Pesach 2013

At the request of Matthew McGraw I am writing this second post in two weeks:

Tonight my sister invited me to her apartment for a Passover Seder. I hadn’t celebrated Passover the past few years since I have been away at school, and to be honest, I didn’t think much about missing the holiday. Celebrating tonight brought me back to another time, and let me forget about the stresses of being in my last semester of college for a few hours.

I am not a very religious person, as y’all may or may not already know. I don’t really put any stock in a God figure, but I still try to live as a good person, with the vague feeling that some force in the universe is monitoring my life. Despite this lack of faith, I still feel a strong cultural attachment to Judaism. It’s nice to have something to identify with, because lord knows it’s hard out here for a Caucasian-American male. But really, it is special to feel part of a group, and to also honor my ancestors, who suffered more than I can imagine in the name of their religion. In keeping Jewish traditions alive, I feel closer to my ancestors, many of whom I never met as they died at the hands of the Nazis.  

In the spring of my senior year of high school, my parents told my sister and me that they were getting divorced after nearly thirty years of marriage. When Passover came around a few weeks later, both of my parents opted to abandon me like baby Moses on the river get out of town and spend the holiday with their respective families, leaving me home alone. Luckily, I was invited to celebrate Passover by my friend Stephanie and her family. They welcomed me into their home (in the true spirit of Passover) and treated me as family. I don’t know if they realized it, but this meant so much to me at that point in my life. As I was struggling with losing the sense of having a “family unit”, I was able to spend the holiday with a loving family, enjoying the holiday without any fighting or tension. Four years later, about to begin yet another chapter in life, I had another great Passover experience to remind me of the positives of religion, and of celebrating life. As great as the college environment can be, there is a certain void where the warmth of family would usually be. For me, this void makes it that much more special when I do get the chance to spend time with family, or in this case, my sister and her friends.  

It can be hard to know how to feel about religion. I grew up accepting it without much questioning, until I eventually had a moment that I referred to as “seeing the darkness”. This left me with an empty feeling, failing to see any merits of religion. Since then, I have learned to see both the positives and negatives that come with religion. For me, if religion makes someone more compassionate towards his or her fellow humans, then I completely support it. Who wouldn’t? I am glad to take away something positive from my Judaism, and to find some comfort in a time of so much uncertainty in my life.

That’s all for tonight. Until next time, here is a video of Drake dancing at his Bar Mitzvah. (YOLO)