It Was a Web of Women...

One week from today Jews all over the world will be sitting down to a Passover seder to partake in the symbolic dinner, singing familiar tunes and speaking of the Jewish people's liberation from slavery to freedom. 

My Rosh Chodesh spirituality group met this past Wednesday to hold a Women's seder to welcome the new moon and celebrate the roles women played in this journey.  Through  matriarch voices  we gained new insight to that liberation. We mixed old traditions with some 'new' ones.  

Onto the traditional seder plate was added an orange and a roasted beet.  

Why the orange? 

In the '80's this gesture was added to show solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men and others marginalized within the Jewish community. The orange signifies the fruitfulness all Jews can bring to the community.  Each orange also has a few seeds that are spit out, a gesture that symbolized repudiation of the narrow mindfulness that, in some way, affects us all. 

Why the roasted beet? 

Well, sacrifice is no longer offered and besides respecting the Kosher laws, the Talmud (commentary) teaches that those that could not afford a shank bone could use a beet.

Miriam's Cup  (left)

We also each added water from our own cups to Miriam's Cup to symbolize the well given to Miriam on the first Sabbath, that not only quenched our thirst but also cured body and soul.  These 'Living Waters' remind us of the redemption that is always with us and to be nurturing - to bring life and peace to the desolate landscape of destruction and war. 

We sang old tunes and some new ones.  We used our voices and some percussion instruments and we had a good time hearing the ancestor voices, celebrating, learning and sharing as we took a spiritual journey from oppression to freedom, from individuals to a community with wishes of peace and cooperation among all the nations of the world and prayers that next year our celebration be in a world of peace...  to which we all can say 'AMEN.'