giae

Mom The

Awe,

HARMONY HOUSE

GIFT CERTIFICATES

AVAILABLE IN ANY AMOUNT

AND REDEEMABLE AT ALL

HARMONY HOUSE

LOCATIONS

ftA01%,

HARMONYHOUSE

ItaAPF AIlf

CdrSt.,..a. .44 a Ca.., Aiaa,

$2.00
OFF

CASSETTES

An Old-World Passover seder, depicted by Arthur Szyk. For one week at least, we are distinctly Jewish.

Jewish Life In My 20s

Tales of old are tales of today.

A

nother Passover gone by.
And I begin to wonder why
this year was any different
than Pesachs past.
For me, it was the first time I
fully kept Passover, to the best of
my ability.
Buying a cutting board, a veg-
etable knife, a 16-quart pot for
kosher-for-Pesach chicken soup,
paper, plastic; you name it, I
bought it this year. The mini-
mum, at least.
Sometimes, I wonder why we
do these things.
It would, no doubt, be easier,
less stressful, less noticeable to
cast aside the trappings of fol-
lowing Judaism. For Jewish sin-
gles, certainly, it would open up
the pool of availables if we didn't
just date in.
But this year, I got some an-
swers, began to understand a lit-
tle more why we do what we do.
At Rabbi Steven Weil's cigar
smokers' schiur a few weeks back,
I really looked at the words of the
Haggadah.
We learned that only 20 per-
cent of the Jewish people left
Egypt. Why? Eighty percent ei-
ther didn't want to leave a famil-
iar land, or had no interest in
leading a monotheistic life.
Sounds like today.
There was the part of the seder
where as kids, we used to giggle
and blush tomato red. In English,
"I made you as numerous as the
plants of the field, you grew and
developed ... but you were naked

and bare ... 'Through your blood Before, even, Moses ascended
shall you live!"' (Ezekiel 16:7,6).
Mount Sinai. Way before Eretz
Rabbi Weil says the part fol- Yisroel and the Temple. The Sab-
lowing the naked reference talks bath came first.
about the maturity of the Jewish
This year, I noticed the order of
people on a national level. Matu- the wording.
rity as a people. Collectively.
The order could be interpreted
And my favorite part: "There that the Sabbath had greater im-
he became a nation," the Israelites portance than the written laws
became a distinctive people. How? that came a bit later and the even-
Unique dress, language and later Temple. A day of rest — the
names set the Jews apart, ex- general, overriding concept —
plained the rabbi. The whole rea- took precedence over the minuti-
son we stayed a people
ae, the details which we
before we received the
argue about even today.
Torah was because we
Hmmmm...
had a unique dress code,
What I learned this
different names and a
year was that the para-
foreign vocabulary.
digm of the Egyptian Di-
What makes us a peo-
aspora in many ways
ple today?
parallels the Diasporas
Clothing — nah, we
LYN NE
since. That we were never
all wear jeans. Names— MEREDIT H COHN meant to stay outside of
STAFF W RITER
how many Jennifers,
Israel forever — just a lit-
Julies, Stevens and
tle while.
Matthews do you know, Jewish
On Passover, we become a lit-
or not? Vocabulary — like, no tle different from the rest of the
way, man.
country, from our gentile neigh-
At my grandparents' table, I no- bors. For a week, we eat these fun-
ticed the order and wording of the ny-looking, crunchy, stale
seder. There is no superfluous crackers. For a week, we don't eat
wording in Jewish text, words are beans or corn or peanuts or waf-
never just coincidentally used.
fles or French toast. For a week.
Take a look at "Dayenu," the
Why is this night different from
popular Passover song we all can all other nights? Because we take
sing in our sleep. We thank God the time out to be expressly Jew-
for bringing us out of Egypt, for ish, whatever that may mean,
parting the waters, for feeding us however we interpret it on an in-
40 years in the desert, for giving dividual basis.
us the Sabbath.
What makes us different — our
If you look at the words, we got
Shabbat before we got the Torah. MONEY [Imp fig

&

COMPACT DISCS

Present This Coupon at any HARMONY HOUSE
location, and receive $2 OFF any
REGULARLY PRICED CD or Cassette ($10.99
or More). No Limit. Void With Other Offers.
Excludes Special Orders. This Coupon Must
be Presented to Receive Discount.

EXPIRES May 15, 1997

JEWISH NEWS

House founder Carl Thom in front
y-the Hazel Park stole circa 194 7

Hain/011j'

(

HARMONYHOUSE

.4a4 a c.d.), c> kt.die!

57