1-April-99 Second Seder

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The reason that's traditionally given for Jewish holidays being observed for two days (except in Israel) is that since the calendar is based on the observation of the new moon, you can't be sure when the holiday really should be, and you have two days to be on the safe side. My own opinion is that it's so you can spend the holiday with both sets of in-laws. We went to Caldwell for the second Passover seder at Arlene's brother's house.

Arlene used to describe Caldwell as a sleepy little town in New Jersey. Since one of the unabomber's victims was in North Caldwell, and a scene of a long driveway in the titles of The Sopranos was filmed in the same neighborhood, that description seems a little dubious. The place has been built up a lot in the last thirty years, especially with corporate headquarters and distribution centers near the Passaic Avenue exit from I-80.

Let's see if I can get to a dozen people at the seder: Arlene and me; her sister and brother-in-law, Millie and Joel; her brother and sister-in-law, Ira and Greta, host and hostess; Millie's daughter and son Gena and David, and Gena's husband Jimmy; Greta's son Scott and Scott's girlfriend Stacy; and Greta's mother. That tallies with five chairs on each side of the table and one at each end.

Greta wanted to have a real, traditional seder, and we mostly did. We read through the whole hagaddah, each person around the table taking a paragraph in English, and added a few somewhat silly but on-subject songs. Stacy was the youngest, but rather than insist that she read the four questions, we all sang them. The menu was a very traditional one -- chopped liver or gefilte fish first, chicken soup with matzo balls, turkey or pot roast, potatos, and a couple of kinds of casserole. We sang the whole grace after meals in Hebrew, as well as most of the songs in the last section (but there are two in there, one for each seder, which none of us knows. It was pretty late by then anyway).

One of the last songs is "Who knows one?", a lot like "Twelve Days of Christmas" or "Children, Go Where I Send Thee", each verse adding another number and then counting back down to one. After we did it in Hebrew all together we did it in English with each person taking one number and just speaking it at the right time, as fast as possible. It started sedately enough, like "Five are the books of the Torah, Four are the matriarchs, three are the patriarchs, two are the tablets of the commandments". By the time Gena, who has been married about a year, said, "Who knows nine? I know nine. Well, I don't yet really, but maybe next year I will, nine are the months of pregnancy," things were going pretty fast: "Five books." "Four mommas." "Three papas." "Two tablets." A good time was had by all.