Celebrating Freedom, Old-Style

Michael Medved writes that there's nothing "trendy" about the Passover Seder--nor should there be:

On March 7, Hollywood's eccentric bad boy honored his liberation (firing, actually) from his CBS show with a well-publicized appearance on the roof of a California high-rise where he drank a bottle of "tiger's blood," waved a machete over his head and shouted repeatedly, "Free at last!"

Jewish tradition, on the other hand, welcomes the Passover holiday with the longest, most strictly regulated dinner of the entire year. According to the latest surveys, a surprising 77% of all American Jews will participate in this Seder meal — an occasion that's big on rules and demands (including prescribed consumption of unleavened bread, bitter herbs and four cups of wine) but conspicuously short on spontaneous explosions of feeling. Though the festival explicitly commemorates the deliverance of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the word Seder means "order," not "liberation" or "independence," and Jews of all stripes (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) find themselves following orders on Passover Eve rather than indulging their own freewheeling inclinations.

Many believe that those orders come from God, while others accept them as a means of honoring the cherished practices of ancestors. In either case, the approach to the holiday clarifies a notion of freedom that differs dramatically from trendy, contemporary ideas that stress an absence of restriction and obligation...

And on that note, I'd like to wish all my "tribal" readers a Chag Sameach! Oh, and careful with that horseradish--it can be wicked strong.