The Denver Jewish news., 1922-04-12
The Seder Night
(Teras Jcriah Herald)

around
Astir with restless, hurried life and
spanned
By arches that with thundrous trains
resound,
And throbbing wires that galvanize
the land;
Gin paiaces in tawdry splcndor stand;
The newsboys shrek of mangled
bodies found;.
The last Burlesque is playing in the
Strand,
In modern prose all poetry seems
drowned.
Yet in ten thousand homes this
April night
An ancient people celebrates its birth
To freedom, with reverential mirth,
With customs quaint, and many a
hoary rite,
Waiting until, its tarnished glories
bright,
Its God shall be the God of all the
Earth"
What scintillating visions Seder
night conjures up for those who in
.heir childhood, when minds are plas-
tic, and hearts are brimming over
with emotion, have experienced the
excitement of preparation, have felt
the triumph, which pervades the
Oriental feast, and have finally lost
themselves in the exquisite sensation
Of physical and spiritual content The
preparations for Pesach were all
absorbing and strenuous; to call it
spring-cleaning is to speak of divinity
n terms that are human; for a week
he household was occupied in scrub
bing and securing with the thorough
less of surgical cleanliness; not a
ipecls of dust, not crumb was left
n the house. A wooden spoon with
.rumbs of bread was burned on the
morning, as symbol that every nook
and Granny were free of leavened
bread
The Seder was family gathering,
but few were the homes that had not
4 stranger at the table. Seder was n
whatever the deprivations one might
suffer through the year, the Seder
vas plentifully provided for by or
,anizations, for this one specific
purpose. Seder night was colorful
with white linen and lustrous silver,
md red wine; it was lyric with song;
md above all, it was joyful in the
heights of victory and triumph. For
.otten were whatever hatred, preju-
dice, or persecution may reign with
,ut-within, for the night, conquerors
were celebrating victory, though of
ages back.
The head of the house was attired
in the white flowing robe, and reclin-
ing on cushions, as behooves freemen
in the desert. The women brought
vessels filled with water for the men
TO wash their hands, as must have
been the custom in those days of
feminine inferiority. After the first
blessings and the tasting of the bitter
and the sweet, the youngest speaking
member of the family read out loud
he four questions, and the head of
he family in response told the thrill
ing fanciful story of the Exodus from
Egypt. 1t was a long feast with the
reading of the Haggadah, AID the
serving of many courses, and the four
ups of wine, which eliminated in the
5issful ecstacy of song.
Is there more beautiful romance
n history, than the allegiance of a
widely scattered people to its glories
IF the past? This clinging to the ma
tional traditions was the perpetual
light which. kept the spirit of Juda-
ism glowing; it was the ark which
gave "a sense of oneness to rabble
many souled."
In our rush for emancipation, the
beautiful symbolism of the Seder is
quickly passing into the cold shadow
of things outlived and forgotten.
And instead what have
I'VE, who wander in the dark,
Footsore, far-scattered, growing less
and less,
What whiteness glooms our brother
hood to mark,
What promised land our journeys
end to bless?
We are, unless we build some shrine
or ark,
A dieing rabble in the wilderness"
DIR. Ray X. Daily.