“We reinvented and re-engi-
neered a way of telling the
Passover story, which is what the
seder and Haggadah are meant
to do,” he said.

The Haggadah could serve as
either a supplement or a replace-
ment, Schlesinger added.

“For a seder newbie, it cer-
tainly would be an appropriate
first-level, Haggadah-like expe-
rience,” he said.

As for the seder plate, its design
has them reaching creatively, look-
ing for a way to present something
that is “heavy, expensive and beau-
tiful” in a box that’s 10 by 12 by 4
inches (and also needs to contain
the rest of the offerings).

Long accustomed to my
table’s round seder plate, I began
to picture how a new form might
add a difference to this night of
distinctions. Would it be in the
form of a hand? Would it come
like a jigsaw puzzle for those
seated at the table to solve?
The food items are “kosher
style,” so Schlesinger acknowl-
edges the box “is not going to be
for everyone.” He also realizes its
limitations. He isn’t sure, for in-
stance, that the hope of opening
the box at the seder table and “it
releases magic” is a reasonable ex-
pectation, Schlesinger told me.

What is reasonable, he said, is that
it will create “some inspiration.”
“What about putting an in-
flatable rabbi in the box?” I
asked, jokingly wondering what
kind of magic I needed to keep
everyone’s attention at my own
seder table.

Unfazed, Schlesinger, whose
father is a rabbi, liked the idea —
he said it reminded him of the
popular novelty known as
“snakes in a can.”
Yet I still wondered how even a
brilliant new Haggadah could hold
everyone’s interest — especially that
of a generation used to doing prac-
tically everything online.

Schlesinger responded that
Judaism — contrary to recent at-
tempts to project it into virtual
communities — has always been
about the senses, the “tactile” ex-
perience of “touch, feel and taste.”
“What is a moment we can
share?” he asked. “Not just a dig-
ital space;” how do we “recapture
the experiential moment?”
Opening a box — whether
filled with objects from Hello
Mazel or from our own imagina-
tions — might just be the way. l
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