The first night of Passover comes with much anticipation. After weeks of cleaning, cooking, and preparing, the efforts culminate in a big payoff at the Seder.
Children ask questions and are excited to share everything they learned in school, and the first bites of matzah taste new.
Jews outside of Israel hold a second Seder on the second night of Passover, and that second Seder can feel anti-climactic.
After the big ordeal and the newness of the first night, the second Seder can feel like boring repetition.
Been there, done that.
With that mindset, it can feel like a lot of work without the payoff of the exciting and new.
But we can change our perspective to make the second Seder feel different, even if we are repeating the same rituals and stories.
The second night has the potential to be more powerful than the first night.
Rather than seeing it as a mere repeat of the first seder, we can view the second Seder as a chance to do it over, applying our insights from the first night.
If there was something we didn’t get to share, or a part we didn’t quite understand, we have another chance.
Learning is most effective when we can integrate it immediately into our daily practice. The second Seder gives us this opportunity for integration of what we learned the first night.
There’s always another layer to uncover and a way to take what we learned deeper.
Repetition doesn’t mean it has to be the same.
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