12.16 A Bronx Passover Seder in 1942

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16: The Seder

At the first seder night, Ali sits next to Dan, who is on her right and Brenda is on Ali's left on the sofa. The 3 listen to Moyshe, who sits in the rocking chair facing them across a low sofa table.

   Moyshe says: "I lost my dad to a heart attack just before seder so I have a sadness. He was from the old country and my mom always teased him by calling him 'Greenhorn'."

   Ali interrupts. "An't it like in Jack London's gold rush stories where they call a newcomer 'Sourdough?'"
   "Yeah, we read dat in Mr. Schuldenfrei's English Lit," says Brenda.
   Ignoring the interruption, Moyshe continues: "He worked in the garment center as a cutter and the first seder night, he always took off early, 4 PM, and - it's fresh in my mind -  I wait at the window, all the while smelling my Mom's roast chicken broiling in chicken fat and the matzo ball soup and the gefilte fish and red horseradish. And then there is my dad coming into the courtyard and a minute later he is at the door and me waiting and he giving me a kiss on my mouth because he was born in Europe, not here, and that's the custom there."

   "When was that?", asks Ali

   "Two years ago."

   Ali looks at the wall clock. "Seven. Time to start".
   They go to the kitchen. At each table place is a brown hard-paper plate, a knife, a fork and a spoon beside it; also a fresh folded paper napkin. At center of table are 10 squares of matzo and the mix of bitter herbs in sharp tasting horseradish that is eaten on the Matzo. Under a low flame on the gas cooking range is a pot of steaming amber-yellow chicken soup with light brown matzo balls in it. In the oven is a mix of eggplant and mushrooms that Ali roasted in place of the traditional meat, because she is making a gesture against killing animals to eat.
   Seder Hagadah booklets are handed out by Moyshe, also silver color silk yarmulkas, the religious skullcaps he brought from home and calls "yomika"

   "Take a yomika and put it on your head."

   "Just like a beanie!” says Ali, clapping it on.

   "I feel like da Pope," says Brenda, a Roman Catholic.

   "Oh, the wine!" Dan exclaims and goes for a bottle of Manischevitz Concord Red. He uncorks it and pours glassfuls.

   "Not now!" Warns Moyshe sharply to Brenda, who is about to drink. We gotta first say a prayer."

   "So say it" Brenda loves the sweet red wine.

   "Borah pree ha gofen," he says and they each take a sip.

   The seder starts with Moyshe reading the Hebrew and the others following by turning each page with his motion. At important points - like when he is reading about the Israelites forced to slave in Egypt or about Moses calling down the great pestilences on the Egyptians or for the opening of the outer door into the apartment for the prophet Elijah, which he does with the 3rd sip of wine - Moyshe switches to English. The reading takes nearly 40 minutes by Ali's timing and, after Moyshe's 4th "Borah pre ha gofen' and another sip of wine, the seder ends.　
   Brenda, sitting around a corner of the table to Moyshe's left, grabs his hand in both of hers. "Honey-boy! You are the guy for me if you can do a seder every night. But what duz it mean, Passover, Pesach, whatever?"

   Moyshe, who, because of his non religious audience, has deleted the famous four questions about Passover a child asks the elders, explains: "Pesach is about the Children of Israel, that is, of the 3rd Patriarch, Jacob; after Joseph was sold by his jealous brothers - over his many-colors coat and after Joseph's getting to be Pharaoh's right hand man and after a famine's bringing Jacob and his tribe down to Egypt - and they do not know Joseph when they see him in his official's finery."
   Ali interrupts. "Yeah, Joe's dream, of the seven rich years and seven lean years and his advice not to overeat the wheat, is a good conservation message for today. But no one listens."
   Moyshe continues. "Well, years pass and Joseph and his brothers all die and an evil Pharaoh takes over and enslaves the Israelites."

   "Enter Moses!" interrupts Dan irreverently. "From his name, he may not even have been a Hebrew. It was a common suffix for the names of ancient Egyptian royalty, for example the pharaoh Thutmose." 

   "Also, the story of how Pharaoh's daughter found him in the bull-rushes sounds like the bull," says Ali always getting in her atheist lick. "More likely, Moses was her bastard."

   "I dunno about those things," says Moyshe, embarrassed at this turn. "All I know is: he led the people out of Egypt."

   "How did he get the sea to come apart?" Asks Brenda, always interested in spectacles.

   "I dunno, but he did," says Moyshe. "So he led the children of Israel for 40 years in the desert and got the ten commandments from God and, finally, as he lay dying, brought them within sight of the Holy Land."
   "What a damn shame, he couldn't get in!" Says Ali.  "But anyway, that's why we celebrate tonight.”
   "And the Matzo.” Explains Dan. "It is the unleavened bread they baked in the dessert."
   "I like Matzo," says Ali. "It's healthy; no chemicals. And the crinkly feel when you chew into it is great, an'it?"

Now everyone eats like after a 24-hour fast and then they sing a typical Passover seder song from Moyshe's book - A jolly song, A Kid for Two Zuzim, which Moyshe explains was added in medieval times by Rabbis in Germany to make the seder more fun for kids. Its actual title in Hebrew is Chad Gad'ya (the Ch like in clearing throat). It is a happy tune, and he sings it for them as he hands out sheets of the translation, and they sing it back in English.

"An unforgettable experience!" says Ali to Dan later, after the others have left. To which Dan replies, "Yes, you certainly are."

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