Peeling a Pomegranate

This essay is part of my project for my Tzovah (first-level) initiation with the Hebrew Priestess Institute. The project I have been working on for the past year and 1/2 is to develop seasonal seders. The physical deliverable I will present to the directors of the program and my sisters in January will be the first seder, in what I hope will be an on-going and life-long project: Seders for all Seasons ^(tm).

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Food has always played a large part in my life and in my understanding of Judaism. It hasn’t always played a healthy role, but it’s always been there. I’ve joked for years that the religion of my family is food and how we used to have to talk my dad out of going for pancakes on the way to Yom Kippur morning services. But, so many of my happy memories of my family and Judaism also revolve around food. Passover was always a huge thing in my house growing up. It was like Thanksgiving, just more organized. I have great memories of summer and lobster and clambakes with lots of fresh New England salt marsh corn! Yes, I’m aware that shellfish isn’t kosher, but I assure my family didn’t mind. Every holiday had some food association for me, as it does for so many people. It’s an easy way to connect to your family’s traditions.

But, my relationship with food hasn’t always been healthy. I was a very heavy child. I learned young that ice cream was “medicinal” and so we ate a lot of it. I actually didn’t understand what medicinal meant for years, I just thought it was an excuse to eat ice cream. Heart disease and type II diabetes runs rampant in parts of my family because of our love of food. I struggled with binge eating and body dismorphia problems through college, and still have the occasional relapse.

Over the years, I’ve learned to have a healthier relationship to food. I began eating seasonally and appreciating local, natural flavors. I cook my own food as often as possible so I really understand what I’m eating. The more I found ways to connect to the sources of my food, the healthier my relationship with food has become. I spend more on less because I know the farmer who made the incredible goat cheese that I’ve purchased. I don’t need to eat a lot of it. I can appreciate this delicacy and enjoy it proper proportion. Eating seasonally connects me to the cycles of the world around me, which I think also is very important. This means that you don’t go buy strawberries in February just because you can. They aren’t in season! That means they’ve been shipped in from who knows where. They taste bland and resources have been wasted in getting them to you, but I digress.

I’ve chosen the seder as a format because food is something that we can all appreciate and it reflects the cycles of the earth. I’ve also chosen it because it is a flexible, home-based format that allows for personal interaction and involvement. Seders are not passive events that you observe. You participate and experience, which for me is preferable in most circumstances.

Before developing a seder, I need to set the boundaries. How am I defining a seder? Isn’t it just the ritual that goes with Passover? Traditionally a seder is the home service of Passover. The word itself means “order.”

For the purposes of my work, I will use the following criteria to define a seder:

1. Ritual intended to be prepared for and performed at home with friends and family without requiring Rabbi, Kohenet, or other dedicated spiritual leader to lead
2. Symbolic food(s) or a meal is central to the ritual
3. Ritual script or haggadah includes prayers, ritual actions, exposition, and storytelling
4. Family-friendly — ritual will invoke “wonder” in all who participate including children
5. While ability to personalize ritual may exist the ritual should follow a prescribed order of events which have been carefully developed with intention

I hope you will find meaning in this format and that it will allow you to enrich your spiritual understanding of both Judaism and how the holidays are connected to the seasons and the wheel of the year.

I’ll be posting the Tu B’Shevat Seder just after the first of the year.

This essay is part of my project for my Tzovah (first-level) initiation with the Hebrew Priestess Institute. The project I have been working on for the past year and 1/2 is to develop seasonal seders. The physical deliverable I will present to the directors of the program and my sisters in January will be the first seder, in what I hope will be an on-going and life-long project: Seders for all Seasons ^(tm).

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When I began working on my project for my Tzovah initiation for the Hebrew Priestess Institute (Kohenet), my intent was to complete seven seders in two years. As my first seder for Passover took nearly two years to complete the first edition, I’m really not sure why I thought I’d ever get through so many. In the end, the process led me to begin with Tu B’Shevat and discover what may be a project that will last a lifetime.

Part of my work, I’ve realized in the past few years, is helping others just connect with the next step. For so many, modern synagogue services do not provide the connection with community, history, or even God that people are seeking. And so they turn away. This is due to many factors. Among them is a lack of education about the service structure or a knowledge of Hebrew. Judaism requires knowledge and active effort in all of its forms. My hope is that by providing alternatives, such as a seder ritual, people will begin to bridge that gap by finding enough at any level of knowledge to enable them to participate, and to pique their curiosity to learn more. Many of the elements of a traditional Passover seder are included to inspire “wonder” in children. Now we need to inspire wonder in both children and adults. This isn’t about dumbing things down. It’s about providing the right level of detail and the ability to grow within a framework.

Earth-based Judaism is about recovering the flow of natural cycles that Judaism does honor — we’ve just forgotten it. The focus in the past two-thousand years has moved far from the agrarian and tribal roots; mostly out of necessity. We have the opportunity to recover and reinvent this tradition. These seders will explore and honor both the rich traditions of centuries of Judaism and that holiday’s overall place in the wheel of the year. To do this, I will focus specifically on the cycle of the seasons of the North-eastern section of the United States because that is where I live. However, someone in Europe, Asia, Africa, Israel or even the California will have different seasonal cycles. I will also do my best to include the ability to explore how to honor the Shekhinah in her presence in your world.

This leads to one of my more “heretical” view points that will infuse the seders. I reject the myth of the exile of Shekhinah. I believe the presence of God to be far more resilient than that myth allows. What has been revealed to me, the knowledge that I have received, is that Shekhinah was released to infuse the world when The Temple fell. Now, no matter where we are, we can reach out to her. We can give offerings. We can feel The Presence in everything around us. That is something to honor and cherish. And so honoring the sense of place in which we each live is a crucial part of the experience of the Seders for all Seasons project. Where we live now, deserves to be honored as well as our ancestral, spiritual homeland.

The unifying factor of all the seders I create will be the use of fours. (Dalet -ד ), which might be expressed in four cups, four dishes, four parts. The fours will represent the four elements, four seasons, four directions, four kinds of beings, four winds, four mothers, and four phases of the moon. This was chosen in part, as the four cups of wine and four questions are such distinct and recognizable parts of Passover seder. Other than that each will be as unique as the holiday itself.

I also hope that these will be greatly influenced by the wider community. I hope that anyone who choses to use one or more of these seders will share their experience and any choices they made to ensure that their natural world and history were honored. I hope you will join me on this journey, either by making use of these seders or allowing this idea to inspire you to learn more and create your own rituals. If Judaism is to survive, and I believe that it is worth saving, we must remember that it is a growing and living tree. There are as many branches and off-shoots as there are deep and needed roots. She can support us all, but we each must own the responsibility of doing what we can to support her. I can do this.

I’ll be posting the Tu B’Shevat Seder just after the first of the year for anyone who may wish to use it.