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Page 4 The S outhern Israelite The Festival of Passover Some Customs of tlhe Great Feast of freedom Hy FLORENCE ROTHSCHILD Beginning with the Seder evening on April. 12 th the Festival of Passover com mences for a period of eight dogs for the Orthodox and seven dags for the Reform Jews. Commemorating the exodus of the Jews from their house of bondage in Egypt, Passover has always symbol ized freedom, for the Jew. Throughout the centuries it has always served as a re minder that out- of the op pression some day there might again come liberation. In this article are sketched some of the most important customs that go with Pass- over. Although the article does not discuss all details, it emphasizes some of the most interesting aspects of a holiday which is replete with ceremonials and rituals THE Editor. Freedom is the keynote of Pass- over. And because we .lews have al ways, above all else, loved that free dom which we have so seldom attain ed Passover has always been the fes tival most closely allied with our emo tional life, dearest to our racial soul. That freedom is the keynote of the whole Passover celebration. It is symbolized particularly on the Seder night by the easy and reclining atti tudes of those gathered about the fes tive board. The master and mistress lean back on specially cushioned benches; the guests rest at ease on soft pillows. The thoughts of a whole people turn back to the epic struggle for freedom waged by the Israelite slaves in cruel Egypt; to the final triumph of the Israelites under the divinely inspired leadership of Moses and the subjugation of the Egyptians by means of the ten plagues. The paschal lamb is a re minder of the blood of the lamb that was smeared over the Israelitish doorposts so that the Angel of Death might pass them over when he claimed the first-born of the Egyptian house holds—a torture which finally result ed in permission to Moses to lead his people forth to the desert and the Promised Land. The whole story is recounted in symbol and in actual relating. The haroseth, a particularly delicious dish, nevertheless is a somber remind er of the mortar which our forefath ers had to mix with the sweat of their brows in the days of slavery and torturous toil. The bitter herbs re mind us of their bitter lot. But the hard-boiled egg strikes a note of de liverance—a symbol of the free-will offering given to God in thanks for deliverance. On this day each man and woman is a free being. Because in the old days free men could recline while they ate, while slaves consumed their re past less comfortably, each Jew re clines on the Seder evening. And wine flows unrestrained. Four cups of wine are prescribed, even for the children, though in all fairness it must be add ed that the children’s portions were rarely undiluted. The custom was usually to give them just enough drops of the red, sweet wine to color their water effectively—and nowa days grape juice is often substituted for their potion. One cup of wine is placed for Elijah, in the hope that the wandering Prophet will come in in some guise and grace the occasion with his presence. It was this celebration of Passover that gave our ghetto fathers the courage to continue their struggle. For it reminded them each year anew that once upon a time God had led Israel forth to freedom from bond age, and aroused in them ever again the hope that some time God would lead his people back again to the Promised Land of liberty. More than any other Jewish period of observance does Passover directly touch the physical lives of our people. For during the week of this holiday the normal diet of the faithful is con siderably disturbed—though not dis agreeably so. Days before the Pass- over week the matzos are imported into the house and carefully stored away, safely out of the reach of long ing mortals; for in order to whet the appetite for the enforced week’s diet of unleavened bread the law decrees that none shall be eaten before the sun drops over the rim of the horizon on the Seder eve. And before the noon-day dishes of that day are wash ed and put away every bit of bread and trefeh flour must have disappear ed utterly from the house—or the apartment. There has long existed perhaps it was so even in the unrecorded households of the Middle Ages—a flagrant though extremely secret vi olation of the strict letter of this or dinance. Perhaps this is the first public whisper of the fact. Perhaps not. In any case, it is the custom in many homes which employ non-Jew- ish servants to secrete enough leaven ed bread in the servants’ quarters to keep the goyim contented with their usual rations. But that is simply a fortuitous concession to an unfortun ate circumstance, and in no way in validates the main thesis. Though we in America use square, rectangular or round matzos impar tially, depending on which com pany’s products we use, the custom until this age of machinery was that matzos should be round. There nev er was a law to that effect, but for many generations usage was strong er than any law could have been. So strong, indeed, that when rnatzoh- baking machines were first introduc ed in London it was the manufactur ers who objected, because they were sure the people would never buy any but round matzos—and the machines of those days were not capable of rounding off the edges. But time has proved these merchants wrong. The