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Then you place a piece of meat on a large plate, a piece of liver, a leaf of parsley, an egg, a piece of potato, horse radish. And a plate of hrotiot – hroisas [charoset] – is placed on the table for the table companions; the charoset is made from apples and walnuts and wine. Another very large, a little deeper plate is placed on the table as well, filled with boiled potatoes, boiled eggs and salted water. If the table is large enough, several of these plates are placed on the table. Each person at the table must have their own glass. And the glasses are filled with wine. There are 4 stages when you drink of this wine, and you recite a prayer. It is called “Arba’a kosot” – meaning four glasses. A prayer is recited in the beginning, and everyone drinks a sip. Then you take a piece of matzah from the first pocket of the cara, and the person seated at the head of the table recites a prayer: “Baruch ata Adoshem…” In fact, if you don’t perform an actual prayer, you aren’t allowed to say “Adonai” – “Baruch ata Adonai…” –, you must say “Adoshem,” so that you don’t take the name of the Lord in vain. And everyone is given a small piece of matzah. And everyone dips the matzah in the charoset and eats. Then horse radish is taken from the large plate, it is placed between two pieces of matzah, and the one who performs the table ceremony gives each table companion a small piece of it. Then we ate boiled potatoes and boiled eggs from the large plate filled with salted water. Everyone ate as much as they wanted. I like eggs a lot, and I always took a whole egg and a whole potato. Then something is read: “Avadim ainu, bataum bamitzraim…” “Slaves have we been in the land of Mitzraim…” Mitzraim is Ivrit for Egypt. [Editor’s note: “The correct form is this: Avadim hayinu le-pharoh b’mitzraim”, “We were slaves to Pharaoh pharaoh in Egypt.”] And that prayer is read. Afterwards, a child has to recite the mah nishtanah. The four questions. It was my brother who recited it, he was the youngest. I recited it myself, even if I was older, as I liked to do it. Both of us could recite it together, for there was no problem with that. Mah nishtanah goes as follows: “Why do we eat tonight both sweet and bitter food?” “Why every evening we eat sitting or reclining…?” My father sat on a cushion when we celebrated Seder at home, and when a child recited the mah nishtanah, he used to recline, which is to say he tormented himself, so that he wasn’t seated comfortably. A prayer is recited afterwards, “Baruch ata Adoshem, elocheinu meleh haolam, bore pri hagafen.”, and everyone drinks the second glass.
Not all at once, you still drink it by taking small sips.
After that a prayer is read, on and on – a part of the Haggadah is read – until “Gua litruel” is uttered, meaning “Gael Israel, ” meaning the redemption of the people of Israel. And then you are allowed to eat.
And the characteristic of Passover food. First you eat eggs with potatoes – it isn’t a salad, the egg is mashed with potatoes, onion – with matzah, of course. Then they serve minced meat balls borsch. And this borsch is prepared specially – you aren’t allowed to prepare it from husk, God forbid. Husk comes from wheat. And you place beat in warm water and it goes sour. But I never prepared it myself. Nor did my mother, only my grandmother. After that we ate soup with khremzlakh, made from eggs with matzah flour. After the soup, we ate meat with latkes – baked from matzah flour –, and with keyzl – prepared in the oven, also from matzah flour and eggs – and horse radish. Then we ate stewed fruit made from black plums, and we served cream cake. But you weren’t allowed to prepare the cream cake using butter. My mother baked cream cake using scalded walnuts, and she prepared a cream made from butter – but this was after my grandmother died. As long as my grandmother was alive, we didn’t use butter for the cream cake, for it was made from milk, and you aren’t allowed to have milk after meat.
At the third koys, at the third glass, when the bracha is recited, meaning the prayer, they say “Svoh, amoh…” Which is to say the door is opened, for the Messiah to come.
There is a glass of wine set aside for him, so that he should come and drink. I believed it, as a child. For my father went to the door, opened it, and I believed he would enter. But the Messiah never came. And at the fourth koys the afikoman was stolen, the third matzah of the cara. You eat the first one with hrosiot, the second one with horse radish, and the third is stolen. It was my brother or I who stole it in our home, and we asked our father money in return for it. For he couldn’t find it. And then mother pointed to us the place where to look in order for us to find it. Children’s games.
