family and were really hospitable about everything, even that I don't drink alcohol.

In other news, I went on a school trip called “Yam al Yam”, which means “Sea to Sea”. It was a hike from The Mediteranean to the Sea of Galilee. Turned out we didn’t end up hiking the whole thing and it was kind of more of a tourist thing, but I got to see a lot and we had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures!

Neanderthal Caves with remains dating back forever ago, I'm not an archeologist :)

In the North of Israel. Past those mountains is Lebanon.

           

Now I have almost two weeks of Passover break, it will be delightful. I'm off to Romania.