Pass Over to Freedom:
15 Jewish Tales for Passover
Libi Astaire
Aster Press
Copyright 2012 Libi Astaire
Cover Photo: Copyright iStockphoto.com/Liudmila Chernova
Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 978-0-9837931-4-4
All rights reserved.
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A Note About This Text
The Jewish people have many names for God, which come from many languages. In the stories that follow these names appear:
Hashem — a Hebrew word meaning “The Name”
Aibishter — a Yiddish word meaning “Most High”
Ribbono Shel Olam — a Hebrew phrase meaning “Master of the Universe”
The words “Rabbi” and “Rebbe” are used to designate a spiritual leader. “Reb” is a courtesy title used for ordinary Jews.
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Order of the Seder:
I. Kadesh: Sanctifying the Day
The Four Cups of Milk
II. Urchatz: Washing the Hands (Without a Blessing)
Knowing What Not To Say
III. Karpas: Dipping a Vegetable into Salt Water
Are You Growing?
IV. Yachatz: Dividing the Middle Matzah into Two Parts
Handle with Care
V. Maggid: Reciting the Story of Going Out of Egypt
In Every Generation
VI. Rachtzah: Washing the Hands before Eating Bread
Now I Understand
VII. Motzi: Reciting the Blessing before Eating Bread
Monkeys from Heaven
VIII. Matzah: Eating the Matzah
It’s Elementary, My Dear Matzah
IX. Maror: Eating the Bitter Herbs
A Cure to Die For
X. Korech: Hillel’s Sandwich
Hold the Wry
XI. Shulchan Orech: The Meal
Not As Fishy As It Seems
XII. Tzafun: The Afikomen (Dessert)
How Much?
XIII. Barech: Grace after Meals
Thanks for Everything
XIV. Hallel: Praising Hashem
No Way!
XV. Nirtzah: Accepted
The Next Files
Biographical Notes
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
The Passover Seder is a time when Jewish families around the world gather together to retell the story of the Jewish People’s passage from slavery in Egypt to freedom. It is a time when we are asked to think deeply about what it means to be a slave — whether it is physical bondage, intellectual bondage or emotional bondage - and how one can become freed from that bondage and remain a free person.
We are guided in this journey by the words of the Haggadah, the ancient text that is read on Seder night and which gives us 15 steps to experience both the slavery of Egypt and the subsequent redemption. The experience of talking about the Exodus is enriched by the symbolic foods we are commanded to eat and drink on this Zman Cheruteinu (Time of Freedom): matzah (unleavened bread), maror (bitter herbs), the four cups of wine, et cetera.
And we tell stories. On this night when the generations gather, grandchildren learn stories about their ancestors and the role their own family has played in that great drama called Jewish history. It is also a time when we share stories about our Sages, whose knowledge of the human soul — its foibles and its potential for greatness — remains as fresh and incisive today as when their words were first spoken.
The 15 stories in this book have been culled from the vast repository of Jewish stories pertaining to the Passover holiday and the concepts discussed in the Haggadah. Some of the stories come from the treasury of lore belonging to the mystical religious movement called Chassidus, which was founded in the eighteenth century by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov. Others come from what is today known as the Litvish (Lithuanian) tradition, the tradition that evolved from the great yeshivos (Torah academies) of Eastern Europe. Each one has been selected for the insights it gives into one of the 15 steps of the Seder.
This book should not be seen as a commentary on the Haggadah; it is much too brief to take its place among that distinguished company. Instead, it should be read as an addition to the conversation that takes place during the Seder, that old-new ritual which takes us on a journey from slavery to freedom, from sadness to joy, from mourning to festivity, from darkness to great light, from servitude to redemption (Pesachim 10:5).
Let the journey begin.
Nissan 5772
Jerusalem
THE ORDER OF THE SEDER
Chapter I. Kadesh: Sanctifying the Day
Jewish holiday and Shabbos meals begin with a short prayer called Kiddush, where we sanctify the day by reciting a blessing over a cup of wine. What does it mean to sanctify a day?
One explanation is that we are separating this day from other days, raising it from the mundane, material aspects of this world and dedicating it to more spiritual goals. Rabbi Shimon Shkop, in his book Shaarei Yosher, gives another insight into this concept: When we dedicate our lives to doing good for other people, then all our actions become holy; even mundane actions such as eating and drinking become elevated, because they are necessary for our good health, which in turns enables us to continue to do acts of kindness for others.
This first step of the Seder, therefore, is to separate from our daily routine, our routine way of both doing and thinking, and become sensitive to the concept of holiness: holiness in time, holiness in place, holiness in people. To do that, sometimes we must speak; other times, our job is to listen …
The Four Cups of Milk
“Everyone in town seems to be here,” said Shmuel the tailor.
Pinchas the baker just shrugged. Why shouldn’t everyone in town be in the waiting room of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, also known as the Beis Halevi? Passover was just a few days away. The laws pertaining to the holiday were complicated and vast, while the prohibition against eating chametz (leavened products) was strict. It therefore made perfect sense that the town’s Jewish residents were flocking to Rabbi Yosef Dov with their questions.
The line slowly inched forward. Shmuel and Pinchas both had their turn. Then it was time for Moshe, a poor blacksmith, to ask his question of Rabbi Yosef Dov.
The blacksmith was more used to talking to horses than rabbis, if the truth were told, and so at first it was difficult for him to find the right words. Finally, after deciding that the plainest way was the best, he blurted out, “Rabbi, does a person have to drink four cups of wine during the Seder? Can he fulfill the obligation by drinking four cups of milk instead?”
