Our Seders Brought Newfound Order to My Life
By Remi Welbel
This year, rather than opting for a virtual/hybrid college experience, my twin sister and I decided to return to the farm where our father grew up and establish a regenerative farm, Zumwalt Acres, rooted in Jewish values, and dedicated to teaching, research, and fighting climate change. This spring marks our first official growing season and our second cohort of farm apprentices. Although we embarked on this journey unclear what role Judaism might play, we have found that Judaism has become a guiding force.
In our spring farm apprentice cohort, we are a predominantly Jewish group, with a spectrum of identities and observances. We are a truly ruach-filled bunch: we sing Kabbalat Shabbat songs at the dinner table each week, we share new and old traditions, we talk about our identities and how they have evolved throughout our lives, we really cannot go many seconds without talking about Judaism.
Working full-time running an emerging farm and organization feels chaotic. It is literally running from planting strawberries in our research test plots, to gathering soil samples, to submitting a grant application, to cooking dinner for 10 hungry 20-something-year-olds. When the Pesach Seder came around it brought us much needed order.
In the weeks leading up to the holiday, we created our own regenerative agriculture and environmentally focused Haggadah. We all contributed original and Judaic texts, poems, quotes, and photographs. As a community, we made decisions about how we would observe the holiday. We discussed how we would kasher the house, what kashering meant to each of us, and how we could make a Jewish space that was comfortable for the whole group. For many of us, it was our first time celebrating the holiday without our families or our Jewish communities at school. This experience allowed us to blend all of our different traditions and levels of observance. Together, we forged our own way and celebrated in ways that were meaningful to us.
The day of the first Seder, we spent all hours bustling around the kitchen, working in cooking shifts that were neatly written on our house whiteboard. In the evening, we gathered in the living room where we sat on cushions on the floor surrounding our Seder plate and carefully covered pieces of homemade matzah baked in under 18 minutes. Jesse and Hannah led the Seder using a combination of our own Haggadah, the classic Maxwell House Haggadah, and their own inserts and additions. We opened our Seder with a rendition of the Yiddish song “Zol-Zayn.” When we arrived at the four children, we dressed the parts and acted them out. When it came to the retelling of the Pesach story, we took a similarly theatrical approach. We split up into two groups, each received a bag of props and a short script, and were given 10 minutes to craft our Pesach skit. Laughter reverberated throughout the room as Big Ag made an appearance as Pharaoh, commanding the Jews to monocrop corn and soybeans. After an amazing and highly collaborative Pesach feast, we benched the Birkat Hamazon (the after meal prayers) and concluded with Brendan playing the piano and leading us in an Elijah-themed, spirited Church song.
The second night, I led the Seder along with Gavi and Shachar. Again, we all celebrated together, bringing what was meaningful to us to the table, both literally and metaphorically. In our second Seder, we led a chevruta-style discussion on why God hardened Pharaoh's heart and explored the agricultural and environmental undertones of this spring holiday. We retold the Pesach story through playing a game of Pesach-themed Salad Bowl (a party game similar to charades), and sporadic outbursts of Zol-Zayn made prominent appearances.
Our Seders were beautiful. They were traditional and nontraditional, serious and hilarious. In many ways it felt like everything else we do here at Zumwalt Acres: where all bring something to the table, where we all engage in meaningful dialogue, where we integrate laughter and dedicated work.
It was empowering to create and collectively lead Pesach Seders. It felt like, together in rural Illinois, we were claiming our Jewish adulthood. No one instructed us in how to prepare for or lead our Seder. Everything we did, we did because it was significant to us and celebrated us as a group and as individuals.
Oftentimes in high school and college, I felt like the only or most Jewish person in the room. But at the farm, living with so many other young, passionate Jewish people, I have found the space to connect with Judaism in a new way. It has given me the support to sink into my Jewish identity while simultaneously expanding my conception of Judaism and exploring further. It has been transformative to live and learn with people who value Judaism as much as I do, and to likewise learn from those who are not Jewish and are truly remarkable in their capacity to whole-heartedly embrace the uncontainable Judaism of the rest of us, and to celebrate with us in such a beautiful way.