Seven-year-old Joseph Hofheins reacts to eating matzah with horseradish during the bitter herbs part of the Passover ceremony, which also included music and dancing. (Stuart Johnson, Deseret News)

Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS) have long felt a kinship with Jewish brothers and sisters. It’s becoming popular in recent years for Latter-day Saints (LDS) to take their feelings of kinship to a more active level. Some are participating in a Seder in addition to the traditional Easter services and remembrance observed this time of year.

I remember a few years ago a women’s activity at our local unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make Seder plates. We spent the evening decorating the plates and learning the traditions of the Seder. I really enjoyed the activity. It gave me a great appreciation for the common heritage Christians and Jews share.

Latter-day Saints in areas of Utah are developing large activities for this special time of year. The following news-story is from Deseret…

“Organized religion has been at the basis of too many wars. I see very little good in it. I’m raising my children without any talk of God, as I don’t think it’s fair to push God down their throats when they’re too young to think logically.”

I came across this comment in what is otherwise a very intriguing reflection on the Passover and religious identity by Judith Warner in her New York Times blog, “Domestic Disturbances.”

One can find comments like it all over the place: the lazy dismissals of religion as the root and cause of every single thing that has ever gone wrong in the world. And I’ll confess that they drive me up a wall because (1) they often come from people who are simply buying into other people’s thoughts without thinking for themselves, and (2) they’re often wrong.

If someone is looking for something to blame for all the worst things…

"Baptizing into Community" by Wayne Lacson Forte

Tomorrow begins the Three Days (also known by its Latin, Triduum) of the Christian church year, the Three Days—Maundy (”Mandate”) Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday—when Christians around the world gather to remember the events that culminated the life of Jesus Christ. This year’s celebration is heightened by the fact that these days coincide with the first three full days of the Jewish celebration of Passover, which begins tonight.

The Triduum is climaxed by the Great Vigil of Easter, the Saturday night celebration when from early times the church baptizes catechumens, enacts the “salvation history” of God from the creation of the cosmos to the resurrection of Christ, unleashes the singing of “Alleluia!” (the word of praise that is not spoken during Lent), and eats and drinks together the meal of Eucharist.

Many churches have creatively revived the celebration of the Easter Vigil, incorporating families as participants,…

Passover is just about over. Despite news reports of matzah shortages across the country, our family managed to acquire enough boxes to make it through the holiday, with even a few pieces to spare.

If have noticed that I and a lot of my family and friends who observe the basic rules of Passover are getting quite grumpy and fatigued. Our daily routine of toast or a bagel and coffee for breakfast has been replaced by the mostly colorless, odorless, and tasteless matzah cracker, which must be slathered with butter/margarine, and jam to give it some pizazz.

Making a sandwich with matzah is a lesson in futility. Most of the contents of such a concoction end up in your lap with the first bite. There are two exceptions to these culinary disappointments. The first is matzah brei, a dish of scrambled eggs and matzah. The second is matzah balls, usually served in a chicken…

With Passover around the corner, I am instantly transported back to my childhood. Some of my most favorite and enduring memories are from seders past with my family. Many of these memories have nothing to do with the actual celebration of the Exodus from Egypt, but rather my cousins reenacting scenes from Saturday Night Live, or my sister giving an impromptu lip sync performance to the music of the Pointer Sisters (I did grow up in the ‘80’s).

So what makes these trivial moments so vivid?

Well, it’s all in the way we observe this tactile holiday. In a nutshell, Passover is the celebration of the Jews’ freedom from slavery in Egypt. On the first and second nights (Passover is 7 days), we have a ritual feast called a seder.

Myjewishlearning.com sums it up:

During the seder, we don’t just tell the story of the Exodus, we see, smell, feel, and taste liberation.

Guided by the Haggadah (the “script” for…

Steve Giegerich’s story in the Post-Dispatch, Passed Over? Students bow out (04/02/08) relates a tale that is an example of the inevitable conflicts which will occur between civil society and religious observance.

Jewish students who wish to participate in a state wide competition are faced with the choice of either preparing for Passover, which begins at sunset on Saturday, April 19, or participating in the competition and barely making it back home in time to begin the Passover celebration. As the article makes clear, each student is making his/her own choice.

The problem is, in a society which struggles to encourage diversity and understanding, some of us will be forced to make choices which violate our personal religious standards. We may think that we are guided by a civil or secular calendar, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Our current conventional calendar is a product of the religious values of the…