Keep the Candle Burning Bright…

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As I reflect on the final night of Hanukkah, the light of the fully lit menorah is etched in my mind. This Hanukkah was especially poignant for me because the first night of the last year’s holiday marked the end of the 30-day mourning period (shloshim in Hebrew) following my mother’s passing (may her memory be a blessing). Each night as we lit the menorah, I thought about my mom and all of the wonderful experiences we shared together.

My mom inspired my love of Judaism and cooking. We always enjoyed preparing for Passover and other Jewish holidays by trying out new and old recipes with my siblings and children. When I first launched Breaking Matzo for Passover in 2015, my mom’s influence could be felt throughout the site. One simple, but sweet, example is that her chocolate matzo mousse cake was one of our most popular recipes and Instagram videos!

Last fall, as my mom’s health deteriorated rapidly, I realized that I wanted to make Breaking Matzo: Hanukkah edition a tribute to her. I incorporated her extensive collection of menorahs and dreidels on our site, as well as her delicious puffed pancake recipe. Working at a frantic pace, we were able to launch Breaking Matzo Hanukkah just two days before she passed away. I was so relieved that my mom was able to see her legacy live on through Breaking Matzo, including her love of Judaism, cooking, and family celebrations.

This fall, I was so excited to launch Breaking Matzo: Succot edition. Succot was the last Jewish holiday that I was able to celebrate with my mom. I remember celebrating with her in our Succah as we had always celebrated when I was a young boy. The holiday of Succot celebrates our two Succahs: Succah of Abundance, when we celebrate our bountiful blessings, and the Succah of the wilderness, when we are vulnerable and open to G-d. We simultaneously celebrate both states of being. I am truly grateful for the bountiful and beautiful community of Breaking Matzo. At the same time, I miss my mom very much and am grateful for all of her inspiration and Jewish teachings.

I believe that tradition is repetitive action with meaning. Each new tradition starts with a first. I feel so blessed to have inherited so many of my mom’s special traditions and to be able to pass them on to my children—her beloved grandchildren. My daughter, Lucy asked me last year if I was still grieving my mom’s death; she added that she felt very sad that her grandmother won’t be there with her as she grows up. I explained to her that while I miss my mom terribly, I am comforted knowing that Nana found peace after suffering so much near the end of her life. I also told my daughter that while I wish my mom could see her and the other grandkids grow and mature, we can keep her memory alive by reflecting on Nana’s insights and traditions, allowing them to help illuminate our life journeys. In so doing, we can keep the beautiful light of her life aglow for many many years to come.

Ordinary to Extraordinary Lives: Elie Wiesel

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On July 2, 2016, we were saddened to add another obituary to our list of extraordinary leaders in the Jewish community. The passing of Elie Wiesel sent shockwaves throughout Jewish communities around the world.

Wiesel, a survivor of Buchenwald, was steadfast in his commitment to not only telling the story of the Holocaust, but in pushing his readers and the world at large to remember the intersections and conflicts of hatred, intolerance, and morality that allowed for it to happen. He consistently strove to make “never again” a reality; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for this work.

“…If we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices,” Wiesel said.

Throughout his career, Wiesel wrote and spoke out against hatred and injustices perpetuated around him. His writings and work were not confined to simply spreading awareness of the Holocaust, but instead spoke to greater messages of peace and tolerance for all who faced persecution. For his work and devotion to peace, Wiesel exemplifies the transformation from ordinary to extraordinary.

You can read his obituary here.

The Annual Seder Dinner Discussion

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Our family has a tradition of involving everyone (kids and grownups) in a Passover Dinner Discussion. We find it a wonderful way to help the tradition of Passover connect from ancient history to the modern day.

One week before our Seder, I send everyone the Dinner Discussion topic so people can prepare. At the beginning of the Seder, I review the question and give an overview. Then after everyone has their food at the meal, we go around the table and EVERYONE has a chance to answer the question, one by one. It is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to hear what each child has to say, and for the children to hear from the adult. Judaism is wonderful for children to have a voice. From the Four Questions, to the weekly Bar/Bat Mitzvah Torah reading, young children are given the chance to speak to their families and community.

In the past, we have had beautiful answers from young children. For example, in response to the question of “Who would fill Elijah’s chair tonight,” young Elizabeth (6) said, “I am named for my grandmother Elizabeth but I have never met her, I would give up my name in order to have the chance to meet her.” Another child responded to the question, “What is your Dayenu? What are you grateful for?,” answering, “I am so grateful that my parents drive me to all of my after-school activities.”

The discussions are meant to be serious, but fun. The most important aspect is thoughtful, respectful listening to anyone whose turn it is to speak.

Sacred Time: Holiday vs. Holy Day

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As we eat the last of the matzo, I am extremely grateful to you for becoming part of the Breaking Matzo community.

Launching Breaking Matzo, transforming my own passion project into a reality, was an incredible experience for me.  I am reflecting on why it felt so important for me to share with all of you.

In some way, it goes back to my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.  She discussed the meaning of Sacred Time (Leviticus 23) in terms of a Holiday versus a Holy Day.

