Reporting To Emilee: 23. Passover

Dear Emilee,

Now, that was fun.

We left Nahariya at 5:00 pm and retuned around 1:00 am from Kiryat Ata, where we had the Seder Pesach. Do you see me riding the wine bottle?

The house has lots of rooms and a garden. I joined Mr. and Mrs. C. at the older adults table that seated 14 people at the library. But it was only one of three tables. The hosts told us that they will have about 25 people for Passover dinner, but I counted around 40! Many were little ones. You can see me with the youngest, Kinneret, on the side bar.

Outdoors, our hosts had many fruit trees that the kids climbed and picked fruit before dinner. Indoor, was full of light and a kitchen that radiated great smell everywhere. Once everyone arrived, we set at the festive tables and started to tell the story of Pesach.

We read from a booklet that recites the story of Children of Israel who were slaves in Egypt and were saved by God. Our booklets were in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Russians. At the tables other languages were spoken as well, Amharic (the language spoken by the Ethiopians), French, Ukrainian and Spanish. It was fun to listen to all of them and try to follow the readings.

As the story goes, there was famine in the land of Canaan and in search of food for their family, Jacob and his sons went to Egypt. They settled in there and over time, the family grew. Pharaoh the king of Egypt was afraid that the people will take over his land so he decided to enslave them. After 430 years of slavery, things were getting harsh and they cried out to God. God heard their cries and called Moses to lead the people out of slavery to freedom, to Canaan, the land He gave to their fathers.

Moses went to Pharaoh asking him to allow the people leave Egypt, but Pharaoh refused. God brought on Egypt 10 plagues (hardships) to show pharaoh His strength and that the slaves should get their freedom. On their last night as slaves, God passed over the land and killed all the first born of Egypt but not of Israel. They had to hurry and follow instructions given by God for their salvation. That night is the Passover Seder, that is celebrated every year on the 14th day of Nisan (the month of spring).

Moshe, our host, was the Seder ‘grandfather’ so he M.C. the evening. Katya, his wife, did the cooking and kept looking after the food, taking pictures, overseeing the sitting arrangement, and gave all of us a home welcome, smiling.

We sang through the first two glasses of wine and reciting the Hagada, which tell the story of redemption in detail. Then we ate. There were so many wonderful things on the table. Salads and cooked vegetables; roasted lamb and baked turkey; mashed potatoes and matzo (unleven bread) and lots of wine and juice. The traditional charoset (sweet mixture of apples and honey) and maror (red horseradish paste), hard-boiled eggs and parsley and matzo ball soup. For desert matzo were dipped in chocolate and placed by red jelly. When we finished the meal, we sang more songs, read some more of the Hagada booklet and drink 3 more glasses of wine. The fifth cup, which was added this year to the ceremony, is the cup of the State of Israel.

We laughed a lot, sang a lot, and talked a lot, and I am glad that Moshe drove us back home to Nahariya, for the three of us were very tired.

Today, Mr. C. went for his “beach combing” and returned with pictures of frogs and lizards that grow here on the beach. They are so cute; I had to add them to the blog.