Selected text
The most important thing for Pessah was the big cleaning. Including the drapes. Radiating cleanliness. The drapes were washed with a special brush, and then ironed, in order to kill all viruses. The dishes were cleaned scrupulously. On Pessah we had special dishes and cutlery, which were deposited in the loft.
Actually they were normal dishes like the usual ones, but we used them only on Pessah. But before bringing them down, during the big cleaning the other dishes were cleaned. There was a special dresser for the Pessah dishes.
For example, you had things in the house, like in any other household, flour, noodles, rice – chametz for the whole year. They were listed on a sheet of paper, the list was brought to the synagogue, and somebody gave an approval to be able to keep them until after Pessah.
They were put in a place, where you weren’t allowed to use them. For the Pessah flour and for the matzos there was a separate place, kept untouched the whole year. But these things have been a tradition here, in Moldavia, in Poland, maybe in Bessarabia too. In Israel they don’t observe this tradition anymore.
There was also a ritual, which was for me rather amusing. So, you had to clean the house in such a waythat even the smallest bread crumble disappeared. You had to wash, to clean, to shake out everything. After that, a day before Pessah, my father used to go with a pieceofbread, and put in different places bread crumbles.
On the window sills, in as many places as possible, in order to sanctify the place. After that, he went with a goose feather, a wooden spoon, said a prayer and gathered these bread crumbles in the wooden spoon, then enwrappedthem with a piece of white cloth and tied it.
The second day he took it intothe yard, dug a hole and burnt the wooden spoon with the bread crumbles – which meant that he burnt the chametz, that is,all that was fermented. For example, if the first Seder was Friday, he put and gathered the bread crumbles Thursday evening, and Friday morning at 10 o’clock he would burn them.
If there was bread in the house until 10 o’clock, you were allowed to eat it, but not after 10 o’clock. And you weren’t allowed to eat matzos as well, until Seder night. That whole day long we ate only eggs and baked jacket potatoes.
Even the table cloth was different, it was not the usual one. We put a white unsized table cloth. In those times clothes were sized in order for a cloth to look smooth. You couldn’t wear the collars, the blouses and the skirts without sizing them. A boiled size was prepared from corn flour or wheat flour.
It was made in a large wash basin. The flour was put in first, then the boiling water was poured and mixed with a stick. The washed and rinsed clothing was put in there to stiffen the fabrics. These garments will look completely different when ironed. On Pesah the table cloth had to be an unsized one, that is without flour.
There was a lot of work to do. But I helped my mother every time through the years, and especially in her later years, when she got old and wasn’t able to do things as usual. I was so tired on Pesah evenings… because we had also guests for Seder, and there was a lot of dish washing to do afterwards…
The Seder evening is on Pesah’s eve. On this special event you aren’t allowed to eat bread; you eat only matzos. But the Seder dinner is an usual one: with fish, meat, soup, matzos, compote, fruits. There was also a nut pie. The cake wasn’t bad at all, and you are allowed to bake it not only on Pesah.
That’s how it’s made: from 10 eggs the egg-white is whipped with ten spoonfuls of sugar. The yolk is added afterwards. 12 spoonfuls of walnut and ¾ spoonfuls of matzos flour is mixed with this content.
A griddle is greased with oil and the content is poured into it. Because you weren’t allowed to use any milk I whipped some more egg-whites for the top decoration. Once I added to the whipped egg-whites an orange, lemon juice and lemon peel. The orange was red, but the cream was green. I don’t know how it could have happened. So without any milk, sour cream, or butter.
On Seder we recalled the exile of the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt led by Moses. The same story is told each year. My father told it in Yiddish. I understood Yiddish. The children would ask the four questions. First my brother. He was the youngest, but he was very proud because he could ask the question.
A separate glass of wine was for the angel, who would come and taste the wine. My mom was scared and used to ask me: “Rosa, please go and open the door!” I had to protect my mother; she was afraid to open the door, so I had to go and open it, keeping at the same time my eyes on the glass of wine to see if a drop would miss. Then my mother would move the table and say: “See, he came and drank”. Afterwards I closed the door.
Among the special Passover dishes there were some special small glasses for us, the children. My brother had a small cup. I had a small tin – I loved it a lot and kept it a long time, but eventually it broke too ; it was made of glass and had a handle. In that tin dad poured for me the wine.
The wine had to be kosher too, that is it had to be prepared in special receptacles by special people. During the war you couldn’t find wine even two weeks before Seder, so mom prepared it from raisins. Adding water and sugar the raisins would ferment. The result would be a good, strong, sweet, very good wine.
The usual matzos were put in afikoman. The afikoman was a peculiar table cloth in which a piece of bread was enwrapped. My dad did this with utmost seriousnessand then hid it. Dad wrapped it, hid it, we found it and he had to ransom it with a sum of money.
We were modest and didn’t ask for much money, but my father got infuriated, because he couldn’t gain any money on Pesah and argued with us to give him the afikoman without paying. But it was some sort of farce. After getting it back, he said a prayer, and divided the matzo among us.
At the end of the Seder we sang a song. But the children usually fall asleep until this part of the celebration. It was a sort of story: “And the lamb drunk the water, and the wolf ate the lamb, and the fire burned the wolf, and the water extinguished the fire…”. It sounded very nice and it had also a melody.
