For Andrea Grenadier, a beautiful friend and poet in honor of a shared tradition
Rose Konigsberg
kitchen maven, death camp
survivor, and Chaim HoffmanÂ’s second wife
(his first was killed along with his first child in the
Holocaust)
Devoted mother of Samuel, her only child (married
to Janet, who gave her two grandchildren)
Cooked and cleaned for several days in
feverish preparation:
Gefilte fish, chrain, chicken soup, sponge cakes,
tsimmes, cholent, and more
Her home, a pristine tabernacle of Judaism
Her dining room table, a tableau of lace cloth
Matching napkins, Lennox china (Autumn pattern)
Gold rimmed crystal, silver candelabra, and sterling
flatware
Plates were topped with haggadot to be read
The children clean, combed, dressed in their best
The guests arrive and find their seats
Hymie sits at the head of the table
Opens the book and begins the prayers in rapid
Hebrew (not reading but reciting from memory)
His tempo increases as if his voice was greased
The first glasses are poured with sweet dark
Kosher wine
Everyone dips their parsley in the salt water
savoring it while he splits the matzoh and places it
under the napkin
We drink the wine and the cups are filled again
The youngest, Eva and Jesse, are nudged to sing
“Ma Nishtana”
They blush and giggle with pride at the nodding
approval of the elders
Each celebrant in turn reads the story
The plagues are numbered and dotted by fingertips
with beads of wine on the seder plate
All sing Dayeinu
The matzoh is blessed and each celebrant makes
a sandwich composed of Charoset (apples, nuts,
cinnamon, wine, and honey) and maror (bitter
horseradish for the brave of tongue) between the
crisp matzoh crackers
Then comes hard boiled eggs, also dipped in salt
water
The festive meal now served by Rose and Jan
While Hymie hides the afikomen (in the usual place)
Chopped liver and pickled cucumbers appear on
the table as the top plates are removed
Then bowls of steaming chicken soup with matzoh
balls are carried ceremoniously from the kitchen
with great care and a reverent silence ensues
as spoons meet mouths
Stuffed breast of veal, roasted potatoes, vegetables
Fruit compote, cake, coffee and tea
The seder continues with prayers and songs,
Then the last wine and fervent exclamations of
gustatory nirvana
The children find the afikomen and are rewarded
with gelt
The women scrape the plates and chat while
washing and drying the fine china and crystal by
hand
The men share jokes and stories of seders long
ago as laughter fills the house
Eva and Jesse give kisses and go willingly to bed
The guests say goodbye
Everyone is happy
To learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder
maven - an expert
chrain – horseradish mixed with red beet
tsimmes – slow cooked carrots with honey
cholent – a stew similar to cassoulet
haggadot – books of the story of Passover read
during the seder
matzoh - a cracker-like flatbread made of white
ma nishtana – a song that the youngest child sings
asking the four questions about why Passover is
celebrated
seder- means order and the service at the table
relives the enslavement and subsequent Exodus of
the Children of Israel from Ancient Egypt
afikomen - piece of matzoh which is hidden in the
early stages of the Passover Seder and eaten after
the festive meal
gelt- money
Great Grandmother Rose with her namesake
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Comments: 39 ( 1 removed by Granny Janny )
Featured in the Triple Name Club.
Blessings and best wishes - S.
This poem felt like home. Blessings.
Tonight we will celebrate the first seder at the assisted living home where she now resides. The children will come and Rose will kvell with pride for her family and new great grandchild.
It wont be the same as those days in the past at her house but the food will be okay, the seder will be short, and the tradition will be preserved. Maybe next year in Israel!
Thank you for reading and commenting all. Thanks for the feature too, Kathyrn.
*Thanks for the information on some of the vocabulary, I knew the definition of some of the words, not all. =)
Thank you for telling us about this lovely experience.
thank you for sharing.... Great Grandma and baby Rose are sooo beautiful...
much love and peace and Passover Blessings...to you and yours...
I am not able to be with my family for the first Seder tonight, so it was a wonderful treat to read this! My family is similar in tradition, just the names are changed.
