Theater of the Seder

I've always had a visceral love for Passover, for its sheer theatricality. Everything on the seder plate is symbolic. If it tastes bitter, there's a reason. If it tastes salty, there's a reason for that too. Same for sweetness. I'm also a big fan comic books, and how the comic book art form is a wonderful way for telling a story. But truth be told, not even comic books holds a candle to the re-enactment of our story through tastes, smells, and activities.

As an artist, objects take on a symbolic significance. Oftentimes, the meaning of the symbols is very personal, only understood by you. But for passover, we all understand the meanings of the foods on the Seder plate: with as many senses as we can, we are reminded of the Passover experience, of our slavery in Egypt, of God's plagues against Pharoah, and our ultimate freedom.

I got to thinking about how far the symbolism went. Rabbi Jill Jacobs, in her article on the "My Jewish Learning" site, has a nicely organized breakdown of the meanings of the various foods. She even says something about their placement. Imagine, we don't just thank God for our food, but we also give each food a role in a choreographed table top theater. One thing that I like about Rabbi Jacob's article is that she concludes by inviting the reader to make the seder personal by bring an object that represents liberation to him or herself. Thus, her seder would involve a kind of show-and-tell experience.

Not that this would all be good. Once you get a table of us together, and inviting them to basically kvetch, it could go anywhere. Once you start talking about symbols of freedom, you're bound to start dwelling on stories of captivity as well. What if your seder guest's meaningful symbolic artifacts brought up bad memories? And then there all all of those cups of wine!

I wonder if this great tradition of having a seder, with its symbolic foods, doesn't point the way towards a more theatric and interactive type of literature? Suppose a trend caught on, where the authors of books would include food suggestions at various parts of their stories. I've heard of parties based on a theme from something in real life. But imagine that an author included a food shopping list with their books. That would take writing in a whole new direction: authors would have to write with flavors and aromas (maybe included as notes in the back of the book) Or imagine meeting with friends at a scene from a book, and ordering what one of the characters ordered from the menu.

Only someone who loved the seder would come up with nutty ideas like this.