Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Unleavened


Last night we celebrated Passover with a Seder dinner at Jeff’s folks house. Passover, Pesach, is the holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrew’s escape from enslavement in Egypt. A traditional Seder dinner is long winded. It features many starchy and bland-ish snacks. There is singing and reading in Hebrew. For those that drink, there is much drinking of Manischewitz, which from what I can tell is like the box wine of the Jews. And there is more reading and singing and singing and reading. And there is reading.

One tradition, designed to help keep the kids awake during the meal, is the hiding of the Afikomen. During the fourth part of the Seder, the leader hides the afikomen (matzoh bread wrapped in a napkin) and the children will look for it after dinner in order to win a prize or some coins.

We sped read through the Haggadah, the text that lists the traditions. At the end of the meal, Bob took off in search of the afikomen. We led him through the house by yelling out “hot” or “cold" to direct him. At last (blazing hot!) he ended up in the hall closet. Bob emerged victorious with the afikomen in hand. He held it aloft and said, “Como estas, afikomen?”

I would like to attribute his remark to a well balanced mutli-cultural home life, rich in the customs of his diverse Mexican/Indian/Swedish/Irish/Jewish background. Instead, I will give credit where credit is due: Muchas gracias, Dora the Explorer.

13 comments:

  1. I think this is my favorite Pesach story yet. I believe I shall teach our younguns to always greet the Afikomen in Spanish.

    Please thank Dora for me.

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  2. Be'Shaa Tova! What did he ask for in return?
    Also, for next Seder, let me recommend the entire series of Gamla wines, WAY WAY BETTER than Manischewitz.

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  3. Bob is clearly muy meshuggeneh.

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  4. ha! I feel slightly smug because although i am a shitska (yes i called myself a bad name, and probably spelled it wrong too) i have many Orthodox Jewish friends, so I know what these things are :)
    and Dora, too!

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  5. I wonder if his DNA is "cryptojew". I just found out about this clandestine jewish group that went into hiding in Mexico, like 150 years ago. So very interesting. You think???

    I think I'm it. They have their annual convention in San Antonio this year. I think I'll go..:)

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  6. yea, maybe it was Ladino. By the way, I learned last night that afikomen is actually a greek word. Bob is extra linguistically brilliant.

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  7. Oh yeah. We had our Seder meal last night as well. Tune into casablanca tomorrow for a post about it. (Spoiler alert: it involves REAL blood, fainting, and hidden afikomen.) Also, muchas gracias for having Bob.

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  8. I just read five of your posts and they are all my favorite,

    but Como Estas Afikoman wins.

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