Thanks ames. SJSinNYC letting my kids read is a BIG concession for me. As I’m sure everyone here knows, I’m big into nusach and preserving the traditional music that are part and parcel of our ceremonies. The Haggadah too has its traditional chant. As a child, I and our 20 or so guests would sit and listen to my father intone the text, and intersperse his commentary. We all joined in for the songs, and his comments created some conversation during the haggadah, but it was clearly his show. I loved every minute of it and I wish I could, at the same time, make my Seder identical to his, and sit at his Seder again. The image of him at the head of the table, his kippah slightly askew and his glasses tilted the other way, wearing his freshly laundered kittel and chanting with his Hungarian accented Hebrew, and adding commentary that would impress political scientists, historians and roshei yeshiva, is one of my fondest memories. But my wife comes from a house were everybody reads and her parents join us for the Sedarim, so we compromise. The only thing I won’t allow is non-traditional music, no matter its source. Fond as I am of my father’s Seder, I’ve “corrected” certain melodies he used, substituting them for the true traditional tunes. His Echad Mi Yodea, which was identical to his Chad Gadya, was wrong. But he once admitted that he forgot the melody from when he was a child. Eventually my kids will (hopefully) learn the nusach and the music and I’ll enjoy hearing it. When they get old enough, I’ll put in the commentary as well.
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