A Birkat haChamah photo, and Blogging the Passover Seder

First, a photo of my wonderful children, at Birkat haChamah.

Well, no, not actually at Birkat haChamah. You see, we had scheduled the communal Birkat haChamah for 9:30 AM, but when I checked the weather report before Shacharit they predicted increasing clouds. So we recited Birkat haChamah at shul after the siyum, and my kids did it with the esteemed Rebbetzin at home. Sans camera.

Then it got cloudy. Then it snowed. Then the sun came out - right at 9:30! - and then it got cloudy and snowed again.

So this photo is actually from bedikat chametz during a brief period of sun, and it’s only a little while after they did Birkat haChamah, and that will have to do.


Jack posted the other day about leading a Seder, and I commented that leading a Seder is a lot like blogging.

As Jack replied, you don’t get to moderate the comments at the Seder, which I’ll grant can be an issue at times… but I still enjoy the similarities.

The Haggadah itself is a blog, recording how Jews through the ages told and re-told the story of yetziat mitzrayim (the exodus).

Whether the Aramaic-speaker saying Ha Lachma Anya,
or the farmer saying Arami Oveid Avi,
or the tannaim R’ Eliezer, R’ Yehoshua, R’ Akiva and R’ Tarfon recounting the story in Bnei Brak,
or the Yerushalmi with its four children,
or Yehoshua telling the Jews at the end of his life B’eiver hanahar yashvu avoteichem mei’olam,
or sages counting miracles and devising acronyms for the makkot (plagues),
or Yechezkel’s b’damayich chayee,
or Yoel’s dam v’eish v’timrot ashan,
we leapfrog through Jewish history within the text of the blog itself, reading posts from so many authors, so many families of those Jewish generations.

And then you have the other blogs which link back to the original articles, with their comments. The early authorities with their glosses, followed by latter-day commentators, provide richness beyond the original.

All of these blogs are trying to do what many bloggers do - trying to inform the reader, and keep the reader interested enough to keep on reading, and to return.

And then, at our seder, everyone chimes in with what they know, remember or feel, on each note and story and lesson – we are the commenters.

And, one day, if we can get our act together, we write up our thoughts and create blogs of our own.

Yes, blogging is much like the seder. We lean back in our chairs, we eat, we drink four cups… okay, I don’t drink and blog. But you get the idea.

And, Jack, if your blog doesn’t come with comment moderation enabled, well, you can always come to mine next year, in Yerushalayim.