Passover Preview

Passover begins next week but, as with Purim, evidence of preparations began well in advance of the actual holiday. First we noticed huge displays and sales on cleaning supplies and aluminum foil. Then it was new dishes and pots and pans, followed by unbelievable quantities of matzos boxes, kosher for Passover candies, kosher for Passover honey and so on. Our friend, Edna, warned us that we would be hearing lots of stomping and furniture moving overhead as our fellow apartment residents did the heavy cleaning that is de rigeur at this time. We also saw advertisements for “Pesach cleaning help.” We are managing on our own but I’m sure our efforts would not pass muster with the more observant (or obsessive) residents.

Meanwhile, for our last session at Gordon Ulpan before the three week festival break, the entire Tuesday/Sunday evening student body celebrated a seder together. Each student was asked to bring a hard boiled egg and a cooked potato and the school supplied the ubiquitous gefilte fish (no horseradish!) and the necessary ritual foods (matzos, charoset (pretty tasty date paste from a jar), and sweet wine. After a (too) brief explanation in English by one of the teachers, students— either a representative or the whole group- from each class took turns reading parts of the Haggadah. Noga, the music teacher, accompanied us on the guitar as we sang the songs she had taught us----Ma Nishtenah Ha Lilah HaZeh (Why is this night different?: the four questions), Echad mi yodea (Who knows one…..up to 13), Halleluya, Go Down Moses, and others). Students from Brazil, Italy, Canada, and Greece also shared special songs with us from their communities. At the close of the ceremony we all stood and sang Ha Tikva, the Israeli national anthem. Some of the non-Jewish students looked a bit lost and I saw a lot of gefilte fish left on the plates, but everyone loved the wine and the singing! The teachers and staff worked really hard to put this together and they were clearly excited to share this tradition with all their students, whatever their background. Kol Ha Kavod (all honor) to our teachers for a terrific event!

Photos: my classmates--two women in white across the table are Rina and Galya from Romania; my teacher, Edna-standing in black sweater and white blouse; student in hat and yellow tshirt from another class reading; Vivian, with red scarf, my friend who is the cultural attache at the Columbian embassy, and Lew's class standing to read.

P.S. We are still looking for a seder to attend. We may go to Jaffa to the seder at the Ruth Daniel guest house run by Beit Daniel, the Reform congregation in our neighborhood. I’ll keep you posted.