Jewish Musings, Wednesday/2nd day Passover, April 24, 2024

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[peachymom1]

Boker tov and chag sameach! How were everyone’s seders? Tell us your stories!

For the first night, we went to the home of our bffs’ daughter and her DH, who live about 30 minutes north of us. They have a four-year-old and a two-year-old, so of course it was pandemonium, but great fun, lots of questions, and wonderful camaraderie. We zipped pretty quickly through the haggadah, as you can expect, and it was hilarious to watch the 4-year-old showing his little brother all the places they should look for the afikoman. Little kids make a seder something special, for sure. DS33 & DDIL drove up from San Diego for the seder, and they, plus my other DS33, joined me in cleanup duty so the parents could sit down and relax a bit. It’s amazing how quickly things can get done when you work as a team. There were some other people there I hadn’t seen in a few years, so it was fun to chat with them (between screechings from the toddlers), and it was just wonderful.

The second night was at our bffs’ house, no children at this one. We know a family that we invite every year; their son went to nursery school with our daughter, and they’re like family. We hadn’t seen them since the wedding in February, so we had some catching up to do, and we could take our time with the haggadah and enjoy everything at a more leisurely pace than the night before. We shared some memories of past seders, and it was a warm, relaxed evening.

I always read Torah on the first day of Passover, so I did go to shul, and I read the third aliyah perfectly. The service was well attended, and I sat with two women who are also regular Torah readers. (A mutual friend of ours refers to the three of us as “The Tropettes.”) I usually don’t go on the second day – too pooped and overloaded by then, but this year I’m going. And I will definitely go this Shabbat, because that’s when the adult b’nei mitzvah class will be celebrating. It’s the first one since the pandemic, and I’m sure the synagogue will be packed. The choir will be singing the Torah service and Hallel, and I’m very much looking forward to that as well.

How about you? How’s your Passover this year?

[peachymom1]

Oh, I forgot to mention that at the first seder, the four-year-old did a beautiful job of singing the first of the Four Questions. He was very proud of himself, and it was so sweet!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Our celebrations were made more complicated by DH announcing that he had seen an orthopedic doctor on Monday, who said he thought he needed hip surgery. DH then saw a specialist yesterday, who said he definitely needed surgery. DH needs to check his work schedule but will probably be getting it done in July, if all goes well.

Just a funny: I told DH that he was becoming bionic, but he was not amused.

Also, I was able to schedule a colonoscopy on June 28th, so the timing works out with DH's surgery.

My brain is in a whirl.

Wishing everyone a peaceful day and holiday, Lee

[hollygail]

I worked my tush off collecting "supplementary" material for the first seder. It went wonderfully well. I did add way too much stuff and started cutting things out midway through the parts before dinner. Also, for Hallel, I had prepared all my favorite parts but wound up doing one one-liner (because of time). We were supposed to start at 6 but things weren't ready. I wound up getting everything done that hadn't been done in advance and I don't know how long that took, but I can tell you that DH and I didn't get home until almost 10:30 (we picked up one friend on the way, so of course we also dropped her off at her home before we arrived home. I went straight to bed.

The first day's service was wonderful too; the cantor who comes for High Holy Days and Passover arrived last Thursday night, so I saw him at minyan Friday morning (and got a great hug from him; he also officiated at the funeral on Sunday (did I tell you that a woman who used to be a regular at minyan with her husband died last Thursday?). He did a spectacular job yesterday morning. The Conservative shul I attend during the week decided to go with one-day of chag so today minyan is at 7:30, four aliyot, etc. It's chol ha-moed today (I personally consider today pesach day 2 and will not be completely comfortable with the shorter service this morning).

Last night's seder was at my congregation, and my rabbi is beyond great. I am about to email her to ask for an e-copy of the supplementary readings she added last night. They were incredibly moving! I also have to finish what supplements I want to include next Saturday night (seder at DS's; there will be 12 people including the woman she plays bridge with). More on that topic later in the week...

[gazelle18]

Our Seder was great UNTIL , during the festive meal, my daughter’s MIL had a sort of fainting spell, and the two docs in attendance (my DH and our best friend) decided she needed to go to the hospital via ambulance. She is out of the hospital now, but being evaluated for various causes. As you can imagine, this caused quite an uproar and chaos. We joked that Elijah had come in the form of an EMT.

We are leaving tomorrow for the bris of our grandson, which will be Friday in Atlanta. Will try to post.

[louise]

Folks everything good but I am completely exhausted. See you tomorrow.