Passover/Easter Open Thread
Happy Passover and/or Easter to all who celebrate!
Interested to hear what everyone has planned.
As an MGoJew, we are at heightened alert for Passover.
Hosting 14 people tonight for the first Seder. This includes a handful of current Michigan students...plus a few family members.
The chicken broth and matzo balls were prepared and frozen this past weekend. Stage 1 of the brisket-cooking process has been completed...and it'll hit the oven again around 4PM today. Everything else is being deployed for what will hopefully be a meaningful and joyous celebration.
Wishing everyone an A-Maize-Ing holiday with family and friends!
(in this spirit, I would appreciate keeping this thread free of judgment and/or any negative views re: religion or religious observance)
Happy Passover to you and your family. I am taking the family to the Bahamas for Easter vacation.
I’m grateful for the many blessing
Hosting a large family gathering for Easter. I bought a 9 pound pork butt to put on the smoker. I'll probably start cooking it around 1am the night before. We'll also have a ham and more traditional foods but everyone loves the pulled pork.
Oh man, pulled pork sounds so good right about now.
Bacon and other pork products: Proof God loves us.
Don't forget the other major food group.
Yes, liquid bread.
Blessings. Please don't fret from anyone who insults you. I'm saying anyone. There is a reason why persons feel the need to insult others. It has nothing to do with you.
I'm praying for all of our safety because in today's times, we never know what's going to happen; from one day to the next.
Happy Passover to you.
I always loved the food at Passover more than Easter because I've never been much of a ham person. My mom's side of the family is hosting this year, but they aren't very good at cooking and my wife and I don't care for most of them, so we're skipping it.
What I do have is a few ounces of weed and shrooms, so I'm going to do some spring cleaning and drift away.
Happy Passover and Easter to all who celebrate!
Semi-relaredly, many of my coworkers are Muslim and it's currently Ramadan. I was out on the field with one and he was telling me that while Muslims officially don't eat pork or drink or smoke weed, he would have 1000x rather been caught drinking as a teen then been caught eating pork. Is the haramness of pork similarly strict in Jewish culture, broadly speaking? (Also, how universal is the Chinese restaurant at Christmas thing?)
I defer to Woody Allen:
‘‘Why pork was proscribed by Hebraic law is still unclear, and some scholars believe that the Torah merely suggested not eating pork at certain restaurants."
Jury is still out for me with Woody as a movie director. As a writer? He is fantastic. The guy is unbelievably funny.
Exactly! I like some of his goofy early films, the later relationship-based stuff leaves me cold. But his written work kills. “Remembering Needleman,” “Spring Bulletin," "Fabrizio's," "The Gossage-Varadebian Papers," etc. Gold, Woody, gold! One of my proudest moments as an English major was working the following quote into a paper on Sister Carrie:
"Today I pulled a tooth and had to anesthetize the patient by reading him some Dreiser."
Agreed. Never a fan of the movies or the man, but I fell in love with this quote:
"I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam. I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me."
The Chinese restaurant thing has more to do with access than anything. If you're Jewish and not doing a big celebration with people but you also don't want to cook you needed to find a place to eat and the Chinese places were generally the only ones that were open. Eventually, it just became the thing to do
As a MGo Non-Jew (not religious at all) from Grand Rapids who married into a large Jewish family in the Huntington Woods area, I can safely say this is a fun/stressful time of year for the in-laws. Something like 40 people going to dinner tonight with gobs of food with names I can barely pronounce.
My wife and the in-laws are reform Jews in the most basic sense in that they participate in the holidays but not kosher or adhere to the strict laws. We eat bacon and all the other artery-clogging goodness our curly-tailed farm friends provide. Pork belly on the Traeger is always a favorite. They do Friday Shabbos sometimes which is fun. We do have some kosher folks in the family but it’s not a big deal and you would hardly notice dinner a big family dinner.
Chinese-American food on Christmas is very real and awesome as I love me some sesame chicken any time of year. I’ve gained at least 10-15 lbs since meeting my wife and they will feed you until you burst.
Happy holidays, friends.
Blau, we've got quite a few friends who live in the Woods! I think HW is something like 60% Jewish now. We are definitely a people who like to congregate among our people. We are down Woodward in Birmingham.
Enjoy your celebration!
As a MGo Non-Jew
I believe the technical term is MGoyBlogger...
You win the internet today in my book Mr. Jones! Sincerely, another MGoyBlogger.
