I have never attended a Seder, but the University has one every year which is open to everyone. I peek into the room and look at the table so carefully laid, everything so symbolic and rich with history. It’s gorgeous. Perhaps someday I’ll take seriously the invitation to come in.
Whether or not you take as fact the story of the exodus, it’s a doozy, and was always one of my favorite stories. Plagues, dark angels and swords, recalcitrant rulers, eating standing up before a midnight escape. This poem captures some of the mystery.
April 4
The exodus from Egypt takes place
tonight this is the bread
of affliction this the wine
like the water of the Nile turned
into blood, the first plague
visited upon Pharaoh this is
the lamb of the feast the blood
of the lamb smeared on the doorposts
so the angel of death would know
which houses to pass over as he
came to slay the first-born sons
of the Egyptian ruling class these
are the bitter herbs fresh horse-
radish the sharpest most pungent
my mother served the tears
of many centuries and my father
poured the wine in Elijah’s cup
that the prophet invisibly sipped
let all who are hungry join us
– by David Lehman, from The Evening Sun: A Journal in Poetry, Scribner Poetry, ©2002
Poetry Friday today is at Carol’s Corner. Happy Spring, Easter, and Chag Kasher V’Sameach to all of my Jewish friends celebrating Pesach.
