When I was growing up, I used to love seders at my grandparents' home. The best years were those when the table was so long, filled with so many aunts and uncles and cousins and friends that it took what felt like hours to pass the maror dipped in charoset around the table. And I always sat in the same place, year after year. It was a place of special honour. I always sat right next to my Zaidie, on his left, right by the head of the table. And every year, when we came to this part of the Haggadah, the part where the rabbis were debating whether it was 10 or 50 or 200 or 250 plagues, my Zaidie would finish reading the passage in his Russian-accented Hebrew, slam down his hand on the table, and yell, "Buba meises!" "It is nonsense," he would exclaim. "The Toyrah," (which is how he pronounced it) "said that there were only 10 plagues, and that's all there were!"

Now, many decades later, whenever I come to this part of the seder with the rabbis debating 10 or 50 or 200, I remember my Zaidie with love. I remember his clear, uncompromising sense of right and wrong. I remember his sense of humour. And I remember the love and devotion he felt towards our entire family as he surveyed the long and very full table. I remember my Bubie, and her chicken soup and gefilte fish and apple strudel that she made especially for me. And I remember... I remember all those who are with us now only in spirit, in the memories of Pesachs past that we celebrated together. 

In the centre of the table there is one additional Kos, one additional cup, Kos Zikaron, the Cup of Remembrance. Let us pause now to remember those who are not with us in body, but very much with us in spirit. Let us invite their love to our Pesach table, and may we continue to be inspired by their memory throughout the year ahead.


haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues
Source: Mark Federman