KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
On Pesach, it was traditional for rabbis to collect charity from every house so that every Jew could observe the holiday. Many families participated in making matzah. “We would all go and help make the matzah, mixing the dough, rolling it out, and making the holes,” said Arje Katz. “We brought our own boxes to put them in.” “Passover then was very much the same as today,” said Katz, “with the same prayers, the same books, the same meal.” While most families held seders on the first and second days, others held them the first and last days. The seder began as soon as the men and boys returned from shul and candles could be lit. “We used Hebrew haggadahs, with Yiddish translations, and said the same exact prayers we say today, the same prayers that have been said for generations and generations. And the seder plate had the same charoset, parsley, salt water, egg, roasted lamb bone, and other tra- ditional foods as today,” Katz said. He added, “For the meal, the family ate the same gefilte fish with horseradish, chicken soup with matzah balls (we preferred them soft), and mandels (small dump- ling-like balls of matzah meal and oil), carrots, the best meat dish the housewife could afford, a vegetable, and then for dessert, stewed prunes or other fruit, and cakes made from matzah meal. Fami- lies sang the same songs they sing today.” Those include “Avodim Hayinu” (“We Were Slaves”); “Dayenu” (“It Would Have Been Enough”); “MaNishtanu” (“Why Is This Night Different?”); and “Chad Gadya” (“One Goat”). The seder took four or five hours, and children were expected to participate fully, and to be quiet and respectful the entire time, according to Katz, except during the search for the hidden afikomen matzah, which was always found by the youngest child. The seder always ended with “Next year in Jerusalem!” Rubinstein said that his father, who baked the family’s bread ev- ery Thursday, used to bake fewer loaves the week before Passover so that there would be less waste when the house was rid of cha- metz (leavened bread). The forty-nine days of Omer were counted from the second day of Passover, the time of sowing grains in Israel, to the time
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