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March 31, 2023 (9 Nisan 5783) Pesachs Past Dear Friends, As you are no doubt busily preparing for the upcoming Passover festival, I pray that this correspondence finds you doing well and in good health. We encourage you to take a break from your “pre-Pesach mania” and join us for Shabbat services this Saturday morning at 10:15am in our beautiful sanctuary. These Shabbat Hagadol services will also be available, as always, on our Zoom prayer link. Before we Kasher the kitchen for Pesach, Gary Miller is sponsoring this week’s Kiddush luncheon to honor the memory of his parents, Betty Gips and Robert Miller. We thank Gary for sharing his Mitzvah with the congregation. While the holiday tumult will cause a brief interruption in our adult education schedule, please stay abreast of your emails so that you can join us for our next special series, to be announced shortly. A famous adage in the Mishna (Pesachim 10:5) finds its way into the Haggadah and highlights the ultimate purpose of the Seder ceremony. “In every generation a person is obligated to see themself as if they had come out from Mitzrayim.” All our symbolic ritual-eating, singing, praying and storytelling are intended to recall the past, our history, and development as a free nation, duly consecrated to Hashem through the performance of Mitzvoth. Although many of us may find it a stretch to envision ourselves all the way back to the historical Exodus of 3200 years ago, we all likely have been blessed with meaningful Pesach memories that are part of our own poignant, familiar, family lore. In fact, I would argue that recollecting “Pesachs Past”, while simultaneously creating new memories, is the primary reason that Passover is the most widely observed holiday in the Jewish community. During the intermediate days of Chol Hamoed, my family will observe the second Yartzheit of my mother, Rae, of blessed memory. While we all miss her on a regular basis, Passover was the holiday for which she always travelled to us from Toronto, whether we were situated in the Midwest or living here on the East Coast. Therefore, for my kids, Pesach was often referred to as Bubbie’s holiday. Here are a few of our memories of “Pesachs Past.” Bubbie loved to cook and bake. Taking on the role of a traditional Ballebusta (a good homemaker), she would command the kitchen while lovingly walking my daughters through her unknown (to us) recipe of fantastic farfel cookies. These delectable cookie-like creatures, mixed with cinnamon and chocolate chips, had to be rolled just so in order to maintain their precise shape and texture. The girls’ hands had to be wet, but not too wet, to appropriately shape these treats into the correct geometrical outline. The last cookie, towards the end of the batter, was always the largest and the most unseemly shaped of the dozens of delights. Next came the sponge cake. This infamous cholesterol ridden dessert was baked with 14 eggs, which could not be used, opened, cracked, or whipped, until they had been removed from the fridge and sat at room temperature for at least three hours. After using almost every utensil in the kitchen, Bubbie and the girls diligently and carefully prepared the Passover batter. The luckiest in the room was, of course, privileged to “lick the fixens” from the spatula. One hour later, the cake was cautiously removed from the oven. Any extraneous movement or noisemaking throughout the house became strictly prohibited while the Bundt pan was ever-gently inverted on a suitable sized drinking glass. Finally, a Tefilla of great intensity was recited by our entire “congregation” as we waited for this “lighter than air” cake to cool and not collapse into pieces on the tabletop (which happened more than once). The highlight of the festivities, however, was always the recitation of the four questions or, in Yiddish, the Fir Kashes. Bubbie loved music and enjoyed singing throughout her life, even participating for years in her synagogue’s choir. At the Seder, she would melodiously sing the Passover questions almost flawlessly, as the girls followed along attentively and in amazement. The reason I say almost flawlessly is because each year there was a palpable pause when she came to the text describing “sitting in a reclined fashion.” Apparently, in her family’s small town of Mulch, in Grodno, in White Russia, there really wasn’t a fitting Yiddish word for “recline.” Friends, as we prepare for Passover, I am sure that you too are overwhelmed with loving, emotional, intense, and beautiful memories of your own family’s Pesachs Past. This Shabbat, and when you gather for Seder, I pray that you are blessed to recall them with happiness and reminisce with gratitude. Moving forward, may you be granted the opportunity to create new storehouses of memories and treasuries of joy for all your loved ones and your future generations. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Kasher V’Sameach, Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD, Hon.DM
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