Just attended the best Sedar of my life at YIOL. The song and prayer, offered in English, Hebrew,…read moreand Yiddish, the harmonies, the rhythm. The incredible international cuisine led us from the despertion of slavery with one glass of cabernet, and raw onion dipped in salt water, on to the bread of affliction and fresh-grated horseradish, evolving thru the cucumber salad, celeriac salad, rough haroset on fresh romain, gradually moving from the desert into beet and potatoe salad, another glass of cabernet, then another hour of struggle, prayer, jokes and song, with eggplant, gefelta, more bitter herbs salt water, but with rough-cut apple haroset and more horseradish in Hillel sandwich with more flat, burnt, unleaved bread of affliction, and then, on to whole eggs, again dipped in tears. I had arrived, resigned to nursing my sore back through 3 hours of tedious repitition, but by the 3rd glass of kosher cabernet, at midnight, i was still fascinated, doing my best to harmonize with the dozens of unfamiliar ashkenazi tunes. The give and take, the bickering of the scholars, the yelling and laughing of the children, the semi-risque comments from the alta-caca, and then the wonderfully unsweet carrot kuegle and chicken broth. At the end, at 1 AM, we finally enjoyed the brisket of promised-land richness, with the fourth glass. And then cooling off withsome sweets, laughing and hugging and heading off into the night. I arrived home carrying the blessing of a serious attitude adjustment. I was just blown away by the experience, totally unexpected after a lifetime of stiff rituallistic sedars.