Not sure about the broader sense, but in our family, my catholic brother-in-law married a jewish woman whose parents owned a deli in the Baltimore area. She said that her parents were not going to be hypocrites and sell pork products, but be above eating them. Now I’m off to pickup some ribeye pork chops to throw in the pressure cooker. Yum!
It's more about the family and their level of practice than the religion as a whole. There's so much nuance in each household that I think it's impossible to really categorize it. My mom blew her shit if you had a cheeseburger at home; my dad only kept Kosher at home. I know lots of Muslims and their experiences are as varied as the Jews I know. Some grew up with strict rules, some with none, and they all made their own choices about their homes. I know Catholics who go to confession and those who keep meaning to, and those who don't really practice at all.
Personally, I'll eat pork now--I didn't for most of my life--but I always fast on Yom Kippur and I always keep the Pesach. For me, that's the big one. I'm not one for rules unless they come with a good reason, but Passover has a great one: We made a deal. Passover's main thing is the dinner at the start of it, and remembering the story of our people. The story has three main points:
- We were once slaves in Egypt.
- God got us out of there.
- God then offered us a deal.
The deal wasn't contingent on the freedom; that was opportunism. The deal was what happens now. I can leave you out in the desert and you can figure out your shit. OR our people will survive the centuries, spread out across the world, and number the stars, but in return we have to follow his laws (The Torah) and be a light unto the nations (Or L'Goyim). What's it going to be?
People misinterpret the last part as "The Chosen." What it really means is "I'll get you out of this, but afterwards you're mine." We get out of slavery, God gets to have people who remember being slaves placed everywhere in the world. For the rest of history, as long as we remember that identity, every cause for liberty and justice should have a few of the privileged on their side, and every slaver and tyrant a thorn in his.
You're supposed to do that every day, but having to take on a symbolic hardship like altering your diet for 8 days ties you to thousands of years of people who kept the pact, makes it part of your identity.
Now that I'm in charge of passing that to a new generation I've had to think about that identity a lot. How do you continue making a 5,000-year-old deal relevant to people who are going to spend most of their lives in a world that doesn't exist yet? It's given me a new appreciation for symbolism. Imparting a humanistic morality onto kids is a lifelong process, and with all the other things to impart, there's always the risk it gets lost. Transitioning the household to matzah once a year, and launching it with the story of Passover, however, is hard for a kid to miss. It's obvious, and a pain in the ass, and begs the question Why do we do this? Because once I was a slave in Egypt, and I made a deal.
I said long ago that a big part of the appeal of this blog isn't just the Michigan sports - it's the other stuff. The stuff that people happen to know or the "Oh, that reminds me" or "Funny you should mention this" subjects. I've come to appreciate those rabbit holes of conversation as much as I do the UFR and 'crootin' news.
This is a perfect and articulate example. As a lapsed Catholic who could never get out of church fast enough and never went back, much of Judaism has always been a mystery. But this post, written in what my Freshman Comp instructor would call the Three C's (Clear, Concise & Complete) shed a big ray of light on Passover, in a way that even this goy could understand.
So thank you - and chag Pesach sameach. (And if I got that wrong, trust me that my heart was in the right place.)
Once we were slaves in the land of the shoe, until the Lord, acting with a strong arm and great enthusiasm, brought us forth. Now we are free men and women, in the land of milk, honey, and the great and mighty house, which provideth great bounty and many zuzim for NIL.
Aaaaannndd Jesus Chriiiiist... WOAH! He rolls away the stone! Jesus rises again 8̶5̶ ̶y̶a̶r̶d̶s̶!̶ 3 days later!!
Happy Passover the head of Cam Martinez to a wide open Cornelius Johnson on this wonderful 4-5-23 day
Leave the door open for Elijah and the hole open for Donovan.
Donovan Edwards showing up to my cedar tonight would be a great character arc for him
just not Red Seder
edit was marginally funny the first time
Celebrating Good Friday with my wife's side of the family and Easter Sunday with my side of the family. Lots of food and gratefulness to be had!
We did a chocolate Seder at the temple last weekend and the matriarch of the temple invited myself and my kids to her house for Seder tonight. Then, she asked me to lead it. I'm honored but it's a bit nerve racking trying to meet the expectations of everyone at her home while trying to also keep my 6 and 5 year olds focused. Happy Pesach to all and Happy Easter this upcoming weekend!
Passover is a 2.5 point favorite, but look for that line to move as we get closer to Easter.
The other semi-final match is Islam/Buddhism.
(in this spirit, I would appreciate keeping this thread free of judgment and/or any negative views re: religion or religious observance)
how is this board post different than other board posts?
