I live in a great big house with a bunch of awesome housemates. Some of them are not Jewish. Below is an actual email I sent to them in anticipation of our impending seder plans. Happy almost Passover, everyone!

 

Dear Darling Housemates o mine,

 Monday, April 18th is the first night of Passover!

 Passover is one of my all time favorite holidays, and it’s one of the most important holidays of the Jewish year. A lot of people, myself included, have identity-forming childhood memories of big Passover dinners (much like I assume other folks have memories of Christmas dinners), and it’s like, a Thing. Like, one of those “Oh my goodness, I can’t be with my family for the first time ever, and even though I’m a grownup now and I should be over this, a certain part of me still wants to cry/ call my mommy and all my aunties and uncles right now” things. (BTW, this is not actually the very first Passover I’ve spent away from family, but still, I wanted to give you all a bit of context.)

 Okay, so what does that mean for our darling house?

 Well, that means that Suzie and I are going to cook a giant gluten free dinner on Monday the 18th for all of us, and it will have fabulous traditional foods, etc.

 But, besides that, you guys are my chosen family, and it means that on Monday the 18th, I’m going to be especially excited to see all of you! Suz and I have turned down several invitations from different close friends around town in favor of spending the evening at home with you guys… so I hope you all can make it! I know it sounds really sappy, but, I really like you guys, and honestly there’s no place I’d rather be than hosting our very own seder here at home. I’m excited to drink four glasses of wine with you (seriously, it’s required in the traditions). I’m excited to sit down to a real dinner, with nowhere to rush off to. I’m excited to retell the story of Exodus with you instead of with my crazy-assed relatives. I’m excited to explain why we have such bizarre traditions like eating eggs dipped in saltwater… which, come to think about it, I actually don’t remember… I’m excited to get slightly trashed with you after the four glasses of wine, and I’m excited to sing the crazy goat song with you at the end of the meal. Basically, I’m really stoked on spending the first night of Passover with you guys as a house.

Sooo, yeah, lemme know if you guys can make it/have any questions or concerns/are really upset because you were planning on scheduling a pork and lobster eating competition in our kitchen that night or something, etc.

hugs and freedom,*
 JoJo

P.S. Matilsky and Tony are invited too.

*So, freedom is a big theme of the Passover meal (because of the whole Exodus thing), and in my family it’s kind of a tradition to discuss radical politics during the matzo ball soup course, and to examine the ways in which we’re not really as free as we might think, and also discuss different oppressed peoples/areas of the world. It’s kind of a cool thing, because it invites intelligent dinner conversation… But then, I have a weird lefty family.

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