Outline for an Un-Seder Idea by Larry Denenberg; outline by Murray Spiegel The inspiration for this seder, credited to Larry Denenberg, was that most people skim, or skip altogether, the 2nd half of the seder, those portions following the meal. As a way of focusing on those frequently neglected portions, an inverted or reverse seder was conceived. When viewed from a different perspective, sometimes interesting relationships are revealed. Of course, running the seder completely backwards isn't feasible, but we played with an idea of a reverse seder in several ways. As Seder means "order," and this was a very disorderly seder according to traditional layout, this was the un-Seder, so to speak. When the _oldest_ person asks the Four Questions, you can explore deeper meanings they have when posed by someone who supposedly best knows the answer. Taken to the extreme case, in a reverse seder, people start as free men and end up as slaves! (Sort of an S&M seder, where you go back _into_ the House of Bondage.) We started with one of the final songs (Chad Gad), always a favorite. If done backwards, the animals in Chad Gadya come back to life. After counting the Omer, we did much of Hallel, the oft-neglected portions, while everyone was fresh. Ways to make Hallel more fun: To enable more participation, we used familiar melodies (due to Jonathan Greene): Greensleaves for Psalm 115, v.12-18 (Y'varech et beit Yisrael -> Mei atah v'ad olam); Simple Gifts, the Shaker tune, for Psalm 116, v.17-19 (L'cha ezbach zehvach todah -> B'tocheichi Yerushalayim); Adir Hu, for Psalm 117 and Psalm 118, v.1-4; and Ode to Joy for Psalm 118, v.21-24 (each line repeated) (Odecha ki anitani -> Zeh ha yom asah Adonai). Then came the 4th cup. This cup represents redemption - why delay that!? Then, we skipped back to the begining for Karpas and Yachatz. Karpas, so that participants can snack whenever they got hungry, prior to the meal on various appetizers. Yachatz, so that we could play a trick with the Afikomen search. The Afikomen is normally hidden, then found at the end of the meal, but we reversed this. We had previously hidden about 20 look-alike Afikomen fakes. During the seder, I occasionally handed out hints for various pairs of participants to find the fakes. (One of these, of course, turned out to be the real Afikomen, but there was no way for them to know which one.) As each Afikomen was found, its finders' names one was attached to its napkin, and the Afikomens were stacked at the head of the table. In this way we gradually revealing the Afikomen, before the meal (metaphorically speaking, or quantum-mechanical probabilistically speaking). After dessert, all were unwrapped and the person who had found the real Afikomen was identified and cheered. (There are any number of ways to distinguishing the fakes from the real Afikomen - I'm sure you can come up with at least one devious way that works for you.) We then did Nirtzah, but in future tense ("We will have performed ..."), followed by L'Shana Haba'ah, the listings of Pesach miracles, Pour out thy wrath, the 3rd cup, and then Dayenu. We recited the Dayenus backwards. As normally sung, at the end we thank God for doing 14 out of 15 things (bringing us forth from Egypt, inflict judgemets, leading us to Israel, but not yet giving us the Temple). In the beginning of the song, we say Had He done only one thing, that would have been enough. Although Dayenu is song of humility, by doing it backwards we become _more_ humble. In the normal order, we start humble and end up a tiny bit haughty: If God did 14 out the 15 things, THAT would be enough. Although Dayenu is a song of humility, when reversed, the song makes us very humble: just do one thing, God - lead us to Israel - that'd be enuf. In comparison, the original seems almost haughty: By the end of the song, we say just do these 12 things, no, 13, no 14 things, yes, that'd be enough). We then did Hillel sandwich (noting that at the time of the Temple, this activity was done at the end of the seder. Thus, in our reversed seder, the sandwich is a closer in placement to the original. Finally: Maror, Matzah, and Washing, and we were ready for the meal. To prevent the second half from being longer than the first, we also read some of the first portion of the Haggadah prior to the meal, such as discussion of the Four Sons. If done backward, we start off being simple and end up wise. Mixed in with the pre-meal seder were various games and puzzles. We did a skit based on John Kador's Passover in Hollywood and sang a couple of our song parodies, including the Gilbert & Sullivan take off of "The Israelites in General" (on the sedersforyou website). We also enacted customs from other cultures, such as Tunesians who pass the seder plate over each person's head, touching each one, to represent the burden we all carried. We also played puzzles based on identifying traditional songs, played backwards (and, after the meal, played a similar puzzle with identifying Four Questions language translations, also played backwards). We also did a take-off of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" skit, only with the names of the Four Sons. (On sedersforyou website.) Rather than going through the entire seder backwards, we wanted to work in how the Haggadah had changed over time. If a seder participant was in a time machine, starting with the earliest seders and moving forwards, one would see sections being added, elaborations and commentary growing over time. Viewing one Haggadah portion in this way would show where it came from and illuminate what have today. So after the meal, we chose to bench the Birkat HaMazon in its earliest form, by passing noting (by not chanting) the additions that had occured over time. The best reference source for this is the Polychrome Haggadah by Jacob Freedman. It shows development of the Haggdah text by a very clever color coding. (Currently out of print, it is available in many synagogue libraries.) We then read items from the first half not already done (2nd cup, Avadim Hayenu, the Plagues, etc). The Four Questions, near the end of the seder, represent how they were originally done. Does it make sense to ask about ritual activities that have not yet been done? Originally, they were described by the leader of the service, not the child. Later, the questions were moved to the beginning of the seder to engage the children, and while they were still fresh. We finished the Un-Seder with Halachma, Washing, and the Kiddish. OK, that's not true: we finished with the final songs that we had not done at the beginning of the seder (Echad Mi Yodea, done backwards, of course) and Adir Hu. Good luck with your Un-Seder! Posted on http://sedersforyou.tripod.com