October 25, 2007

Lance Evanson

Today brings the excitement of the preparations of these last weeks. Though it is not April or Nisan, the months of Passover in the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars, tonight we celebrate the Passover with a Seder meal; but before we get too excited we need to get through the rest of the day first.
The same schedule with a different feel; we started out with breakfast and then on to our Modern Near East Jewish class, covering many details dealing with the evening’s coming Passover and Seder meal and also learning about much of the importance thereof. Then followed by our language class, Hebrew, still setting out the mood for the evening. Olive picking followed at Augusta Victoria Hospital and then we were free to get ready for the evenings festivities. Once I was fully clad and fancied up I rushed to the Oasis to find my seat and await the evening’s festivities. Being the first one there I was able to see that I was not the only one who spent more time than usual getting ready for the feast, in fact I never saw everyone looking so good!
We gathered on the night of the 25th to celebrate Passover and read the Haggadah, the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. Seder customs include drinking of four cups of wine (grape juice), eating Matza and partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate. Following the instructions of the Haggadah we had many stories to read and many songs to sing as we went through the traditional order of things, until the end of the evening… A special musical performance by our very own James Archibald and Sam Stapp was given at the end of the evening, singing the words of a traditional tune, to top everything off; An evening that will not be forgotten and one of the most enjoyable as of yet.
The evening itself left me to remember the reason that such a holiday is celebrated in remembrance of the children of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. Visiting Mount Sinai and the Sinai wilderness was an eye opening experience as I had never before imagined. In seeing the landscape I could see the people’s trials and wanderings in my minds eye. I came to appreciate in such a miniscule degree what difficulties there must have been in leading a group of thousands through what seemed to be a barren land and felt the distress of those who where followers. Now after seeing and experiencing the areas of the Exodus I have come to see a new reason in my mind as to why it was necessary that for such a period of time the children of Israel needed to traverse through such a lone a dreary world, they needed to leave the world of man and turn to God. God during the period of wandering turned a scattered and unorganized people into a nation that was His.