After 4 cups of wine... am I Jewban? Or Cubish?

No. We're not Jewish. . . most of the time. . . but we were tonight.

We had the wonderful pleasure of being asked to participate in a Passover Seder this evening.  Our dear friends, Barry and Anne Koff and their kids, Jonathan and Shoshana, were our very gracious hosts and teachers. Seriously, we learned so much about the Passover rituals.
Every food, every drink has a holy tradition. It was all so fascinating and quite dramatic.
So, as Barry led us through each part of the service, he explained in great detail the symbolism behind everything we did and ate. We eagerly learned the lessons of the history of Passover as seen in the book of Exodus.

We tasted the bitterness of the slavery of the children of Israel.
We re-enacted the ten plagues of Egypt.

Jonathan turned water into "blood." (very dramatic moment!)
Barry represented the darkness by being blindfolded.

(I LOVED seeing my boys in their yarmulkes. =D)

Adam very tentatively drank from the first (of four!) cups of wine.

We all took turns reading the story of the Passover and the Exodus.
We even sang traditional Hebrew prayers.

At first we were all very tentative, but again, those four cups of wine we had to drink to the merits of the Children of Israel, really kind of loosened everyone up. You see, the Children of Israel had four great merits even while in exile: (1) They did not change their Hebrew names;
(2) They continued to speak their own language, Hebrew;
(3) They remained highly moral;
(4) They remained loyal to one another.
(To which Adam was loudly toasting, "I'll drink to that!!" and very enthusiastically, did.)

Then it was time for the Hallel, so when they pulled out the instruments and the singing started and the tambourines were sounding, we all jumped right in with great (four-cups-of-wine!) enthusiasm. (Hallel - where we get the word - Halleluiah!) Look how I learned stuff!

It was a very noisy and joyful Jewish celebration and we felt privileged to be a part of it.
Thanks, Barry and Anne for sharing yourselves and your lives with us. - "L'chaim!"