Sunday, I was not the happiest of campers. Yesterday was a completely different story. All day long Penn State Hillel was cooking, cleaning, and setting up for three seders--enough food and table settings for 500 people. It was insane. We were running around all day.
I was getting nervous because I was hosting the very first Women's Seder at Penn State Hillel. I had complied the haggadah (the book that you read during the seder) over my spring break. When we first had it printed, none of the Hebrew I had typed was in the printed copies. Luckily we were able to fix that before the seder. Also, the Traditional Seders had closed--there was no more room to register for these seders, so anyone who wanted to come to Seder at Penn State Hillel registered for the Women's Seder. It meant that there were people who didn't necessarily want to be there attending my seder.
At 7pm the crowds started to arrive. The registration line wrapped around most of the Pasquerilla Spiritual lobby and was almost out the door. We filled the downstairs seder with 300 people and the two upstairs seders had another 200 people total. There were a lot of people all coming to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.
My seder was different than most, as it was a Women's Seder (see Hagaddah). But there was a communal aspect that made this seder unique. I had everyone introduce themselves at their tables and each table was then responsible for readings throughout the evening. We talked about the women involved in the story and how this tradition relates to women today.
There was a group of fraternity guys who did not register in time for the traditional seder and thus came to the Women's Seder to celebrate passover. They participated like the other tables, and after someone said something to them, they stopped talking while others were reading. They even apologized to me at one point for being disrespectful and were very thankful for this new opportunity they experienced.
Everyone had a great time. All I heard was how wonderful this seder was and how appreciative the participants were for being able to try something new. It was wonderful because it was more intimate than the huge 300-person traditional seder downstairs and because we created a community within our group. I had such a fantastic time and cannot wait to do it again next year!
Happy Passover!
I was getting nervous because I was hosting the very first Women's Seder at Penn State Hillel. I had complied the haggadah (the book that you read during the seder) over my spring break. When we first had it printed, none of the Hebrew I had typed was in the printed copies. Luckily we were able to fix that before the seder. Also, the Traditional Seders had closed--there was no more room to register for these seders, so anyone who wanted to come to Seder at Penn State Hillel registered for the Women's Seder. It meant that there were people who didn't necessarily want to be there attending my seder.
At 7pm the crowds started to arrive. The registration line wrapped around most of the Pasquerilla Spiritual lobby and was almost out the door. We filled the downstairs seder with 300 people and the two upstairs seders had another 200 people total. There were a lot of people all coming to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.
My seder was different than most, as it was a Women's Seder (see Hagaddah). But there was a communal aspect that made this seder unique. I had everyone introduce themselves at their tables and each table was then responsible for readings throughout the evening. We talked about the women involved in the story and how this tradition relates to women today.
There was a group of fraternity guys who did not register in time for the traditional seder and thus came to the Women's Seder to celebrate passover. They participated like the other tables, and after someone said something to them, they stopped talking while others were reading. They even apologized to me at one point for being disrespectful and were very thankful for this new opportunity they experienced.
Everyone had a great time. All I heard was how wonderful this seder was and how appreciative the participants were for being able to try something new. It was wonderful because it was more intimate than the huge 300-person traditional seder downstairs and because we created a community within our group. I had such a fantastic time and cannot wait to do it again next year!
Happy Passover!
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