Bad Muslim

I didn't get a chance to watch Shah's of Sunset last night... but never fear! It's queued up to watch tonight and I will be back here tomorrow to let you know what I think.

What was I doing instead of watching my beloved trashy TV shows? I WAS EATING MATZAH LIKE THE BAD MUSLIM THAT I AM. Yes, that's right, I attended my first Passover. My Jewish boyfriend's parents invited me to join them. It was actually really nice. We had dinner with his family Friday night, and then an even bigger meal on Passover Saturday, and then we had a brunch on Sunday. Needless to say, my digestive tract will never be the same because--unbeknownst to me--matzah causes severe constipation. Forget about the 40 years of hunger it took for the Jews to escape Egypt, I'm thinking of 40 years of constipation. Those poor Jews! That is some serious remembrance I can get behind.

It was the numerous courses of food that did me in though. I kept thinking dinner was over, but then another course would come out. I haven't been in the dark about a tradition since the first bewildering time I was invited to a friend's house for dinner and they said grace. First, candles were lit, Hebrew words were said (that I remembered from my old best friend's batmitzvah!), then there was some stuff about goading M's 4-year old niece to hide a piece of matzah. We sat around and broke pieces of matzah and buttered them and ate them with chopped liver. Then there was salad. Then there was matzah ball soup. I thought dinner was done at this point, but I was informed that now dinner was only about to be served. There was brisket, chicken, and twice-cooked potatoes. Afterwards, we sat around and ate jelly rings and other kosher desserts. But, by far, my favorite part was when M's mom busted out a bowl of chopped bacon for our salad. Yes, they're my kind of Jews.

Saturday seder was the same meal but bigger and with more family members and nicer cutlery, and we actually went around the table and read the story of Passover from little booklets. Instead of dipping our finger in cups of wine after reading about each plague, we dipped our finger in diet coke (see what I mean? my kind of Jews!). On Sunday, brunch was matzoh "brie" (not the cheese), which was like french toast with matzah instead. It was all delicious.

Passover reminds me a lot of Ramadan. The meaning behind Passover is really very beautiful--it's about remembering that slavery and persecution should never be tolerated in any form for anybody. The Abrahamic religions are all really so similar in their core beliefs. It's a shame that politics have sullied the central messages and pitted us against each other. Really, the way my mom sneaks bacon into our meals and M's mom sneaks bacon into theirs should bond us together. Or maybe that just makes us bad Muslims and Jews. Haram! Every Persian Muslim should fall for a Jew. The pre-nups would be out of this world!