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Following Purim comes the holiday of Pesach. There were separate pots for Pesach they used only then, not during the rest of the year. We had separate Pesach pots as well. And we did a lot of cleaning before the holiday, because no crumbs could be left in the house, everything had to be cleaned up. If something is left by any chance, it has to be sold.
One has to conclude a formal contract on selling the ‘hamec’ [chametz], that’s what it's called. My mother wrote such a contract too, she wrote there a fictitious name saying that every piece [of flour] and all crumbs were sold, if any were left by chance after cleaning the house.
Starting from that moment there wasn’t any [chametz] in the house. They kept it, but it was stored separately, we didn’t touch it. At Pesach my mother cooked using matzah meal ['breadcrumbs' made from matzah instead of bread].
We observe Pesach to commemorate the miraculous escape of our ancestors from Egypt. The Jewish holidays are divided into main and half holidays. The first two days of such eight-day holidays are the high days, and the last two days are also high days, the other four days are just half-holidays, one might work, everything.
For eight days – in Israel for seven days – people eat only matzah. Here in the Diaspora holidays last eight days, in Israel they cut one day off, it seems they found this period too long, they celebrate for seven days [Editor's note: there are historical reasons for celebrating 7 days in Israel, compared to the 8 days of the Diaspora, nothing to do with finding the period too long.
It was to do with the time taken to report the citing of the new moon, which set the dates of the holidays].
One has to conclude a formal contract on selling the ‘hamec’ [chametz], that’s what it's called. My mother wrote such a contract too, she wrote there a fictitious name saying that every piece [of flour] and all crumbs were sold, if any were left by chance after cleaning the house.
Starting from that moment there wasn’t any [chametz] in the house. They kept it, but it was stored separately, we didn’t touch it. At Pesach my mother cooked using matzah meal ['breadcrumbs' made from matzah instead of bread].
We observe Pesach to commemorate the miraculous escape of our ancestors from Egypt. The Jewish holidays are divided into main and half holidays. The first two days of such eight-day holidays are the high days, and the last two days are also high days, the other four days are just half-holidays, one might work, everything.
For eight days – in Israel for seven days – people eat only matzah. Here in the Diaspora holidays last eight days, in Israel they cut one day off, it seems they found this period too long, they celebrate for seven days [Editor's note: there are historical reasons for celebrating 7 days in Israel, compared to the 8 days of the Diaspora, nothing to do with finding the period too long.
It was to do with the time taken to report the citing of the new moon, which set the dates of the holidays].
Location
Satu Mare
Romania
Interview
Dr. Gabor Lazar