Easter 2022

Lance knows a guy through work who is Jewish and we've been out to dinner with him and his girlfriend a few times. He's one of the most interesting guys I've ever met. He used to work with animals in Hollywood and subsequently has a white tiger, several different monkeys, one of which belongs to Ed McMahon, he's got all kinds of exotic animals. Did I mention the monkeys live inside his house? Yep. He's a funeral director, is a mentor and tutor to several teenage boys from Israel, he's a Jewish rabbi, he's a contractor, he's fluent in 5 languages, etc. etc. A very interesting guy and so great to be around.

Aaaaaanyway, I really expressed to him at our Christmas dinner that I would love to join him for Passover and he made sure I didn't forget. We arrived at his house around 7 intending to help with dinner but his son and a few women already had it under control. Brian gave me a tour of his house that he was/is currently building onto (its massive) and met his animals. Shabbat starts Friday nights at sundown, which was around 8 ish, if I remember correctly. He had a few of his students that were invited, a man from Chile who recently learned through his DNA that's he's Jewish, a few other people from his church, about 15 people in total. 

We began in his study which is where we started Shabbatt with singing, prayers, and reciting certain scriptures. It lasted about 25 minutes. We all went downstairs to start Passover which was another 30-45 minutes before we started to eat anything. I was starving, we didn't actually eat any food until about 10:00pm but it was only the foods from Passover, which aren't filling at all. We read and sang the entire....I'm not sure what it's called....booklet that's to be recited for every Passover. I loved the symbolism with each food, each action, each word! I loved that even though Brian recited it all in Hebrew, there was English right next to it so I was able to follow along. It was 1:00am before I leaned over to Lance and told him we definitely needed to get the babysitter home, especially since we were in Deer Park which was a good 45 minute drive. It was one of the best experiences! It was completely legit from what would have happened thousands of years ago. I just loved it. After the actual Passover there were so many delicious and odd foods for us to feast on, and I mean so much food there's no way we could've eaten that much food all week. They even served goose.

A few of the other pictures: this amazing photo of Israel Brian took from when he was a student in Israel, this was taken right outside of his window!

Ancient scrolls

The little alcove where the ancient scrolls were kept, it was super ornate.

A special place where hands are washed and the prayer right above so you can recite it while washing. This was just off the kitchen.

Scriptures

The study where we began Shabbat

Finally, the Passover meal!

One part you were supposed to hit everybody with the green onions - or maybe it was celery? I can't remember. But the hitting was done with gusto and was so funny.

The Passover book.

We had our regular Easter egg hunt with our old friends from the Shilo Hills ward. What a great bunch, so glad we've all stayed friends even though we've each moved away 7 years ago. We still try to have monthly girls' nights as well.