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In our house there was a tub for water on a kitchen stool. We replaced each year the water tub, because in the meantime it got damaged. It couldn’t be scoured out, and we bought each year new tubs for cabbage, for water. But at Pesach we brought down from the loft the Pesach dishes, and the Pesach pail was put in the place of the water tub.
We had separate Pesach dishes, a separate pail, separate basket, separate everything, not the same we were using the whole year, God forbid! The Pesach pail was put on the same kitchen stool, but first we put hay on the stool, then plywood or a plank, then hay again, and we put the pail on it. God forbid so that it didn’t touch anything, which wasn’t kosher enough. Because maybe somebody used that plywood, and something touched it, bread or I don’t know what. One had to work so much!
They dug a large pit in the back of the garden – I don’t know why it had to be in the back of the garden –, they put there all the [everyday] dishes; those which were lacking from the Pesach dishes, mortars and things like that had to be koshered to make it usable at Pesach.
First we put soil on the dishes, then we carried out very hot stones – we always had to help –, we threw them there [in the pit]. The stones were left in the stove [in fire] until they got hot, when we took them out, they were burning, they were still red.
We had a pail, we brought them back with that, and we put in the stones [on the dishes covered with soil]. The pail full with water was already there (the Pesach pail was down already), we poured it above it, then covered it with soil – may it rest in peace.
And we left it there. It had to stay there like this for about ten days before Pesach, then we took out the dishes, but we had to scald them so many times, and there was such a great circus… And we always had to kosher the oven, the stove before Pesach. We cooked the food in advance, because we had to eat cold dishes from then on, we couldn’t cook or heat with that oven anymore.
Two days before Pesach we put on the plate of the oven, on the iron a lot of sandy pebbles. We lit the fire, and we took out some coal and placed on it [on the pebbles]. And the fire was burning, and the pebbles were getting hot. And we kept on putting coal, I don’t know how many times we did so, until the oven burnt out.
We had separate Pesach dishes, a separate pail, separate basket, separate everything, not the same we were using the whole year, God forbid! The Pesach pail was put on the same kitchen stool, but first we put hay on the stool, then plywood or a plank, then hay again, and we put the pail on it. God forbid so that it didn’t touch anything, which wasn’t kosher enough. Because maybe somebody used that plywood, and something touched it, bread or I don’t know what. One had to work so much!
They dug a large pit in the back of the garden – I don’t know why it had to be in the back of the garden –, they put there all the [everyday] dishes; those which were lacking from the Pesach dishes, mortars and things like that had to be koshered to make it usable at Pesach.
First we put soil on the dishes, then we carried out very hot stones – we always had to help –, we threw them there [in the pit]. The stones were left in the stove [in fire] until they got hot, when we took them out, they were burning, they were still red.
We had a pail, we brought them back with that, and we put in the stones [on the dishes covered with soil]. The pail full with water was already there (the Pesach pail was down already), we poured it above it, then covered it with soil – may it rest in peace.
And we left it there. It had to stay there like this for about ten days before Pesach, then we took out the dishes, but we had to scald them so many times, and there was such a great circus… And we always had to kosher the oven, the stove before Pesach. We cooked the food in advance, because we had to eat cold dishes from then on, we couldn’t cook or heat with that oven anymore.
Two days before Pesach we put on the plate of the oven, on the iron a lot of sandy pebbles. We lit the fire, and we took out some coal and placed on it [on the pebbles]. And the fire was burning, and the pebbles were getting hot. And we kept on putting coal, I don’t know how many times we did so, until the oven burnt out.
Period
Location
Nagyenyed
Romania
Interview
Edit Grossmann