Seder-Passover in Jerusalem (March 25th, 2013)

Israel may have nearly non existent Christian holidays like Christmas and Valentines day, but they sure know how to celebrate Jewish holidays! Skye and I arrived during Rosh Hashanah and since have experienced Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukah, and Purim. We watched those holidays come and go, just observing how the Jews celebrate and never had a chance to be involved, which always made me a little sad.

Passover crept up and Rothberg, the international school at Hebrew University, emailed the students with an opportunity to sign up to be placed with a family for the Passover meals. I ignored it at first, but kept thinking how it would probably be our best chance to meet a Jewish family and celebrate the holiday, so I signed up. I signed up one day late so I was pretty sure it wouldn't work out. But then I got a call from Liron, a student from Hebrew University. Her family, the Nimri's, live in Tel Aviv and welcomed us to their home to spend the night and share their Seder (סדר) meal. The Seder meal begins the Passover week.

We caught the sherut to Tel Aviv where Liron picked us up from the central bus station. We were staying at Liron's family's house, but we would have dinner at her grandma, Pnina's house. She only lives one block away from the Nimri's house.

When we arrived we met the rest of Liron's family at their house and talked a little before walking to Pnina's. Liron's mother is Sharon, originally from Britain and her husband, Liron's dad, is Eyal. They have four children altogether, Liron's twin brother whom we didn't meet because he was in Mexico, Shaked her younger sister, and Alon the youngest brother. Everyone speaks very good English so thankfully language was not a problem.

We walked to Pnina's house and met her and her friend Dan. She was super sweet and had great English as well.

Now it was time to begin Seder! Skye and I were a little nervous because we don't know much about Jewish traditions and we didn't want to mess anything up! The Nimri's aren't particularly religious so they were laid back and our nerves subsided right away.

The dinner begins (and ends) by reading the story from Exodus about how the Jews were freed from slavery in ancient Egypt. The story is read from the Haggadah (הגדה), a special book that includes not only the story from Exodus, but songs, special blessings and rituals. They even had a couple books with an English translation for us, one of which was Sharon's as a child. We went around the table and everyone read. The songs were in Hebrew so we just followed along in English, UNTIL the number song! I know my numbers in Hebrew and Sharon taught us one of the phrases. The song is called "Echad Mi Yodea" (אחד מי יו דע), or "Who Knows One". It starts at number one and goes up to thirteen and then back down to one again. Each number is associated with something religious or worldly like the five books of Moses or the nine months of pregnancy (according to wikipedia). Almost like the twelve days of Christmas!

The table was set with two bottles of wine, a plate of matzah (מצה) (unlevened bread because when the Jews fled they left in such a rush that the bread did not have time to rise) covered with a pretty passover cover, and symbolic foods on a Seder plate. Everyone began with one glass full of wine, including Elijah. Elijah comes to share the meal as well! Some families even put a chair out for him. whenever the tables gets nudged a little, and the wine moves, that's when they tell the kids, "Look! He's there, he's drinking it!"

Here is a rundown of what the foods on the Seder plate represent (with some help from wikipedia....ok more that just help, I copy and pasted it all, my commentary is underlined):

• Maror and Chazeret: Two types of bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness and harshness of the slavery which the Jews endured in Ancient Egypt. For maror, many people use freshly grated horseradish or whole horseradish root. Chazeret is typically romaine lettuce, whose roots are bitter-tasting. Either the horseradish or romaine lettuce may be eaten in fulfillment of the mitzvah of eating bitter herbs during the Seder. (We had lettuce and a horseradish sauce from Poland, it basically shot fire through my nose!!!!) 
• Charoset: A sweet, brown, pebbly paste of fruits and nuts, representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt. (We had a fig, apple and nut mix, it was REALLY good!) 
• Karpas: A vegetable other than bitter herbs, usually parsley but sometimes something such as celery or cooked potato, which is dipped into salt water (Ashkenazi custom), vinegar (Sephardi custom), or charoset (older custom, still common amongst Yemenite Jews) at the beginning of the Seder. (We had a sauce made from beets) 
• Zeroa: A roasted lamb or goat bone, symbolizing the korban Pesach (Pesach sacrifice), which was a lamb offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night. (I think we used a chicken bone.) 
• Beitzah: A hard-boiled egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then eaten as part of the meal on Seder night. (We had a bowl of boiled eggs so everyone could have one and they were sitting in salty water.)

The Haggadah leads you through rituals and blessings throughout the whole dinner, and here is a rundown of the, again thanks to wikipedia:

1. Kadeish קדש – recital of Kiddush blessing and drinking of the first cup of wine 
2. Urchatz ורחץ – the washing of the hands 
3. Karpas כרפס – dipping of the karpas in salt water 
4. Yachatz יחץ – breaking the middle matzo; the larger piece becomes the afikoman 
5. Maggid מגיד – retelling the Passover story, including the recital of "the four questions" and drinking of the second cup of wine 
6. Rachtzah רחצה – second washing of the hands 
7. Motzi מוציא, Matzo מצה – blessing before eating matzo 
8. Maror מרור – eating of the maror 
9. Koreich כורך – eating of a sandwich made of matzo and maror 
10. Shulchan oreich שולחן עורך – lit. "set table"—the serving of the holiday meal 
11. Tzafun צפון – eating of the afikoman 
12. Bareich ברך – blessing after the meal and drinking of the third cup of wine 
13. Hallel הלל – recital of the Hallel, traditionally recited on festivals; drinking of the fourth cup of wine 
14. Nirtzah נירצה – say "See you in Jerusalem again!"

We had a lot of fun getting to know the Nimri family and learning about some Jewish traditions. Everyone was so sweet, they allowed us to take pictures and to stop them whenever we had questions. However, they were very good at stopping to explain what things meant that we barely had to ask anything.

Our accommodations were fantastic! They had converted an unattached garage into a room with a full bathroom and even a mini fridge. It was very nice! We were quite comfortable! The next morning Sharon fed us a huge and delicious breakfast. It was a passover version of french toast made with Matza instead of bread. It was surprisingly good. I didn't think Matza could do something like that!

Afterwards we said our goodbyes and Liron took us back to Jerusalem. We hope to see them again when we visit Tel Aviv.

We were very grateful for their hospitality and for the opportunity to share their Seder meal traditions. It was a fantastic time!

The whole family

The whole family again but with Sharon

This is a TERRIBLE angle for me, but here is the Matza and Shaked
 is holding the delicious Charoset (fruit spread) and Elijah's cup.

Seder Plate (Remember, two bitter herbs, sweet brown paste (fruit spread),
  vegetable other than herbs,  roasted bone, and hard boiled egg)

Elijah's cup (usually it's left out and then later  if you come look
at it some will be gone showing that he drank some)

From top left: Shaked, Alon, Liron, Skye and me. Our sign for Rothberg:
 "My name is Janna and Skye and I did my Passover Seder
in Israel together with the Nimri family"
(we had to fill our names in the blank, I think it's more common for single students )