Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story; Part One

Lone Soldier Meets Yemenite Clan
by Jerry Waxman

I was a chayal boded in the IDF; a lone soldier. No family in Israel, none at all. Not even any friends or acquaintences. When I made aliya in the early 1980's I really burnt the bridges with my American past. Who knows why, exactly? Something was burning inside me to be a part of Israel. That's why I got myself drafted into a combat unit in the Israeli army within months after making aliya.

I barely understood Hebrew. My background in Jewishness was limited to having attended high holiday services and family seders while growing up. I knew practically nothing of Israel's history at the time I entered the army.

Being a lone soldier has its challenges. But it also has advantages. My commanders released me almost every Shabbat, and almost every holiday. The owners of a local grocery store began to take interest in this curiousity that came into their store every Friday, just before closing time. Come to think of it, I was the only American in uniform around, maybe the first one for that neighborhood.

One day, the store owners informed me that I was coming to their home for the Pesach seder. They didn't ask me, or invite me, they informed me. It was pre-ordained. Of course I had no problem with the arrangement. As a lone soldier, I looked forward to the chance to talk with the owners' sister. Or sisters, for they had quite a few of them.

[A side story: While the above and following events were taking place, a small child in a remote village in a northern province of Thailand was just beginning a relationship with the world. The child would one day have an impact on the course of many Jewish lives. Find out more when you buy the Andaman Haggadah for your Pesach Seder.]

Nisan 14 came around, and I found myself on a moshav in the Negev. All the moshav members, including the store owners, were Yemenite Jews. That morning, some neighbors were gathered to make matzo, which felt more like pita than like a cracker. They had fashioned an oven outside specifically for the purpose. They also roasted meat outside, to be used for the evening meal.

Was this the beginning of a new adventure? Or was it a re-acquaintence with an old adventure? I did not feel out of place at all. This is what Jews have always done, and some part of me has always been part of it.

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The Andaman Haggadah in English delivers the passion and meaning of being Jewish. Customers who have read the Andaman Haggadah have commented on how the plain English and simple explanations, along with the exciting images make this their Haggadah of choice for their Passover Seders. Inspired by the story you are reading now, there really is a love story behind the Andaman Haggadah. Get this beautiful English Passover Haggadah now! . Download it today. Print as many as you need. No extra charge, ever. Unannounced bonuses apply.

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Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story Continues

• Part One - Lone Soldier Meets Yemenite Clan
• Part Two; Ancient Customs, New Awakenings
• Part Three; Every Jew Deserves This Jewish Feeling
• Part Four; Love and the Andaman Connection (Only available to owners of the Andaman Haggadah)

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Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story; Part Two

Ancient Customs, New Awakenings
by Jerry Waxman

When the Yemenites brought their traditions to Israel, they brought the ways of their ancestors extending back thousands of years to the time of the Babylonian exile. They let me help make matzo. They let me help prepare for the seder. They brought me to synagogue, and helped me find my way through the prayer service.

The prayer service was like none I had ever seen before. The men sat around the sides of the room, chanting in unison, some without even looking in a book. Any one of them could have led the service, but one chose to be the chazan for that evening.

The whole seder was such an amazing experience, I no longer felt like a lone soldier. I was part of a vast family - a nation of tribes - with its customs and traditions rooted in the events of over 3300 years ago; our exodus from slavery in Egypt.

An Authentic Pesach Seder

Seder means "order." There is an order in which we do things at the Passover seder. All Jews, no matter what nationality, follow the same order. The Yemenites have basically the same Haggadah as Ashkenazis and Sephardis. Still the seder on the moshav was so dissimilar to our family seders in America, it was hard to think of them both as celebrating the same holiday.

We sat on cushions on the floor. Everyone was relaxed and jovial. Everyone understood the meanings of what was read, what was said, and what was sung. We leaned way way over to drink wine and to eat matzo. The seder meal became a play; a re-enactment of historic events to delight the children and entertain the adults.
[A side story: The story you are reading is true, though the sequence of events has been changed for effect. Meanwhile, in a remote village in Thailand, a little girl was starting out in life. She would one day be the leading inspiration for the Andaman Haggadah. Find out more when you buy the Andaman Haggadah for your Pesach Seder.]
There was food, wine, song, and laughter. And as we sat on the floor, I could imagine that this is how we were at our first seders in the wilderness, recalling the signs and wonders we had witnessed, and the parting of the Red Sea. We were there then. We were there again at our present day seder.

Even though I was more interested in the young women than in Jewish custom at the time, from that day on, I was hooked on the Jewish part of my Jewish heritage. I wish every Jew could experience what I had experienced at that time. The spark of inspiration for an English Haggadah was ignited.

