Rabbi Daniel Isaak explains tradition during Seder at Mount Angel Seminary.
Sentinel photo by Ed Langlois
ST. BENEDICT — As the sun set and Mount Hood glowed in the distance, more than 130 students from Mount Angel Seminary sat shyly to pay heed to a rabbi. Within two hours, the future priests were singing traditional Jewish songs with gusto and giving Rabbi Daniel Issak thankful embraces.
Rabbi Issak, leader of Congregation Neveh Shalom in Southwest Portland, accepted an invitation to lead a Passover Seder at the place where Catholic priests are formed.
The ritual meal commemorates the liberation of the Israelities from Egypt. Rabbi Isaak explained that the historical release from bondage is as earthshaking for Jews as the resurrection of Jesus is for Christians.
The meal at the seminary demonstrated that Christianity has its roots in Judaism. Pope John Paul once called Jews our older brothers and sisters in the faith.
“I know I am a better Catholic because of my relationship with the Jewish community,” Mary Jo Tully told the students.
Tully, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Portland, teaches ecumenism and interfaith studies at the seminary. She organized the Seder and invited her friend Rabbi Isaak.
The chancellor, who grew up in a Chicago neighborhood shared by Catholics and Jews, takes part with the rabbi in an ongoing Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Portland.
Tully, who is invited each year to read names at a Holocaust memorial service, explained for seminarians the parallels of the main movements of the Jewish and Christian stories: The Jews move from slavery to freedom and Christians move from the slavery of sin to the freedom of God.
As the Mount Angel Seder got going, 2,800 miles away in Washington, D.C., Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the pope’s ambassador to the U.S., was attending a Seder given to the diplomatic corps in the U.S.
The Seder custom arose in large part as a way to pass Jewish tradition on to children.
The food is symbolic. The maror, or bitter herbs, reflect the bitter and spare life of slavery in Egypt. The matzah, or unleavened bread, reminds Jews how their forbears had to leave Egypt in such haste that the bread had no time to rise. The pesach, or lamb bone, recalls the Passover lamb the ancestors sacrificed and ate in the Temple days.
Seminarians followed as Rabbi Isaak led them in spilling 10 drops of wine on plates to commemorate the 10 plagues in Egypt that preceded the liberation.
The atmosphere was part classroom, part prayer.
The centerpiece of the Seder, the rabbi explained, is the questioning by children. Young Jews are taught to employ their sharp minds on religious tradition, seeking possible contradictions.
Rabbi Isaak invited the youngest seminarian in the room to stand and pose the customary questions. The sacred quiz has helped youngsters remember Jewish tradition over the centuries.
“Why is this night different from all other nights?”
“This night is different from all other nights because once we were slaves to Pharoh in Egypt, but Adonai, our God, took us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”
Singing at the Seder also enhances the children’s grasp of faith. Seminarians followed along with delight as Rabbi Isaak and Susan Bernstein of Congregation Neveh Shalom led “Echad Mi Yodea,” a song full of numbers — 12 tribes of Israel, 11 stars in Joseph’s dream, 10 Commandments — all the way to two tablets with the law and “one God in heaven and on Earth.”
Rabbi Isaak simultaneously showed deep respect for the tradition while making the seminarians think and laugh.
Seders happen in homes, he explained. Rabbis have not called for strict homogeneity, probably with the intention of empowering families. So with each family, the meal takes on differences. At Passover Seders all over the country on March 29 this year, families will discuss themes associated with freedom and liberation. This year, war and health care could well be among the topics.
Jewish tables include a spare cup for Elijah, who, according to Jewish tradition, will return to announce the coming of the messiah and a renewed freedom and redemption. As in Seders at homes, one of the seminarians opened the door to the dining room in case Elijah were there to enter.
Some of the seminarians admitted they had never met a Jew. Now, they are glad they have.
“I studied the Old Testament at school in Mexico and now I experienced some of that tradition,” said Cesar Cabrera-Alonso, who will be ordained a deacon soon for the Diocese of Boise.
Joseph Nguyen, studying for the Diocese of Orange, Calif., said he felt transported back in history to see something that is a precursor to his culture.