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There are 2 seder evenings. Only in Israel is there 1 seder evening, and here, in galut – in the diaspora – there are 2 seder evenings. There is the Aguda – it is called Haggadah, Haggadah translated into Romanian means story – and you read that story and perform the entire ritual that needs to be performed. My father read the Haggadah in Hebrew. In Bucharest, when rabbi Rosen [7] was still living, he told it in Romanian so that all those living in Bucharest understood what it was about, I am sure I attended the seder ceremony performed by rabbi Rosen twice, perhaps even three times, for I was a mashgiach, a ritual supervisor in Bucharest. But father didn’t translate it at home.
Usually, as laid down by regulations, you must be seated on pillows. But we no longer sat on cushions, my father sat on a chair. He had no cushion [underneath him]. The rabbis, they are the ones who sit on a pillow.
There is – it is called kara – a kara for unleavened bread, made from cloth and embroidered, which has three compartments, for you must place inside it 3 slices of unleavened bread, of matzah. And before the ceremony starts you take a piece from one of the slices – afikoman –, and you hide it, so that Elia Novi should come and take it. And there is one large porcelain plate, with several compartments, where you place an egg, a small piece of fried meat, some greens, the root of a parsley, horse radish, something bitter – for it symbolizes the time when the Jews underwent the bitterness of the desert, which they traveled across for 40 years [Editor’s note: Actually the bitter herb (maror) symbolizes the suffering and the bitterness of the Jews’ slavery in Egypt.] – and a potato. And this plate is called a kara as well. Nowadays, here, in Botosani, we don’t have a kara like that, but we use a flat plate – where we place everything. We ate soup and meat as well, only it was prepared using potatoes and unleavened bread, matzah, instead of bread.
A male child – either the youngest or the eldest – must ask the 4 questions – di fir kashes in Yiddish.
I was the eldest child in our family, for there were no other children [sons], and I asked the 4 questions. I also had a sister, my parents’ daughter, but it wasn’t the daughter who asked the questions. Daughters can ask the questions, too; if there is no son, the daughter asks the questions.
Everyone must have a glass, everyone must drink 4 glasses of wine – arbaa koyses. Arbaa means 4 in Hebrew. You prepared a glass for the prophet as well, and you opened the door for Elia Novi to come. It was my sister who opened the door, since she was the younger one. This is a hoax – for do you think anyone came? But that is the custom… Afterwards, you closed the door. If Passover came early during the year and it was cold outside, we opened the door only for a few minutes and then we closed it. And those who liked to drink drank the prophet’s wine as well.
Of course, you hid the afikoman. A child would steal it, and then you had to give the child something in return in order to redeem it, otherwise you couldn’t go on with the second part of the seder evening, which followed after the meal. I used to peep to see where father hid it, but he hid it so that we could see, so that we could steal it. Either my sister or I. As a reward, we received candy or whatever… [they could give us].
I don’t have an ear for music and usually I don’t sing, I never sang. My father doesn’t have an ear for music either, it wasn’t customary [it wasn’t usual] for us to sing at home. People sing “Had Gadia!” [usually at the end of the seder evening], but I don’t know these songs anymore, I believe I didn’t even know them, because if I had no ear for music…
Usually, as laid down by regulations, you must be seated on pillows. But we no longer sat on cushions, my father sat on a chair. He had no cushion [underneath him]. The rabbis, they are the ones who sit on a pillow.
There is – it is called kara – a kara for unleavened bread, made from cloth and embroidered, which has three compartments, for you must place inside it 3 slices of unleavened bread, of matzah. And before the ceremony starts you take a piece from one of the slices – afikoman –, and you hide it, so that Elia Novi should come and take it. And there is one large porcelain plate, with several compartments, where you place an egg, a small piece of fried meat, some greens, the root of a parsley, horse radish, something bitter – for it symbolizes the time when the Jews underwent the bitterness of the desert, which they traveled across for 40 years [Editor’s note: Actually the bitter herb (maror) symbolizes the suffering and the bitterness of the Jews’ slavery in Egypt.] – and a potato. And this plate is called a kara as well. Nowadays, here, in Botosani, we don’t have a kara like that, but we use a flat plate – where we place everything. We ate soup and meat as well, only it was prepared using potatoes and unleavened bread, matzah, instead of bread.
A male child – either the youngest or the eldest – must ask the 4 questions – di fir kashes in Yiddish.
I was the eldest child in our family, for there were no other children [sons], and I asked the 4 questions. I also had a sister, my parents’ daughter, but it wasn’t the daughter who asked the questions. Daughters can ask the questions, too; if there is no son, the daughter asks the questions.
Everyone must have a glass, everyone must drink 4 glasses of wine – arbaa koyses. Arbaa means 4 in Hebrew. You prepared a glass for the prophet as well, and you opened the door for Elia Novi to come. It was my sister who opened the door, since she was the younger one. This is a hoax – for do you think anyone came? But that is the custom… Afterwards, you closed the door. If Passover came early during the year and it was cold outside, we opened the door only for a few minutes and then we closed it. And those who liked to drink drank the prophet’s wine as well.
Of course, you hid the afikoman. A child would steal it, and then you had to give the child something in return in order to redeem it, otherwise you couldn’t go on with the second part of the seder evening, which followed after the meal. I used to peep to see where father hid it, but he hid it so that we could see, so that we could steal it. Either my sister or I. As a reward, we received candy or whatever… [they could give us].
I don’t have an ear for music and usually I don’t sing, I never sang. My father doesn’t have an ear for music either, it wasn’t customary [it wasn’t usual] for us to sing at home. People sing “Had Gadia!” [usually at the end of the seder evening], but I don’t know these songs anymore, I believe I didn’t even know them, because if I had no ear for music…
Location
Romania
Interview
Solomon Meir