Pesach, Boards, and Siddurim–-Oh My!

First off, the Passover section post.

I love Passover, I really do. Until about 4 days in and them I am miserable. Which is, I believe, how I am supposed to feel.

That said, the sederim I attended this year were both quite excellent. The first night I was invited to my friend’s house for a meat- and dairy-free seder that was very fun. Another family from my temple and a co-worker of my friend’s husband were also in attendance, plus the children of both families. There was plenty of good food, good conversation, irreverent musings, and multiple haggadot which kept things interesting and thought-provoking. All in all, a ton of fun and I’m glad that I went.

The second seder I attended was the community seder at my temple. For the 2nd year in a row instead of having it catered a number of temple members and their families banded together and organized and cooked the entire meal. Last year was chaotic (due only partly to the power going out approx. 20 minutes in that caused my rabbi to scramble through the first part of the seder so that we could eat and get people out the door before it was too dark). But, this year, though a little bit nuts, seemed to go a bit smoother. There were some seating issues that caused some frustration amongst a few attendees (and that will probably lead to assigned seating next year), but from what I could tell people were enjoying themselves.

I got a number of comments from people this weekend about the fact that I’ve been nominated to join the board of trustees at my temple. I, personally, am very excited about joining the board. Not only is it quite an honor for someone my age to be asked, but I feel like it is my chance to really give back to the place that has given so much to me. I know that I benefit a lot from affiliating with my temple and I’m happy that beyond being a member and teaching I’ll be able to help out in a behind-the-scenes way as well. However, not every comment I heard about joining the board was a positive one. A couple of people made reference to “seeing a different side” of the temple, to temple politics, and the like. I understand that the world is not perfect, that finances and administration of things can cause frustration and the like and I’m very aware that I’ll be stepping into a different side of the congregation. But, that doesn’t mean it is going to be a negative experience, or that it should be, or that even if it has been in the past it needs to continue that way. What gets me the most is that these comments were coming from either current or soon to be ex-board members themselves! How do they expect things to be positive if they plant that bit of poison in the minds of new members before they’ve even begun?

In a somewhat related note, I am currently on the ritual committee and we met this past Monday to discuss whether or not we should recommend the new Reform siddur (Mishkan T'fila) to the board to purchase and adopt. It was a good discussion between the few committee members who were able to attend and our rabbi, and it brought up some reasonable concerns, mostly about the layout of the book. In the end we were unanimous in deciding to recommend the siddur, which I am very glad of. It will be interesting to hear about what the board says. I know of at least one board member (in fact, one who spoke negatively to me about being on the board) who is very opposed to the new siddur and will most likely vote against it based on the fact that any kind of change, to her, is negative. What gets me is that you wouldn’t find most board members at temple on a Friday night or Saturday morning on any kind of consistent basis (though or current president and president-elect are there nearly every week, along with a couple others who frequent once a month or so). I feel that the most strident objections to MT will come from people who don’t currently attend services more than a few times a year. To them it will be a difficult transition. But, to those of us who use Gates of Gray on a weekly basis there is no argument as to whether or not the new siddur should be adopted; it is a better siddur, far superior in language and options than Gates of Gray will ever be.