According to all statistics, Passover is our most-celebrated family Jewish holiday. Almost everyone is going to be at Some Kind of Seder. Our Seder is an Ordered Meal, fourteen steps to help us re-experience our redemption and to tel the story of how We got out of Egypt. One of the more familiar parts of the Seder is the description of Four Children. Our Haggadah describes them as Wise, Wicked, Simple and the One Who Doesn't Know to Ask. Each child asks a different question, and the text provides us with different answers for each child.
Every year at the Seder we have the opportunity to ask ourselves: "What kind of child am I, personally? What question do I need to ask at this Seder, this re-living of our Redemption?"
Frequently we find that the major question we really want to ask is: "When are we going to eat? How much longer do I have to wait?"
Many of us suffer from Religious Disassociation. When it comes to either the spiritual or the religious, we just don't feel it. We don't get it. We spend many of our ritual moments praying that they'll quickly end. There's a sense t athat we're "putting in our time," but those moments don't necessarily re-charge our spiritual batteries.
Before we judge ourselves too harshly for not being particularly responsive to our Jewish ceremonies and rituals, let's at least congratulate ourselves that we are part of the self-identified Jewish community. We Have joined a synagogue. We are participating in a Seder (of some kind.) We do have a sense of being Jewish. These are all important personal accomplishments. Be we can get so much more out of our ongoing Jewish experiences.
How can we gain a sense of the religious in our Jewish practices? First and most important, religious experiences move us when we do them regularly. We won't feel anything religious until we feel comfortable with our rituals, and we can only begin to feel comfortable with Jewish rituals when they become familiar. So the first step of being able to sense the religious in our Jewish experiences is to make our religious experiences a regular part of our lives. If we limit our Jewish experiences to the High Holy Days and Passover, then our Passover Seder becomes a warm, loving family meal; but we miss out on the spiritual dimensions. So ongoing Shabbat experiences lead to deeper, more fulfilling Passover experiences.
Second, we have to take our religious experiences seriously. If we approach Passover as quaint ancient family traditions, we will limit our responses to warm family feelings. Ritual can do much more than that. It can be personally enriching. Prayer can provide us with "grounding," with assurance that there is an eternal order, that our lives have lasting meaning, that our actions matter in this world.
All this can begin with our Passover Seder this year. When we get to the Four Children, let's ask ourselves, "What kind of Jew am I?" And let's try to make our personal question deeper than "When do we eat?"