She said, “The way you decide to spend your day determines whether it is a Holiday or a Holy Day.  Notice how close they are. A holiday belongs to us; it is about what we want to do, when we want to do it.  It is about having fun, and we don’t really think about what we are even celebrating.  A Holy Day belongs to God, it is about thinking about God, and reflecting. It is meaningful and personal.  But in the end, any sacred occasion can be a holiday or a holy day.”

Holy Days are meant for Philosophy and Meaning.  Holidays are meant for Food, Family, and Fun.   It is my fervent hope that Breaking Matzo helped your Passover become a Holy Holiday.  Full of Food, Fun, and Philosophy, stimulating for the mind, touching the heart, and uplifting for the soul.

If this really happened, then we achieved our goal of truly making your Passover Magical, Meaningful, and Memorable!

Next year in Jerusalem!

– Andy Goldfarb

Let’s Listen to Our Children Talk About Passover

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Let’s listen to our children talk about Passover.

Alex, age 9, discusses Freedom and Slavery. Mayan, age, 10 wrote about Miriam and the power of women in exodus.

What did your children and grandchildren talk about at your Passover Seder?

Miriam: She-ro for the Ages
By: Ma’ayan Zimrah Rosenbaum

In preparation for Pesach this year, I chose to research Miriam and her role in the Exodus story. I believe that Miriam should be honored as a heroine and role model, whose life is celebrated at the Passover Seder and at other times of the year.

There is a midrash (rabbinic legend) that teaches that when Miriam was a young girl, she saved Moses’ life, even before he was conceived. According to this legend, when Pharaoh decreed that all the baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile, Miriam’s father, Amram, decided to divorce her mother, thinking that there was no point in staying married if they couldn’t have boys. Feeling helpless, many other Israelite men followed suit. Miriam bravely went to her father to tell him that he was making a terrible mistake. She went so far as to say that his behavior was worse than Pharaoh: while the Egyptian king ordered the murder of baby boys, Amram’s decision would lead to the death of all future Israelite generations. Miriam’s father listened to his wise daughter and got back together with his wife, as did all the other men who had followed his lead.

Some commentators believe that Miriam, and her mother Yocheved, were actually the midwives Shifrah and Puah who defied Pharaoh’s command to murder the Israelite baby boys. The great French interpreter, Rashi, taught that Yocheved was Shifrah because the Hebrew word “Shifrah” is related to physical wellbeing, and she helped ensure the basic safety of the babies. Miriam was said to be Puah because the word “Puah” is related to the soothing of the newborns through one’s voice. Given that Miriam would have been quite young when she worked as a midwife, it makes sense to me that she would have vocally soothed the babies while her mother tended to their physical needs.

I want to add to the collection of stories about Miriam’s personality and name: If one breaks her name into two parts, it can be read as mar and yam, meaning “bitter” and “sea.” When Miriam experienced bitterness, she responded by standing up for what she believed in and argued stubbornly (or “bitterly”) for it. I think that “sea” or water is part of her name for a few different reasons, including the biblical teachings that she watched over her baby brother as he floated down the Nile and led the people in song and dance at the Sea of Reeds. And, the rabbis taught that she provided water for B’nei Yisrael (The Children of Israel) with water throughout their 40 years in the desert. I also imagine Miriam as a free-spirited person, like the waves in the ocean: sometimes they move in a neat pattern, but at other times they move in unpredictable ways.

In the last 20 years or so, people have been incorporating Miriam into the Seder by placing a special cup of water on the table, just like we do with Elijah’s cup of wine. This newfound tradition was first introduced by a woman named Stephanie Loo from Boston, Massachusetts. She based this ritual on the teaching we just explored about Miriam’s special ability to provide her people with water in the wilderness.

There are different ways to use Miriam’s water cup at the Seder. Some people fill up a full cup of water from a pitcher or jug, while others have each person pour a little bit of water into the special cup. I prefer the second option as it is way for us to give back a tiny fraction of the water Miriam provided for our ancestors.

There are also different times during the Seder when people raise Miriam’s cup. Some do it after reciting the 10 Plagues and before the chanting of Dayenu (“Enough,” a song of praise) so that Miriam accompanies us through our journey from slavery to freedom. Others raise it along with Elijah’s wine cup so that these two prophets are honored together. I prefer the first version because while Elijah represents the future coming of the Messiah, Miriam sustains us in our journey through history.

All this research on Miriam has made me wonder, what other awesome women in the bible deserve recognition for their acts?

Ma’ayan Zimrah Rosenbaum is a fourth-grade student at the Jewish Community Day School in Watertown, MA. She is an aspiring author and a proud Jewish feminist! She is grateful for the help of her parents in editing this piece.

