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After that, in March-April – on Nisan 15 –, we celebrate Passover. Passover is celebrated to mark the fact that Jews left Egypt and escaped slavery. We celebrate it in Galut, it lasts 8 days in the Diaspora, and 7 days in Israel. First and foremost, the day before the holiday, on the eve of the holiday, you must search all corners, all drawers in the house, so that no bread or anything that leavens is left in the house. For you aren’t allowed to eat anything that leavens throughout Passover. You weren’t even allowed to eat cocoa – we instated an exception with regard to cocoa.And you wrap all the bread you can find in a piece of cloth and place it in a wooden spoon, and you burn it, spoon and all. The man does that, the head of the family. And if there is pasta or wheat flour in the house, you must make a list of them, and take it to the rabbi to show him what you have in the house. The rabbi probably recited a prayer or something like that, to the effect that we should be allowed to use it afterwards. You placed all these in a cupboard. For you didn’t have to take it out of the house if you gave the list to the rabbi.
Mother had separate dishes for Passover, which were stored in the attic. You weren’t allowed to mix them [the Pesach dishes and everyday dishes]. And another thing. We had no tap water in Sulita, and there were some people, poor souls, who carried water by cart in wooden pails. And when they brought water on Passover, we had a special, very large barrel, which we covered with a cloth, and the water was poured in the barrel through the cloth. And they didn’t bring water only on Pesach. They brought it all year long. But on Pesach this cloth was placed on top of the barrel, so that the water was more kosher, more “peisaldich” [pesachdich], in the spirit of Pesach. Who knows, it could be that that wooden pail wasn’t as it should be, wasn’t kosher.
Before World War II, matzah was prepared here, in Botosani. Nowadays we receive it from Israel. And when you prepare the meal for the Seder evening, there is a “cara” with 3 pockets, inside which you place 3 pieces of matzah. The cara is a sort of a small cloth sack, of maybe 50 by 50 cm, nicely woven – you write in Ivrit the word Pesach on it very beautifully, you make a Zion [magen David]. We didn’t embroider it, perhaps some people embroidered it, but I believe ours was done by my mother, or perhaps by my grandmother. It was made from white cloth on top, with yellow satin crepe, and the red writing. But those who were very religious didn’t put regular matzah, the kind we bought, inside the cara. They baked their own matzah in their oven, so that it was baked more religiously. This more kosher matzah was called shmura [shmura matzah]. Rabbis baked it. But in the latter years, there was no shmura anymore.
Mother had separate dishes for Passover, which were stored in the attic. You weren’t allowed to mix them [the Pesach dishes and everyday dishes]. And another thing. We had no tap water in Sulita, and there were some people, poor souls, who carried water by cart in wooden pails. And when they brought water on Passover, we had a special, very large barrel, which we covered with a cloth, and the water was poured in the barrel through the cloth. And they didn’t bring water only on Pesach. They brought it all year long. But on Pesach this cloth was placed on top of the barrel, so that the water was more kosher, more “peisaldich” [pesachdich], in the spirit of Pesach. Who knows, it could be that that wooden pail wasn’t as it should be, wasn’t kosher.
Before World War II, matzah was prepared here, in Botosani. Nowadays we receive it from Israel. And when you prepare the meal for the Seder evening, there is a “cara” with 3 pockets, inside which you place 3 pieces of matzah. The cara is a sort of a small cloth sack, of maybe 50 by 50 cm, nicely woven – you write in Ivrit the word Pesach on it very beautifully, you make a Zion [magen David]. We didn’t embroider it, perhaps some people embroidered it, but I believe ours was done by my mother, or perhaps by my grandmother. It was made from white cloth on top, with yellow satin crepe, and the red writing. But those who were very religious didn’t put regular matzah, the kind we bought, inside the cara. They baked their own matzah in their oven, so that it was baked more religiously. This more kosher matzah was called shmura [shmura matzah]. Rabbis baked it. But in the latter years, there was no shmura anymore.
Period
Location
Sulita
Romania
Interview
Rifca Segal
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