Passover, a night like no other

Family and tradition mark the celebration of Passover.

By: Vanessa S. Holt
   BORDENTOWN CITY — "Why is this night different from all other nights?"
   This traditional question was asked at Passover tables last week as Jews around the world began the eight-day holiday with seders at their homes or in synagogues.
   Passover, or Pesach, celebrates the freedom and exodus of Jewish slaves during the time of Pharaoh Ramses II in Egypt.
   The story of Passover is told during the seder, and the youngest child asks the question, "Why is the night different from all other nights?"
   On this night, unleavened bread, matzo, is eaten to remember that when the Jews fled Egypt, they did not have time to wait for bread to rise and baked unleavened dough in the sun.
   Five items on the Seder plate also symbolize various aspects of the ancient Jewish experience. A roasted egg represents renewal and life, while parsley dipped in salt water symbolizes the tears of the slaves. Charoset, a sweet mixture of chopped apples, nuts and other ingredients, is representative of the mortar used to build the pyramids by Jewish slaves, while a bitter herb, like horseradish, reflects the bitterness of slavery. A shank bone, sometimes replaced by a beet, symbolizes a sacrificial lamb offering.
   At Temple B’Nai Abraham on Crosswicks Street, Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg led a community seder on April 17, incorporating Sephardic and Mizrachi traditions in the service and introducing Jewish customs from Spain and Morocco.
   One Sephardic tradition recreated at the seder was the practice of lightly hitting one’s family members with spring onions to symbolizing the whipping of Jewish slaves in Egypt. Rabbi Kinberg also introduced a Moroccan tradition, asking everyone to close their eyes while she walked around the table, lightly fanning each person’s face with a cloth to represent the feeling of the wind on one’s face.
   She began the seder with the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to describe the liberation and freedom of the Jewish people.
   Each of the two dozen persons present at the seder mentioned a freedom they were grateful for, from freedom of religion to freedom of speech.
   "I’m grateful that we didn’t have to sneak here," said Sharon Dauber of Bordentown.
   Curtis Aubry of Roebling, attending with his wife, Kim, and 1-year-old daughter, Rachel, said he was grateful for self-expression and the freedom of communication.
   Others said they were grateful to be with family during the holiday, like Eileen Gale, who flew to Buffalo, N.Y., for the first night of Passover to spend time with family and returned to Bordentown the next day to attend the community seder at B’nai Abraham.
   "It’s a nice, warm synagogue," she said. "Everybody knows everybody here."
   Members of the congregation had been preparing all week, making many of the dishes and desserts from scratch.
   Individual families prepare for Passover by cleaning out their house and removing all leavening products. Special dishes are used for Passover that are not used for the rest of the year, and many families hand those dishes down from one generation to another, like Madge Rosen of Southampton.
   "We use the dishes my mother used, they’re very special to me," she said.
   Many families incorporate activities for the children, like the Dauber family in Bordentown.
   "Passover in our house is child-friendly," said Ms. Dauber. "We try to make it fun with arts and crafts."
   The family aspect of Passover is just one of the aspects that make it special.
   "It is very much a family holiday," she said. "It is a celebration of freedom, and the importance of being free."
   After the Passover meal, the ceremony continues with sharing the matzo and singing hymns. And like seders concluding all over the world, they close with the words "L’shanah haba’ah b’Yerushalayim!," or, "Next Year in Jersusalem!"