Actually they were normal dishes like the usual ones, but we used them only on Pessah. But before bringing them down, during the big cleaning the other dishes were cleaned. There was a special dresser for the Pessah dishes.
For example, you had things in the house, like in any other household, flour, noodles, rice – chametz for the whole year. They were listed on a sheet of paper, the list was brought to the synagogue, and somebody gave an approval to be able to keep them until after Pessah.
They were put in a place, where you weren’t allowed to use them. For the Pessah flour and for the matzos there was a separate place, kept untouched the whole year. But these things have been a tradition here, in Moldavia, in Poland, maybe in Bessarabia too. In Israel they don’t observe this tradition anymore.
There was also a ritual, which was for me rather amusing. So, you had to clean the house in such a waythat even the smallest bread crumble disappeared. You had to wash, to clean, to shake out everything. After that, a day before Pessah, my father used to go with a pieceofbread, and put in different places bread crumbles.
On the window sills, in as many places as possible, in order to sanctify the place. After that, he went with a goose feather, a wooden spoon, said a prayer and gathered these bread crumbles in the wooden spoon, then enwrappedthem with a piece of white cloth and tied it.
The second day he took it intothe yard, dug a hole and burnt the wooden spoon with the bread crumbles – which meant that he burnt the chametz, that is,all that was fermented. For example, if the first Seder was Friday, he put and gathered the bread crumbles Thursday evening, and Friday morning at 10 o’clock he would burn them.
If there was bread in the house until 10 o’clock, you were allowed to eat it, but not after 10 o’clock. And you weren’t allowed to eat matzos as well, until Seder night. That whole day long we ate only eggs and baked jacket potatoes.
Even the table cloth was different, it was not the usual one. We put a white unsized table cloth. In those times clothes were sized in order for a cloth to look smooth. You couldn’t wear the collars, the blouses and the skirts without sizing them. A boiled size was prepared from corn flour or wheat flour.
It was made in a large wash basin. The flour was put in first, then the boiling water was poured and mixed with a stick. The washed and rinsed clothing was put in there to stiffen the fabrics. These garments will look completely different when ironed. On Pesah the table cloth had to be an unsized one, that is without flour.
There was a lot of work to do. But I helped my mother every time through the years, and especially in her later years, when she got old and wasn’t able to do things as usual. I was so tired on Pesah evenings… because we had also guests for Seder, and there was a lot of dish washing to do afterwards…
The Seder evening is on Pesah’s eve. On this special event you aren’t allowed to eat bread; you eat only matzos. But the Seder dinner is an usual one: with fish, meat, soup, matzos, compote, fruits. There was also a nut pie. The cake wasn’t bad at all, and you are allowed to bake it not only on Pesah.
That’s how it’s made: from 10 eggs the egg-white is whipped with ten spoonfuls of sugar. The yolk is added afterwards. 12 spoonfuls of walnut and ¾ spoonfuls of matzos flour is mixed with this content.
A griddle is greased with oil and the content is poured into it. Because you weren’t allowed to use any milk I whipped some more egg-whites for the top decoration. Once I added to the whipped egg-whites an orange, lemon juice and lemon peel. The orange was red, but the cream was green. I don’t know how it could have happened. So without any milk, sour cream, or butter.
On Seder we recalled the exile of the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt led by Moses. The same story is told each year. My father told it in Yiddish. I understood Yiddish. The children would ask the four questions. First my brother. He was the youngest, but he was very proud because he could ask the question.
A separate glass of wine was for the angel, who would come and taste the wine. My mom was scared and used to ask me: “Rosa, please go and open the door!” I had to protect my mother; she was afraid to open the door, so I had to go and open it, keeping at the same time my eyes on the glass of wine to see if a drop would miss. Then my mother would move the table and say: “See, he came and drank”. Afterwards I closed the door.
Among the special Passover dishes there were some special small glasses for us, the children. My brother had a small cup. I had a small tin – I loved it a lot and kept it a long time, but eventually it broke too ; it was made of glass and had a handle. In that tin dad poured for me the wine.
The wine had to be kosher too, that is it had to be prepared in special receptacles by special people. During the war you couldn’t find wine even two weeks before Seder, so mom prepared it from raisins. Adding water and sugar the raisins would ferment. The result would be a good, strong, sweet, very good wine.
The usual matzos were put in afikoman. The afikoman was a peculiar table cloth in which a piece of bread was enwrapped. My dad did this with utmost seriousnessand then hid it. Dad wrapped it, hid it, we found it and he had to ransom it with a sum of money.
We were modest and didn’t ask for much money, but my father got infuriated, because he couldn’t gain any money on Pesah and argued with us to give him the afikoman without paying. But it was some sort of farce. After getting it back, he said a prayer, and divided the matzo among us.
At the end of the Seder we sang a song. But the children usually fall asleep until this part of the celebration. It was a sort of story: “And the lamb drunk the water, and the wolf ate the lamb, and the fire burned the wolf, and the water extinguished the fire…”. It sounded very nice and it had also a melody.
Period
Location
Iasi
Romania
Interview
Rosa Kaiserman