After the meal is over, the “Chad Gadya” is recited. [Chad Gadya, One Little Goat], which I know by heart as it is very nice, but it is like a tale. You must sing it, for it is written using musical notes in the Haggadah. My father sang it in our family. But people don’t sing it nowadays. I drew attention to this fact here at the Canteen. We have a choir, why should they not sing it? But still, I managed to entice them to do something, and they sang it last year: “Chi lo nue, Chi lo iue.”
And at the end it closes with “Ehat mi odea.” – [Echad Mi Yodea, "Who Knows One?"] It was my father, meaning the one seated at the head of the table, who had to sing that.
But we always celebrated Seder in the family. We celebrated it at our house, and father was the one in charge of everything. And when my grandfather was alive, I think it was my grandfather who performed the ceremony – I was too little. There were very many people. We had less money, but it was done as it should be done, with all ceremony. Those who took part in it were our parents, we, the children, my mother’s sisters, both of my grandmothers – may God forgive them.
Not all at once, you still drink it by taking small sips.
After that a prayer is read, on and on – a part of the Haggadah is read – until “Gua litruel” is uttered, meaning “Gael Israel, ” meaning the redemption of the people of Israel. And then you are allowed to eat.
And the characteristic of Passover food. First you eat eggs with potatoes – it isn’t a salad, the egg is mashed with potatoes, onion – with matzah, of course. Then they serve minced meat balls borsch. And this borsch is prepared specially – you aren’t allowed to prepare it from husk, God forbid. Husk comes from wheat. And you place beat in warm water and it goes sour. But I never prepared it myself. Nor did my mother, only my grandmother. After that we ate soup with khremzlakh, made from eggs with matzah flour. After the soup, we ate meat with latkes – baked from matzah flour –, and with keyzl – prepared in the oven, also from matzah flour and eggs – and horse radish. Then we ate stewed fruit made from black plums, and we served cream cake. But you weren’t allowed to prepare the cream cake using butter. My mother baked cream cake using scalded walnuts, and she prepared a cream made from butter – but this was after my grandmother died. As long as my grandmother was alive, we didn’t use butter for the cream cake, for it was made from milk, and you aren’t allowed to have milk after meat.
At the third koys, at the third glass, when the bracha is recited, meaning the prayer, they say “Svoh, amoh…” Which is to say the door is opened, for the Messiah to come.
There is a glass of wine set aside for him, so that he should come and drink. I believed it, as a child. For my father went to the door, opened it, and I believed he would enter. But the Messiah never came. And at the fourth koys the afikoman was stolen, the third matzah of the cara. You eat the first one with hrosiot, the second one with horse radish, and the third is stolen. It was my brother or I who stole it in our home, and we asked our father money in return for it. For he couldn’t find it. And then mother pointed to us the place where to look in order for us to find it. Children’s games.
After the meal is over, the “Chad Gadya” is recited. [Chad Gadya, One Little Goat], which I know by heart as it is very nice, but it is like a tale. You must sing it, for it is written using musical notes in the Haggadah. My father sang it in our family. But people don’t sing it nowadays. I drew attention to this fact here at the Canteen. We have a choir, why should they not sing it? But still, I managed to entice them to do something, and they sang it last year: “Chi lo nue, Chi lo iue.”
And at the end it closes with “Ehat mi odea.” – [Echad Mi Yodea, "Who Knows One?"] It was my father, meaning the one seated at the head of the table, who had to sing that.
But we always celebrated Seder in the family. We celebrated it at our house, and father was the one in charge of everything. And when my grandfather was alive, I think it was my grandfather who performed the ceremony – I was too little. There were very many people. We had less money, but it was done as it should be done, with all ceremony. Those who took part in it were our parents, we, the children, my mother’s sisters, both of my grandmothers – may God forgive them.
Period
Location
Sulita
Romania
Interview
Rifca Segal