Embrace of Passover Tradition Can Be Decidedly Untraditional

Concluding the Passover Seder minutes after it began was almost a family tradition for the Sifens. Larry and Pam Sifen, together with their children and parents, would sit around the table in their Norfolk, Va., home as the aroma of holiday foods warming in the neighboring kitchen competed with the text of the Haggadah for attention.

In recent years, however, the Sifens have taken a new approach to the annual Passover ceremony and feast, ditching the house altogether to embark on an inspirational holiday learning experience away from home. The experiences of other families suggest the Sifens are not alone; more and more people seem to be flocking to such gatherings, held at resorts, community centers and synagogues across the country.

“I can just as easily have a Seder at home, where we go around the table and each of us reads a piece of the Haggadah,” says Linda Barbanel Weiss, who together with her family will be joining Rabbi Dovid Vigler and Chabad-Lubavitch of Palm Beach Gardens at Florida’s PGA Resort for the feast. “But Rabbi Vigler makes it so much more meaningful by explaining the Seder in terms that you can understand.”

Customarily, Passover – an eight-day holiday that this year begins the night of April 19 – is celebrated at home, but many families opt for a change of pace, seeking to reconnect with the traditions people remember from their childhoods. Others choose to attend public Seders that, with their strict adherence to Jewish law, offer a chance to learn about how the holiday that marks the Jewish people’s liberation from Egypt has been celebrated for centuries.

Article continued (Chabad.org News)