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The Andaman Haggadah in English delivers the passion and meaning of being Jewish. Customers who have read the Andaman Haggadah have commented on how the plain English and simple explanations, along with the exciting images make this their Haggadah of choice for their Passover Seders. Inspired by the story you are reading now, there really is a love story behind the Andaman Haggadah. Get this beautiful English Passover Haggadah now! . Download it today. Print as many as you need. No extra charge, ever. Unannounced bonuses apply.

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Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story Continues

• Part One - Lone Soldier Meets Yemenite Clan
• Part Two; Ancient Customs, New Awakenings
• Part Three; Every Jew Deserves This Jewish Feeling
• Part Four; Love and the Andaman Connection (Only available to owners of the Andaman Haggadah)

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Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story; Part Three

Every Jew Deserves This Jewish Feeling
by Jerry Waxman

All through growing up in America, and living and working in different places in the U.S., being Jewish meant being different from everyone else, and not in a good way. We were victims in the Holocaust. Our holidays reminded us of tragedies and hardships. The stereotypical Jew is an anxious and disturbed weakling with guilt complexes. In America, I had no Jewish heroes. I didn't even fathom such a thing until I came to Israel.

In America, our seders were wonderful family get-togethers. We read a Haggadah that had English translations of a generic Hebrew Haggadah. The obvious intention of the Haggadah writers was to make sure that the people ate certain things at certain times, and said certain things along the way.

Rote recitation and no feeling; that's how our seders were. Why would we want to remind ourselves that we were Jews? What good does it do for us to remember that we were slaves in Egypt? Depressing stuff, especially when we read this liturgy written in King James English. Especially for anxious, guilt-ridden men and superficial princesses.

Enough, already! Through living in Israel, and through visiting the truly Jewish side of things, I learned that Jews really are heroes. I learned that feelings of guilt and weakness and having nervous breakdowns over petty issues ARE NOT the Jewish way. To be different from the masses of non-Jews who surround us is a good thing - a very exciting uniqueness that we own and can be proud of, not ashamed of.

I gained from the Yemenite seder, and from subsequent seders of various traditions in Israel, a true sense of the freedom that Pesach celebrates. I mean freedom from the feelings of guilt, and shame, and weakness. And freedom from this feeling that we earned our victimhood because we are different.

The Jewish feeling of freedom has no place for boring and meaningless rote recitation. If anything it is a passion for who we are and what we stand for. It is a true love affair with our heritage, and pride for what we have accomplished in every generation since Moses.

While delusions of "spreading the word" escaped me, thankfully, I have wanted very badly to share my experiences with other Jews. Not to tell my story, but to tell our story in a way that other Jews might discover what I discovered; that being Jewish is a heritage to be proud of. That celebrating Pesach can be exciting and deeply meaningful to all of us.

Over the years since that first Yemenite seder, a lot has happened, and I have lived and worked in several places outside Israel. My connection to Israel never stopped, though. With everywhere I went, and everything I did, I knew I would one day return to Israel. Just like when we were slaves in Egypt, we knew that a day would come when we'd finally leave and go to Israel.

There really is a secret love story that goes with the Haggadah I wrote. There is also a not-so-secret love story, which I will reveal here. Hard as it was, I loved my life in Israel. I was living as a Jew in the Jewish homeland. Even though I had no other success, no money, no property, no family around, and nothing to be proud of and nothing to look forward to, I think I had something most people lack. I had an understanding of who I am, and how my life relates to the lives of the people in the Torah. And I had a passion for being a part of Israel - its past, its present and its future.

When I came to live in Sderot two years ago, it was for purely Jewish reasons. I still have no family in Israel. No job, and no income. But i do have a sense of belonging. I came to Sderot at a time when many were leaving because of the rockets. This same sense, I think, drove people to leave Egypt.

The same sense of belonging led Jews to leave Egypt and forge a nation in the wilderness. We, all of us Jews, are connected to that story. We need to reconnect as best we can. I wrote a Haggadah in English with hopes that more and more Americans, Australians, and other English speaking people will have a joyful, meaningful Pesach seder, as I have had in Israel.

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The Andaman Haggadah in English delivers the passion and meaning of being Jewish. Customers who have read the Andaman Haggadah have commented on how the plain English and simple explanations, along with the exciting images make this their Haggadah of choice for their Passover Seders. Inspired by the story you are reading now, there really is a love story behind the Andaman Haggadah. Get this beautiful English Passover Haggadah now! . Download it today. Print as many as you need. No extra charge, ever. Unannounced bonuses apply.

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Secrets Behind The New Passover Haggadah; A Love Story Continues

• Part One - Lone Soldier Meets Yemenite Clan
• Part Two; Ancient Customs, New Awakenings
• Part Three; Every Jew Deserves This Jewish Feeling
• Part Four; Love and the Andaman Connection (Only available to owners of the Andaman Haggadah)

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