Jessica Blanton: Passover Feast (April 1. 2010)

I took a Judaism class last year at the University of Minnesota, and in that class one of our major projects was to go to a Jewish service. I had a friend who lived in my building that was a Reformed Jew, so I talked to her about her religion a lot that semester, and I went with her and her family Friday night to their Shabbat service. She had a scroll on the side of her apartment door that is something that was mentioned today in the Passover lecture.
It was really interesting to see the Passover feast broken down and explained in layman’s terms for the class. In my previous class that was specifically about Judaism, we never did anything like that. I felt a little awkward, though, participating in a Jewish ritual when I am a Christian. I felt like a little invasive, like it was sacred (in the sense that it should not be tampered with). However, once I got past the awkwardness, it was really cool to be going through all the symbolism and tradition of a religion that is so close to mine. The Passover is something that we learn about in church, after all, so it makes me wonder why we don’t put more attention on the same traditions.