(i'm sure there's a better joke in there somewhere, but i'm heading into a work meeting)
Well done, matty blue. Well done.
Another thing to thank the M for - meeting and getting some understanding of the customs of Jewish people during my 4 years of undergrad.
I grew up in Grosse Pointe and never met a Jewish person until I arrived in Ann Arbor my freshman year. My education began. Thanks to all who put up with me and explained their customs to me. What a sheltered dork I was...
A safe and happy Passover to you all!
I have 1-seed Egypt going out to the Hebrews in the Red Sea regionals. Wish me luck!
they’re a huge underdog, but you might have a chance. egypt is definitely deeper, but the hebrews will have the best player in that regional.
it’s ironic that moses transferred from egypt, too - can you imagine how great they’d be if they still had him? frogs, locusts, snakes eating other snakes - none of that would matter.
Remember how it went viral when Moses hit the portal?
In his case, the portal had water on both sides.
That freshman class of Rameses and Moses was ridiculous.
until Moses got caught in the "wrong place, wrong time"
I'm more of a Deist as opposed to subscribing to a formal religion, but I hope everyone who does celebrate has a Happy Passover and Happy Easter!
We're still deciding what we want to make. My wife is thinking ham, but moreso because she thinks that will be the most likely meal that our two year old would want to partake in as well. Honestly, anything that gives me an excuse to grill or break out the slow cooker is a win in my book.
I know Easter and Passover are roughly aligned, but is Passover not tied to a specific day of the week (like how Easter is always a Sunday, and Holy Thursday, Good Friday, etc. are always those days, even though the dates fluctuate)? Back when I was in grad school, one of my classmates hosted a seder for some of us (including some non-Jews like me), and I think it was on a Tuesday. Super cool and interesting to experience. But anyway, she did it again the next year, but that year it fell on Good Friday, which given the menu made it pretty pointless for me to go. I guess I had assumed it would always be the same day or days (I think there are two seder days per year).
Jewish holidays are tied to the lunar calendar and that varies from the Gregorian calendar used by most of the world. That's why the date or day varies vs. being on the same Gregorian date each year.
I get that, I think my confusion comes more from the day (as opposed to date) issue. The date of Easter floats in a similar way, and my understanding is that it's calculated in much the same way that Passover is (which is why there pretty much always together, although I may be wrong about that). But Easter is also tied to the Sabbath/Sunday, i.e. it's essentially the Sabbath/Sunday that falls during Passover, and I think my confusion was thinking that seder was similarly tied to the Jewish Sabbath (i.e. X number of days before Sabbath during Passover, something like that)...
Simple version: Passover starts on a specific calendar day, like how Halloween is October 31st and Christmas is December 25th no matter which day of the week they fall on. Easter is specifically a Sunday, like how Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday or Election Day is always on a Tuesday.
The reason it gets confusing is Passover isn't calculated on the Gregorian calendar. It's on the 15th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, which is a lunar-solar calendar. This doesn't translate exactly to the Gregorian calendar because the Hebrew calendar's months align to the moon's phases, and then there's a leap month (or not) in the middle of the calendar. The Gregorian calendar isn't solar-lunar, it's just a 365-day solar calendar with a leap day (generally) every four years.
They're close (often) because they're both generally hitting the same full moon. The Hebrew months all start with a new moon, and the new moon that starts the month of Nisan (Babylonian for "first fruit") shifts in the Gregorian calendar from mid-March to the first week of April, meaning the 15th of Nisan always comes around the full moon in early to mid April. Meanwhile the church places Easter on the first Sunday after the first full Moon on or after the Spring Equinox. Sometimes they might separate by four weeks if there's a full moon right around the spring equinox on a year that Nisan starts later in the year. But usually we're both hitting the same full moon.
Thanks Seth, that was very informative.
It has always seemed strange to me that Easter can come before Passover in some (though not often) years. I mean, Jesus was in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, so it seems like Easter should always be after, right? Orthodox Easter, on the other hand, is always after Passover (the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover).
Jewish holidays are attached to the Hebrew calendar...which does not coincide with the regular calendar.
That's why it seems as though the Jewish holidays occur at different times in different years.
My rabbi enjoys it when I ask him when a certain holiday is happening...and then he gets to answer with "it's on the same day every year"...referring to the Hebrew calendar. The joke gets funnier as the years proceed.
When is Passover? The dates are based on the Hebrew calendar, from the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan (or Nisan) through the 22nd day.
1989 UM Grad, I hope you are wearing proper attire.
