Passover

Friday afternoon, before Tamar and Ryder arrived for the weekend, we saw bluebirds checking out the nesting boxes on the fence posts in front of the house.  I finally saw the redwing blackbird I have been hearing for days.  Tamar and Ryder came with haroset and bags of goodies from Crown Maple.  It was Ryder’s first visit here, and it was a pleasure to have him.  Tamar wasted no time whupping me at Scrabble (3 seven letter words), but I eked out a win after dinner.  Keely and Seyi and the kids arrived at Aviva’s Friday afternoon too, but we decided not to get everyone together until the Seder Saturday evening. The Passover full moon rose Friday night in a clear sky, and it was still up in the west when we had our morning coffee in front of the pellet stove.

Saturday morning we four went to the farmer’s market – potatoes, mushrooms, hothouse spinach, pickled green beans, lamb chops, berry jam, cider jelly and goat cheese.  We headed up the east shore of Glimmerglass lake.  With the trees bare the lake is visible from a lot of the road, still mostly frozen, but beautiful.  We pulled off onto Lippitt Development Road and were able to drive as far as Lorna’s house before we came to the pile of snow at the end of the plowing.  We could see Peter and Aviva’s summer camp next door, but no one felt like hiking in through the snow for the view from their porch. We drove on around the lake, past the cutoff to Hyde Hall where Peter and Seyi had taken the kids for an Easter Egg Hunt on the still snowy lawn. We finished the loop around the lake and stopped at the Otesaga Hotel for lunch overlooking the lake.  It’s a beautiful room, a great view, and tasty food.

The brisket finished it’s 30 plus hour bath with the sous vide cooker immersed in one of Peter’s coolers.  We packed the whole cooler, warm water and all, into the back of the car and packed up all our goodies to take to Aviva’s. It was so great to get Keely and Seyi sized hugs – ages since I’d seen them.  Lilah, at 5, is so tall, and only momentarily shy in the onslaught of company.  They had worn two and a half year old Isaac out so thoroughly that he was still napping at five.  But soon he was awake, and none too happy to see a house full of – for him – strangers.  He’s gotten total mastery over walking and running since I saw him last, and now he’s talking too, or shrieking. He did let me read him a dinosaur book while the final preparations for the Seder were underway, and like many children he knows the difficult names of many of the dinosaurs.  He was briefly very engaged with the book – answering questions with great gusto.

Not surprisingly, Aviva’s table was beautiful. But what took me by surprise were the Haggadahs and Seder plate Keely had brought.  I didn’t realize, when she said she’d bring them, that it was my parents’ old Haggadahs and plate – the ones we’d used at every Seder when I was a kid.  What a joy to see those familiar old books, even if their spines were crumbling and their pages worn.  All the language was so familiar.  I had not remembered that it was published in ’42, in the midst of the war, when the State of Israel was still only a dream. And here was Keely, leading the Seder with her grandfather’s Haggadah, laying out the lamb bone, the parsley, the bitter herbs and all on the Seder plate her grandmother had prepared every year, adding an orange that Bubbe and Zayda would totally have approved.

With two little ones, it was an appropriately abbreviated Seder, but Keely did a wonderful job of capturing the essence.  She got us talking about what we loved about spring, and what freedom we wanted for ourselves and others. Tamar, Aviva, Keely and I sang the four questions in the old melody we learned as kids – missing Shayne’s wonderful voice.  I always think of my parents and Shayne at Passover, but this year, with the familiar old objects and my sisters’ voices, I felt their presence more than usual. Before Lilah lost patience with the proceedings and went to join Isaac playing on the floor, Keely put her arm around her and told the essentials of the Exodus story. Lilah wanted to know why all the Egyptians were punished by the plagues when many of them were probably completely innocent.  And there is the heart of Passover for me, each generation teaching the next to ask the important moral questions, to wrestle with myth and history, to share tradition but prize independent thought. It was a lovely Seder. I missed all the people I’ve celebrated Passover with in California for so many years, but what a joy to celebrate with my New York meshpucha.

Jay’s brisket was fabulous as usual, and Aviva’s macaroons were way too good.

We had a quiet Sunday morning on Sunnyhill watching thick snowflakes falling. The snow didn’t last long, and mid-morning everyone except Peter came up to hang out.  Keely and Seyi had not been here yet, and like everyone, they were captured by the beauty of our hill. The kids played for three hours and the grown ups had a little time to talk. It was lovely to see our home full of family. And equally lovely to see them all off and to have the place to ourselves again. Quiet.

A little snow again this morning, but spring is here.  The birds know.  The earth knows. Zen lies down in the warm afternoon grass and sheds his shaggy winter coat.