Rabbi Yosef Dov was silent for a moment. He had known Moshe for many years, and therefore knew that the blacksmith wasn’t the type of person to bother the rabbi with frivolous questions. Yet who in their right mind would want to replace the four cups of wine with milk? Was there some deep, unspoken reason behind the request? There was only one way to find out. “Is there a reason why you don’t want to drink wine? Is something wrong with your health?”
“Thank God, my health is fine,” the blacksmith replied. “But I haven’t had much work lately, and I have a large family, and wine is expensive. So this year, I thought that maybe we would all drink four cups of milk instead of four cups of wine. Is it permissible?”
“That is a very interesting question,” said Rabbi Yosef Dov. “Please wait here for a few minutes, and I will give you my answer.”
While the blacksmith waited in his study, Rabbi Yosef Dov went to find his wife, who was in charge of the family’s finances. “Do we have 25 rubles in the house?” he asked.
“Twenty-five rubles?” Rebbetzin Soloveitchik exclaimed. In those days 25 rubles was a large sum. “Who needs so much money?”
“Moshe the blacksmith. He asked if his family could drink milk instead of wine at the Seder.”
“Wine costs only three or four rubles. Why give him 20 more rubles than he needs?”
“Don’t you see?” Rabbi Yosef Dov replied. “If he is asking if it is permissible to drink milk at the Seder, it must mean he also cannot afford to buy meat — because of course he and his family would never eat milk and meat at the same meal and transgress the laws of keeping kosher. And if he cannot afford to buy meat, he certainly hasn’t got the money to buy his family new clothes and shoes and all the other things they’ll need for the holiday.”
When she heard this, the Rebbetzin gladly gave her husband the money. However, when Rav Yosef Dov returned to the study, the blacksmith was not glad to receive it.
“Rabbi,” he insisted, “I came here to ask a question about Jewish law. I didn’t come to ask for charity.”
“Who said that this is charity?” replied Rav Yosef Dov, anxious to preserve the poor blacksmith’s dignity. “This is a loan to tide you over until Hashem makes your business prosper once again. When that happens, I will expect you to repay the money in full.”
The poor blacksmith agreed to accept the “loan.” With the 25 rubles making a happy clinking song in his pocket, he went at once to tell his family the good news: They were going to have a joyous Seder, after all!
Chapter II. Urchatz: Washing the Hands (Without a Blessing)
Usually, the next step in a holiday or Shabbos meal is to wash the hands, with a blessing, and then eat a piece of challah cut from the special braided loaves. The Passover Seder, however, was designed by our Sages to take us out of the “usual.” We perform the ritual of washing our hands, in preparation for eating the vegetable in the next step, but we don’t say a blessing. We are silent.
The halachic (legalistic) reason why we don’t say the blessing for washing the hands is beyond the scope of this book. But we can discuss why our Sages introduced this change in the usual order. One reason commonly given is that we want to attract and keep the attention of the children, who are always intrigued by the new. Similarly, we can say that we adults want to wake up our “inner children.” Instead of going through life half asleep, slaves to a routine where Action X invariably leads to Response Z, this step of the Seder reminds us that we have the ability to see common events in our lives in a fresh light and respond in a non-usual way.
Knowing What Not To Say
The anxious chassidim looked uneasily from one to another. Until that moment, everything seemed to have been going fine. They were showing their new Rebbe, Rabbi Shmelke, around the house where the Rebbe and his family would live. Since Rabbi Shmelke, who would later gain renown as Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg, was accustomed to living simply, he readily gave his approval to everything that he saw. But then they arrived at the kitchen. Rabbi Shmelke stopped and stood silently in the room for quite some time.
“Is something wrong?” the chassidim asked.
“Don’t you smell it?”
“Smell what?”
“There is a distinct fragrance of Gan Eden, of Paradise, in this room,” said Rabbi Shmelke. “Who lived in this house before?”
“The previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar.”
Rabbi Shmelke continued to stand in silence for several minutes. He then said, “I don’t understand it. I know that Rabbi Yissachar was a very holy person, but there are other people who are righteous and their homes don’t have this fragrance. He must have done something extraordinary to merit such an unusual reward. Have you any idea what it was?”
Each of the chassidim had a story or two that he was willing to share. Rabbi Shmelke listened to them all, but he wasn’t satisfied with any of them. When the chassidim grew silent, Rabbi Shmelke suggested that they ask the townspeople for help. Surely someone in Nikolsburg had to know.
For the next several days the house was filled with people ready to share their personal reminiscences of Rabbi Yissachar. But still the new Rebbe was not satisfied. At the end of each story he would say, “That was beautiful, but it doesn’t explain the miracle of this fragrance.”
Word continued to spread and the quest to solve the riddle reached even the non-Jewish section of town. One day it therefore happened that a non-Jewish woman appeared at Rabbi Shmelke’s door. The woman explained that many years earlier she had been a servant in Rabbi Yissachar’s home, where her job was to help take care of the family’s young children.
“The story I have to tell happened a few days before the holiday that the Jews call Passover,” she began. “I didn’t know anything about this holiday until I worked in the Rabbi’s home, and so I was surprised to see what a big to-do it caused. The house was turned all upside down with mopping and scrubbing and dusting and polishing. My job was to look after the children and keep them out of the way. But that was no easy task, I can tell you, because the children wanted to be part of all the hustle and bustle, too.