I hope you had a wonderful Seder with Rose at the assisted living center tonite.
A Sweet Pesach to you and your family!
Happy Pesach and kisses to all.
Thanks for posting to my group, Anythingwriting
Opens the book and begins the prayers in rapid
Hebrew (not reading but reciting from memory)
His tempo increases as if his voice was greased
The first glasses are poured with sweet dark
Kosher wine"
I can just picture this whole scene. Imagine how both Hymie and Rose felt as they looked around the table and remembered a past that was not so wonderful...and yet in America, they thrived, raised a son and shared Passover with a "their loving family". Wonderful vignette, Jan...just wonderful.
I am so grateful for the wonderful comments dear friends.
With the death of my mother, my sister assumed the task of preparing the Seder in her home. The food was truely reminiscent of my mother's cooking, and despite my fatherr's failing health, he still grated the horseradish, and sang the HGGADAH with his unique style.
After his death my sister and her husband continued to conduct the Seder in their home. It was very much the same, except we missed the singing of my father. No matter where we all lived, my nieces and nephews came to their mother's home. My wife and son would come from Ohio or PA to Brooklyn where they lived. Close family friends also came no matter where they lived.
My sister and her husband moved to Florida to avoid the cold winters. Now the mantle was passed to her oldest daughter. The meals were just as sumptious and similar, since they used the recipies they learned from their mothers. The recitation of the Haggadah tale is still done according to Orthodox Judaic ritual. However, my niece and her husband are both teachers, and they have added an assignment for the guests to the Seder. We are given a Homework assignment to complete and bring to the Seder. We are to arrive 2 hours before sundown, when the Seder begins. Each person presents their version of the assignment. At first I thought it was a foolish innovation, until I saw the creativity and thought which they utilized in preparing their assignment. I now see how innovation can be a help to prepare for a ritual. For example, the assignment this year was to Stimulate the Seder, similar to our preoccupation with Stimulating the Economy.
As an 86 year old I could see clearly the change in generational thinking. I focused on the meaning of Passover, freeing of the Slaves. I gave examples of work needed to be done. Freeing of Jonathan Pollard, the American Intelligent Agent, who gave classified information to Israel, which the United States was to provide to their ally,Israel, regarding Iran troop movements. The full details were never published, but the penalty for spies giving US classified secrets to Russia were at most 4 years. Pollard has been in maximum security prison for 24 years now. He is used as a bargaining chip to get Israel to do what the US State Department wants. He made a Plea Bargain to the charge with the understanding that it would be a 2 year imprisonment. The United States Judicial system ignored the Plea Bargain, and an Appeal of the life sentence was denied on a technicality. The Appeal was filed a day late.
Another example is the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas. Even the Red Cross has been denied any visitation to the prisoner. No one knows whether he lives, or is severely injured, but in exchange Hamas demands Israel free hundreds of Palestinians convicted of killing Isaeli children, women and civilians in Jihad attacks. Israel recently traded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for 3 bodies of Israelis.
My nieces and nephews saw the holiday as a joyful time, and they contributed ideas that made us all laugh.
One was a take-off of Jeopardy. There were topics and amounts for difficulty of response. The questions were all based on the Haggadah tale. An easy question was: How many Plagues. Harder: Name 4th Plague. The $500 question: What was placed on the door posts of Jewish homes so that the Angel of Dealth bypassed it.
Another compared each Plague to an animal, event or illness and drew a picture to depict the scene.
Another developed a lesson plan for each of the 4 sons to fit their learning style.
The amount of time and energy needed to complete their assignments was surprising, since I felt the young were never concerned about serious matters. The reunion of the family members is a key to Judaism's success. My sister and my brother-in-law come from Florida, I come from PA, a nephew from White Plains, NY, another from Debra, NJ, another Mass, children from Hoboken, NJ, another from New Brunswick, NJ. from Woodbury, NY. We are all reunited by the Passover ritual.
jsrson
This is a beautiful post, my dear.
a well-woven gaze into a world that i'll never live in--for i was not born to it, but now wish it otherwise.
what a tapestry.