“We sit around the table in our small dining room, fifteen of us –sometimes more—all the room will hold. We are crowded together and anyone getting out of his or her seat has to inconvenience several other people, but everyone seems jolly about the close quarters. After we have finished the haggadah, we sit around the table stuffed and happy and tell jokes. Everyone tries to come up with new jokes for the seder, including the kids. Some of us are great natural comics, but some, like me, cannot remember a joke unless we write it down. I think I have mastered a total of six jokes in my lifetime, and that could be an overestimate. Finally we have coffee and people slowly drift out into the night.”