Yesterday was the first night of Passover. My Seder consisted of a bowl of chicken soup. At least I got to eat with my husband (even if I did have to ask him to turn the TV off during dinner), thus making this not quite so forlorn as the time I celebrated the first night of Passover alone in a Las Vegas casino with a bowl of matzo ball soup, during a business trip there. It is possible to feel very alone in the middle of the MGM Grand.
I could have found a Seder if I’d tried; I could have walked into the city’s (only) synagoge and asked for one, or gone to the Chabad Seder finder and gotten hooked up with one. But I’d have been with strangers, even if they were of the same tribe. My family never really did full Seders; we just got together for a meal of traditional foods, so it’s the gathering I miss rather than the ritual. My tradition in recent years for Jewish holidays has been to invite friends over for a holiday dinner, even if they’re not Jewish. One memorable year our friends Egret and T2 had us over for dinner on Yom Kippur. (Yes, they were a little unclear on the concept. But I wasn’t going to fast anyway, and the thought behind it made me go all warm and fuzzy. She even made matzo ball soup.) This year, we didn’t really have anyone to invite; I could have had someone from rowing or work I guess, but it all would have required more explaining than I felt like doing and the holiday fell on Monday anyway, which makes it all a bit more difficult.
But partway through dinner, my parents called to wish me a happy holiday. Mom had been cooking all weekend even though it will just be the three of them for dinner this year. (There’s extended family in the area. We never usually did all get together for the holiday, but they could if they wanted. I think the parents would have preferred for my brother and me to extend the family in another direction, but so far they’re doomed to disappointment.)
This morning, I found something special in my inbox. One of my e-lists has a Secret Kindred thing – the idea is you’re assigned a person and then you send them things. No actual purchases, just e-cards or e-mails. My person sent me a Passover e-card and the message on it was not generic but very appropriate to the actual holiday, to Judaism specifically and not just Judeo-Christian ideology whatever. (They’d even typed in a transliteration of Shema, which is not specific to Passover but is pretty much the most basic prayer there is.) I think there’s exactly one other Jew on the list so either it’s her or someone really went out of her way for my holiday. I suspect the latter, and I’m touched.
And then I came across this, not to mention this, which encapsulate the holiday and explain perfectly why it matters to me even if I don’t get to do the fun parts of it this year.
Also, I’m currently reading something written by someone who was a pretty special to a lot of people, sent to me by someone ditto, in different ways. So it’s being a good holiday after all.