origin of the matzoh-eating custom has been variously given. The accepted Sunday-school explanation is that when the Israelites left Egypt they were in such a hurry that they didn't have time to mix or bake their bread properly and that therefore the bread didn’t rise, but remained flat and unleavened. Therefore we eat unleavened bread to commemo rate that event. A perhaps more reasoned explanation is that given in the Midrash—namely, that the an cient Egyptians were in the habit of baking their cakes in round form, and that the function of the matzos is to remind us of the food upon which the Egyptian taskmasters forced the Jewish slaves to subsist. Our modern thin matzos were first approximated in the sixteenth cen tury. But the hoary model is recall ed by the matzos still consumed in Eastern Europe. These are very thick and extremely difficult to eat unless they are first softened by “dunking,” or are ground into mat- zoh meal and them remade into small er and more edible cakes. The three matzos used in the Se der dish were, in the Middle Ages, made with special care and called, respectively, Priest, Levite and Is raelite. Even now care is taken to keep them separate. Half of the second matzoh is used to delight the children who participate in the Seder service. It is called the Aphikomen —sometimes derived from the Greek word meaning “to hide”—and is hid den early in the evening by some member of the household, usually one of the kiddies. This piece of matzoh is a required part of the service. At the very close of the meal the master of ceremonies must break off small bits of it and hand them around for each person to eat as the very last morsel of the meal. But if the mas ter of the house can’t find it he must forfeit whatever is exacted by the one who hid the Aphikomen, and the promise thus made must be kept. Many a little girl has acquired a wanted doll, many a little boy has at tained some long-cherished desire in this way. Nor is this the only way in which the children participate in the serv ice. The main purpose of the Seder is to serve as an object lesson for even the youngest children. Indeed, it is the very youngest who asks the four pivotal questions. Even the supercilious child who shows his un belief by asking skeptical questions is duly answered with quiet dignity; and painstaking explanation is pro vided for the simple son who cannot understand. These skeptics and these simple ones Israel- has always had in abundance—perhaps that is why their presence is so officially recognized. It is the custom for the women also to join in the spoken prayers. A different prayer is apportioned to each adult to read, men and women alike. And the youngsters have their inning when the Dayenu is pro nounced. The Dayenu is a prayer like the others, but the refrain — which means “it would have been enough”—is chanted in singsong fash ion and joined in by everybody, all the way from: “Had He brought us forth from Egypt and not executed judg ments upon them—Doyena!” through the horror of the- plague^ and the journeyings through the d<-s- ert and the giving of the Law to: “Had He led us into the land of T. rael and not built for us H chosen Temple—Da gem,:" And then to the triumphant finish which acknowledges a double and manifold obligation to God, for He did do all the things mentioned—"p atone for all our iniquities." Then there are the two songs who., form is that which in modern child- lore is exemplified by such poems a- “The House That Jack Built.” With each line all the previous ones are re peated. There is the song titled "On* Who Knoweth,” which goes: “One do I know: One is the God of Israel” all the way through. “Thirteen do I know: Thirteen are the attributes of God; Twelve are the tribes of Israel; Eleven are the stars (in Josephs dream) ; Ten are the commandments;" and so on, back through One. Th* idea each time is to see who can ca. off the numbers most quickly and most accurately. A hectic and ra'h- er deafening contest usually ensues but it’s thoroughly enjoyed by ever;, one participating. “One Kid! One Kid!" also follow - the procedure described above, and winds up with: “Then came the Holy and Blessed God And killed the Angel of Death Who killed the butcher Who slaughtered the ox Which drank up the water Which quenched the fire That burnt the stick That beat the dog That bit the cat That ate the kid Which my father purchased for two pieces of money. One kid! One kid!” This song has the general ring o! a simple little Mother Goose rh\ni* and therein lies its special appeal f< the children. But there’s another and fairly obvious symbolism attach ed to it; God bought Israel and pai'j for it with two coins—the blood o circumcision and the blood of over. Egypt—the cat—consumed - rael; the Medes and Persians-the stick—beat Egypt; the fier> * tX ander wiped out the Medes and er sians; Rome spread like water o\er the whole world and quenched tm fire of Alexander’s reign; the -ar cens—the ox—drank up the ( ■■" Empire. The rest is not so clear- d the butcher may have been mean crusaders; the Angel of Deat '' an unfulfilled Agency, merely nop™ There are other songs which ante dated and perhaps heralded American community “ s ' n ^ s ". , on there ai-e other customs w ic Passover bind us particular*' to our forefathers—for they ar< ; ^ same customs, if slightly 010 her that have welded our peopi- L from time immemorial. Copyright, 1930, S. A.