Passover was the best time in our family. That was when we all knew that we would be together and share our Jewish heritage.

I am trying to teach my 7-week old son The Four Questions for Wednesday. I hope he learns it in time!

My name is Daniel. I am turning 15 in May. I live in Belgium because my spanish father works for the European Commision. We usually celebrate Passover here, but this year we are going to the States to be with my family (my mom is american). My dad cannot make it this year and, since he is the normal 'seder leader' we were confronted with a problem; who was going to lead the seder? Suddenly my mom suggested I do it. I agreed without realizing what I was getting into. You see, since I only celebrated Passover with my family when I was young, I do not know how they reacted and would react to a seder: some people are loud, others hungry...my theory is you should expect anything.

So I set off to accomplish a task that had been set before me. We have a haggadah underlined by my father and that guided me but, I wanted to do something extra. I was discouraged by my mother to do this because of the length but I wnated to. I visited all kinds of sites in search of something. A something which was a mystery. what I really wanted was a philosophical explanation of Passover by a rabbi but 'search engines' didn't help. Finally I arrived at 'kosher4passover.com'. I was thrilled!!!!!! Now with a little info from here and some from there I can accomplish the task set before me.

On Mar 28th, Maury Lieberman started his car, pulled onto Los Angeles' Ventura freeway and drove 25 miles to where it crossed Pass Avenue. His closest friends asked him why he drove all that way, when didn't know a soul out there. Maury just smiled and said, "I wanted to pass over Pass overpass over Passover."

I moved to a small community in Oregon 10 years ago. There is not much in the way of a Jewish community, here, so I would visit my family in Arizona every year for Passover - I am the youngest child in my family, although I am now nearly 30! Still, I cannot escape the Four Questions! Anyway, I have made some wonderful friends up here. About three years ago, for financial reasons, I was unable to return to Arizona for Passover. So, my friends invited me to host a Passover Seder at their house (they aren't Jewish). What wonderful people! We invited everyone we knew who would enjoy the meal and the Seder ceremony. I obtained 15 Haggadahs and my friend, Joy (true to her name), and I spend the day preparing the kitchen and the meal. I may have been the only Jewish person in the room, but there was a festive and generous spirit present in everyone present. One of the guests was a child named, quite appropriately, Elijah. Elijah was seven years old and a great reader. I was very pleased about this because we assigned him to read (albeit, in English, but nonethless...) the Four Questions. Finally! A Seder where I wasn't the youngest person present! We have made it a Passover tradition, here in Oregon, each year since. I was able to fly my Mom up from Arizona a couple of years ago, and she had a wonderful time. We have also met more people, including some others who are Jewish and didn't have a place to spend the Seder - they do now!

When we lived in Midland, Texas (home of the President), we didn't know the Bushes. However, we knew a lot of other Christians and asked some of them, the Wigzell family, to hold our Chametz things that were in closed packages, in their utility room until after Passover. The five year old there figured it all out and explained to her mother: "I get it ... the M's Pass OVer their food to us and we pass over ours to the A's next door! And that's why it's called Passover!"

As a Naval Flight Officer flying with an air wing attached to the nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), I also had the pleasure of serving as the ship's Jewish layreader. During our 1984-85 deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, where we were stationed near Israel, Syria, and Lebanon, occasionally moving off the coast of Libya as directed, I found myself planning a Pesach Seder. With the assistance of the chaplain's office and the enlisted mess specialists we managed to fly aboard the appropriate ingrediants from Israel, France, and Italy. The enlisted mess specialists prepared a traditional meal, including gefilte fish, matzah ball soup, charoset, and a wonderful chicken dinner, including kosher wine. Seder and matzah plates also were prepared for each table. As US combat aircraft launched from the flight deck we read through the entire Haggadah, drank the traidtional four cups of wine, and recalled the sweet taste of freedom. The importance of freedom was reinforced by the Ethiopian Jewish community which was being repatriated to Israel during our seven month deployment. The only element of a traditional seder that we missed was finding the afikomen--we had no children aboard!!

Once during Seder, when we opened the front door to admit Elijah, who should walk in but my daughter Miriam, who, unbeknownst to me, had flown in from Amsterdam to be with us. The plane was late, and therefore so was she, but her surprise arrival made me feel that, somehow, Eliyahu had indeed arrived!

We would know for sure that Passover was shortly upon us. That was the time of the year, my father, without warning, would start preparing his own horseradish. When everyone was out of the apartment, he would start grating and preparing his homemade horseradish. The grating, cutting and mashing of the root causes the air to become acid, burning and powerful. When we would return to the apartment and then open the door, the powerful odor would fill the air and our nostrils. It would burn our eyes and nostrils. Yes, Passover was approaching, and this was our alarm clock to start preparing to collect and get rid of the chometz. We did look forward to eating the very powerful horsradish during the Seder meals.

I have 2 Pesach stories...one happened 22 years ago. My husband came home from work early so that we could get to my parents' house for the first seder. I was 9 months pregnant, and as we drove to their house, I knew I was in labor. We decided I'd just go along as normal as possible for as long as possible...just not eat anything. BUT when we arrived, Mom opened rhe door and her cat darted out.I knelt down to try and grab him and my water broke! Our first child was born on the first day of Passover. It has always been my favorite celebration, so this was really special.

Twenty years later, my son was doing his junior year abroad. He was in Scotland. He wanted to go to seder, so asked the rabbi at a shul he attended if there was a public seder somewhere. Our family isn't orthodox,asyou may have gathered, but we do keep strict kosher for the 8 days, with a different set of dishes, etc. Anyway, this was an Orthodox rabbi, and he invited my son to his home for seder. Well, the seder in an orthodox home is really different. My son said that after 5 hours, there was no food and he was exhausted and more than a little bored! He thanked his host profusely and left. He called us. We were in the middle of our seder at that point. We passed the phone from one person to another so that everyone got to talk to him. It was really special, and when we sang the songs, he was able to join in via phone.