A dramatic night

For a long while, my life lacked major drama.  What drama could there be in a dry, academic environment? Granted, compared to most academia, Yeshiva is comparably rambunctious, but dramatic it is not.  Food prepared every night, my only real responsibility was to make my bed and be an astute roommate.   Marriage ups the ante a bit.  Here, another adult is living with you in close quarters and between the two a home needs to run.  At times dramatic, but at other times life flows without a hitch; each person learns what their responsibilities are, and complies with their best.   Then, a child comes along, and suddenly, everything is dramatic.  A bath, no! A bit overtired, watch out.  Food is not tasty, on the floor it goes.  Too full, too hot, too thirsty, too bored- what is going to blow next?  A child lives in the body, and then shouts from the heart with little filter to stop it.  But, they may be on to something.  When a child emotes, the whole world moves.  We spring to action to douse the fire, when appropriate of course.   Obviously, too much movement makes for a spoiled tyke and who wants that.  But, the beauty of that expressive heart is that it moves people so wonderfully- who else can make you spring out of a bed after a few hours’ sleep? 

                This is what Seder night is supposed to be, a call to action.  There is a silent epidemic of boring Seders across the world.  People regurgitate the story, or talk about intellectual points. But Seder night needs to be the most exciting day of the year.  It is heart across the board, inspiration to the umpteenth. By the end of the night, if you are not itching to change the world in dramatic fashion, something didn’t go right.  You were just saved from destruction, and that does not come for free, but for a responsibility.  There is something you are supposed to do for that dramatic rescue; there is a reason why you are here.  And if you haven’t felt saved in your gut, and ready to pounce to action, then another year has been wasted.  

                Everywhere we turn in the Jewish religion, Egypt follows us.  Like a shadow we can’t escape, Egypt lurks.  Before we step into our silent prayers, the last thing on our mind is that G-d redeemed me from Egypt.  Wait, if we are constantly, thinking about Egypt, why do we need Seder night?  We know the story- we said it last year and thought about it every day since then.  Because on Seder night, we are not ‘remembering’, זכירה, Egypt as we do every day, but we are ‘recounting’ םיפור, telling the story in dramatic fashion.  And just like a holocaust survivor’s story tugs at our heart each time we hear it, so too Seder night.  It does not matter that we’ve heard it time and again, because a story form is powerful. It uses details and the art of the question to tug us along.  Our goal on Seder night is to make drama, and the Haggadah is the dramatic child that moves us.