News-Letter

Media Credit: Laura Bitner A practicing Muslim News-Letter reporter took on the challenge of adhering to the rules of Passover, which included eating kosher for the entire week and attending a seder.

As I took the last bites of my Americone Dream, I stared silently at the clock. Five minutes left. What had I gotten myself into? In five minutes, the sun would set and my journey to enlightenment would begin.

My goal was to understand the Jewish experience by celebrating Passover according to Orthodox custom. Passover initially appeared to me as an easier version of Ramadan, a holiday I am quite used to celebrating. Rather than fasting from sunrise to sunset for an entire month, I would simply restrict my diet for eight days. Piece of cake.

I am not sure exactly why I took this assignment. Curiosity? A love of religion? Did I see it as a chance to prove my manliness? Did I do just because I could? Maybe it was a combination of all the above, or maybe none of them. Maybe it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. To be honest, it doesn't matter.

When I told my Jewish friend Aaron about my new venture, he laughed. I assumed he was then going to lament the difficulty of the holiday and tell me that I should not go forth this experiment. He had, however, quite a different response.

"That's cool," he said. I stared at him, slightly shocked, confused by his response; but what he said next I did not expect at all.

"You can celebrate Passover and follow all the rules as strictly as possible," Aaron said. "But what will it mean to you? Like, what if I celebrated Ramadan with you for the entire month; would it have the same meaning for me as it does for you?"

I didn't know what to say. Maybe out of arrogance, I stored his advice in the back of my mind with the vain hope that I would forget it. I wasn't ready to listen. I thanked him for his comments and carried on with my day.

My next task was to find out what I actually had to do for this holiday. I talked to practically every Jewish student I knew on campus, and each told me something different about the holiday. Each rule not only revealed the splendid variations in the customs and traditions of Jewish culture but also the uniqueness of each distinct family tradition. Like the beliefs and customs of any faith, the rules of Passover appeared convoluted and confusing to an outsider like me.

Continued...

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