Why Do I Do It?

Why Do I Do It?

1.     I love Passover. It is an amazing and rich holiday.  The Seder encompasses all the things that are best about our way of life.

2.     I enjoy extending Passover into the months between Sukkot and its arrival. Why celebrate Passover for only eight days when you can read the Haggadah all year long?

3.     I believe that everyone should be mishuga ladavar about one thing in their lives. Mishuga ladavar means crazy-committed or passionate to one thing. Hopefully it is something healthy and life affirming. I am mishuga ladavar about Passover. I think about Passover and the Haggadah all the time. I collect Haggadot (I have over 1200). I have Haggadot hanging on the walls of our home and we even have a Haggadah room in which we keep the collection.  Am I a little crazy? Maybe. But Passover is a good thing to be crazy about.

4.     The Seder is a template for life - I am always making references to it.  It's about the transmission of culture, the importance of faith, dialogue through the generations and more/

5.     A Seder is not complete if you haven’t learned something new about Passover, Jewish tradition, ethics, history and life. That is why there are so many different commentaries on this brief text. Some of them are in words, others in illustrations. In addition we all have our own Passover traditions that are a product of our family story.

6.     I keep dreaming about creating the perfect Haggadah - or finding it. There are lots of good ones out there but I still haven’t found the perfect Haggadah. I've even written two of my own. So I keep searching.

7.     The Haggadah is a window into Jewish life. I have learned a great deal about how we have lived by reading Haggadot from around the world. The Haggadah is a prism - and it refracts the light of the Jewish tradition in each society.

8.     I love Hebrew. Translating a commentary is a great challenge for me. Some are just too difficult and others are too easy. I try to find one that will be a challenge but not overwhelming.

9.     A good Seder should be fun. The Haggadah is a guide to having fun.