Passover Seder - Night #2

“A Boat Doesn’t Go Forward if each one is rowing their own way”

As Benjamin Franklin is famous for saying, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Well, we prepared and planned extensively for success and although we all know that sometimes we plan and God laughs, this day “shaped up” perfectly. We had an incredible team of Oceania people working in “the same direction” to make this day flawless by helping us prepare for the Seder on Night #2 (it was Night #1 for everyone else except for the few that attended the previous night’s Seder) and although I had lots of ideas and requests, we could not have succeeded without the Corporate Miami group as well as the onboard team. I would thank everyone in this post but there are so many it would be impossible. From the staff in the kitchen that diligently prepared and delivered over 30 Seder plates filled with all the symbolic foods for 120 people and served a 5 (to 7 for some of us) course dinner, to the Chefs, Managers, Servers, Entertainment Staff … and more as well as the people behind the scenes that I don’t even know about. THANK YOU.

Without going through any of the extreme details, it is sufficient to say that we had a 120 attendees’ signup and show up (they had to cut off the list due to space) for the Seder tonight. I let people know that this was a totally inclusive program and whenever given the opportunity throughout the evening, I explained the “mixed multitude”, as taught and practiced so beautifully by Rabbi Buchdahl of Central Synagogue. With that being so important on a ship with crew from 52 nationalities working together and passengers from many countries and many different backgrounds and traditions, Jewish and non-Jewish, we tried to include anyone that was interested. We often say that The Exodus occurs in Everyone in Every Era and we think about those we have had Seders with throughout our lives that are no longer with us. Tonight we each thought of those people and together we thought of a fellow passenger, Diane, who came on board and the first thing she said to me was that she remembered how our Seder in 2023, her first, was so special and affected her and Tom so much and they so look forward to it again this year. Sadly, we lost Diane on March 21.

Just like in 2023 many attended: that look forward to a Seder every year to celebrate liberation and tradition, others that have not been given an opportunity to go to a Seder in many years since their families grew older and apart and many others that never went to a Seder and wanted to learn more. The Haggadah I wrote this year is intended for our times and for all these groups.

The Service lasted 52 minutes and moved along quickly with me at the podium keeping us on track, doing some of the reading in particular the Hebrew, and providing color commentary and Karen running around with a microphone getting the 11 readers that volunteered as well as our ”special guests”, including Paul for his voice to lead the singing, and Nancy and Ron to read the 4 questions (the youngest?). As I looked around the room, I could clearly tell that everyone was participating in the joint readings and there were full presence and engagement …120 friends all in unison, no side conversations, all living in the moment. So beautiful. We covered the entire Seder (yes, all 15 steps) and drank 4 glasses of wine (although the glasses were a little too big to fill to the brim each time). Everyone enjoyed the homemade horseradish and charoset, as well as lots of matzo. See video of our final words.

The meal was top notch… in particular for a ship that was somewhere at sea in between Vava’u, Tonga and Suva, Fiji. It started with gefilte fish, chopped liver, and matzo ball soup – all homemade. I had all three and they were great … especially when the gefilte is adorned with caviar and the soup is like grandma made. I did not have the special holiday salad and baked cod with orange-wine sauce, but I hear they were perfect too. I did have the roasted Empire Kosher chicken with carrot tzimmes and potatoes. Loved it. Dessert was way too good to be Kosher for Passover, but the Executive Chef insisted on showing me the recipe in advance and said he followed it closely. Carrot cake like from a bakery, Chocolate honey cake that I had to finish every bite and macaroons that were delicious and so different from the coconut type we usually have (they were more like flavored meringue).

It was Karen and my privilege and honor to help pull this special evening together and to be allowed to lead it for so many wonderful participants. I so enjoyed every aspect of creating the Haggadah, coordination of the logistics and leading the Service. When I walked around (feeling like the groom, thanking everyone for coming) the questions were great (that’s what Passover is about) and the compliments were so appreciated. A great Passover!

In summary, quoting one of my favorite philosophers, Col. Smith of the A-Team: "I love it when a plan comes together," (typically at the end of an episode after their mission succeeds). This is our holiday of Miracles and Resilience … may be always have the strength and faith to continue this tradition. "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" — Hillel, Pirkei Avot 1:14Read more