The Biggest Trend To Hit Pesach Since The Four Questions: Alternative Sedarim

By Harry Pell
KOACH Faculty Coordinator

No one’s entirely sure where this new trend started, but alternative sedarim are all the rage in Passover observance, particularly on college campuses. From Tibetan Freedom to Feminism, families, campuses and entire communities are creating sedarim centered on themes that branch out from Yetziat Mitzrayim and the liberation from Egyptian bondage. Most reinvest the traditional rituals of the seder with new meanings and add new rituals along the way for an entirely new effect. Others aim to infuse the traditional seder itself with a renewed sense of purpose. In both cases the result is the same, this is not your average old seder.

My wife Lisa recently reminded me of an experience she had while visiting Israeli cousins for Pesah many years ago, shortly after she became a Bat Mitzvah. As native Israelis, there was no question that they could run circles around her in the Hebrew department, but when it came to doing the seder, she found she had a distinct advantage as an American. Lisa had grown up observing two nights of seder as is the custom outside of Israel, so for every seder they’d experienced, she’d experienced two. But there was one more added advantage that Lisa had, the model seder.

Whether in Hebrew school or day school, what Jewish kid hasn’t had the joy of rehearsing for the big night with a model seder? I think there’s more to the model seder, though; I think that without ever intending to, the model seder of yesterday gave birth to today’s alternative sedarim

Alternative sedarim come in all shapes and sizes, but the most basic form of alternative seder seems to be a grown-up version of the model seder. Held any time in the days and weeks leading up to Pesah, these sedarim are alternative not in their message, but in their food choices. Different kinds of chocolate or a variety of flavors of ice cream stand in for the traditional meaning-laden Passover foods, and provide a tasteful and entertaining backdrop for reintroducing the seder-goers with the Pesah rituals they probably haven’t seen for a year. Moreover, this is a perfect educational/social event to hold on campus a few weeks before Pesah arrives.

If you’re thinking, "what’s so alternative about a chocolate seder?" you’re right! Truly alternative sedarim are supposed to be markedly different from their traditional forebears and my highly scientific research indicates that they fall into two categories. There are alternative sedarim that are meant to take place on the first and (more frequently) second nights of Pesah, and those that can be scheduled on any of the eight remaining nights.

Living outside the land of Israel, Conservative and Orthodox Jews are blessed with two sedarim. While that might mean twice the fun for some folks, for others it represents a challenge to make the second night new and different. Many innovative thinkers have used this premise to refocus the second night of seder on a social action issue that has yet to be resolved. For many years, the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt was a perfect launching pad into discussing the then unresolved liberation of Russian refusniks, often including a fifth cup of wine that was poured but, depending on haggadah and minhag (custom), not drunk. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, many Jews chose to include a retelling of the emigration of Russian Jews alongside the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt). Today the issues are different, and some communities and campuses are focusing on Arab-Israeli peace as an appropriate and timely theme to insert into the existing seder liturgy.

The other form of alternative seder takes place on any of the last six nights of Pesah and often uses the seder’s ritualized hors d’oeuvres and freedom-based story-telling as a bridge between communities and cultures. Black-Jewish sedarim emphasizing parallel stories of freedom from slavery and overcoming discrimination can be incredibly poignant. Lately, Tibetan freedom sedarim have gained a great deal of fanfare as an opportunity for exchange between two cultures struggling with the challenges of spiritual survival in the Diaspora. Students at Duke put together a fantastic "Seder for a Free Tibet" including many guests from off campus, but you don’t need to have famous guests to make an alternative seder work. This is a great opportunity to reach out to one or several other groups on campus who have a shared interest in freedom (who doesn’t?) and tikkun olam (repairing the world) in the widest possible sense, to work together on a fun and culturally diverse seder experience.

Other alternative sedarim of note include the "Eco-Seder" which adds an ecological message to the liberation theme and the grandmother of all alternative sedarim, the feminist seder. This is probably the most famous alternative spin on the seder and one of the earliest alternatives to the traditional seder liturgy. It’s also a unique reflection of where this whole alternative trend is headed.

Most proponents of alternative sedarim make a point of saying that they should never compete with traditional sedarim. Feminist sedarim have often pushed the envelope of this non-competition clause with some being planned as stand alone events before or after the two seder nights, and others created to enhance or even redefine parts of the traditional seder for modern, egalitarian Jews. Ultimately, though, the feminist seder has gone beyond its alternative title. Rituals originally created for feminist sedarim, like including an orange on the seder plate, are becoming increasingly more common as standard options for mainstream sedarim. So perhaps the moral of this story is enjoy alternative sedarim while they’re still alternative. Today’s alternative could be tomorrow’s minhag.

[Posted 2/20/04]