 

Works Consulted:

Tamara Cohen, “Miriam’s Cup: A Modern Feminist Symbol,” 70 Faces Media, 2003

Dina Coopersmith, “Women in the Bible #6: Miriam”

Sue Levi Elwell, “The Open Door: A Passover Haggaddah,” New York: CCAR Press, 2002

Tamar Meir, “Miriam: Midrash and Aggadah,” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women’s Archive

Ellen Schecter, “The Family Haggadah,” New York: Viking/Penguin, 1999

Phyllis Trible, “Miriam: Bible,” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009

Passover Playlist

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We love to have music and videos play during our cocktails before our Passover Seder. It is fun to set the mood while we eat my chopper liver and have some pre-Seder Israeli wine.

This playlist includes Broadway, old time classics, and newer a capella songs. I also like the last few songs such as “To Life” from Fiddler on the Roof and the “Hava Nagilah” to celebrate and dance at the conclusion of our Seder.

Make it fun! Celebrate and enjoy a liberating Passover!

Passover Playlist (click here to Play All on YouTube)

Listen on Spotify

Click each title below to link to the individual YouTube videos:

“Tradition” clip from the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971)

“Seder Crew” (2017 Passover Jam) by Six13

“Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows)” from the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”

“Pesach Shop” (2013 passover jam) by Six13

“God Split the Ocean” ( a “Cake by the Ocean Adaptation”) by Six13

“P-A-S-S-O-V-E-R” (a “We R Who We R” Adaptation”) by Six13

“Miriam’s Song” by Debbie Friedman

“Dayenu” by The Maccabeats

“Chad Gadya Passover Songs” by Boys Town Jerusalem

“Mah Nishtanah” by The Maccabeats

“Chozen” (a Passover tribute) by Six13

The Adele/Bieber Passover Mashup

“Uptown Passover” (an “Uptown Funk” for Pesach) by Six13

“A Billy Joel Passover” by Six13

“Hava Nagila” Natyadriazola

“Uptown Passover” (an “Uptown Funk” for Pesach) by Six13

“Hava Nagila Baby Let’s Dance” from XxPacoxX

“Techno Juive – Hava Nagila Remix” from Ryuk YTP

Hava Nagila – Dance Energy (techno version)

 

Passover Hide-and-Seek for Kids

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The night before Pesach, there is a fun “Hide and Seek” game you can play with your kids called the “Search for Chametz (leavened products).”

This game can help your kids understand the power of preparing physically and spiritually for Passover.  Because Passover is a spring holiday, it is a wonderful opportunity for cleaning our homes and examining our lives.

What You Need: a candle, a wooden spoon, a feather, and ten small pieces of bread.

Once it is dark outside and you have completed your Pesach cleaning, hide ten pieces of bread around the kitchen in paper or another simple wrapping (in the open, and not out of sight). Turn off the kitchen lights to enhance the darkness. The children can take different roles: One child can hold the lit candle to help find the chametz; another child can use a feather to sweep the chametz onto a wooden spoon.

After you find all ten pieces, the hide-and-seek game is complete! The next morning you burn the ten pieces of chametz. Your house is now chametz-free and ready for Passover!

This is a fun way to involve the kids in the Passover spring cleaning and holiday preparation.

As you carry out this ritual, you might want to ask your children a few questions to stimulate conversation:

  • What can we learn by comparing matzo and chametz (“puffy” breads and cakes)?
  • How can changing what we eat help us think about making other changes in our lives?
  • What is one thing you want to change in your life this spring? How will you go about doing it? How can we help you?

 

Passover: Spring Cleaning for the Soul

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Passover can be viewed as an opportunity for a spring cleaning for the soul. The ritual of Passover spring cleaning can involve both the scouring of our kitchen and a careful examination of our souls.

  • What do you want to cleanse or remove from your life this Passover?
  • What do you want to make space for in your life?

Every year we clean our homes, removing all leavened products from our midst, replacing them with matzo and other Kosher-for-Passover foods. Matzo is the most basic of foods, with none of the extra ingredients in most breads, cakes, and cookies.

  • What are the basics in our lives?
  • What are the extras?

Passover is a spring holiday celebrating the renewal of the natural world and the rebirth of the Israelites as a free people. Both of these processes of transformation include the shedding of different elements from the past in order to prepare for a better future.

The annual ritual of “spring cleaning” associated with Passover offers us a unique opportunity to examine our physical surroundings and our inner selves. Passover has a fun tradition that embodies this idea: it is called “the search for chametz.” Chametz means leavened bread. During Passover, we give up all leavened products, eating matzo instead of these “puffy” foods. The word matzo derives from the Hebrew term for “drain out,” and consists of just flour, salt, and oil. Chametz, however, includes all of the extras—yeast, sugar, eggs, etc. Giving up chametz and eating matzo helps us focus on the basics in our lives and reflect on our ongoing journeys from slavery to freedom.

  • What are the “extras” in our lives?
  • What can we give up or clean out to help us be more present to the true gifts in our lives?
    • For example, Are we chained to our personal electronic devices, enslaved by our professional ambitions, or embittered by unhealthy eating habits?

If we can focus on the basics—on what truly matters to us—we can begin to live more unencumbered in the present. This is the promise of Passover and the ritual of spring cleaning in preparation for this festival of liberation and renewal.

The Ritual Search for Chametz:

The search for chametz takes place the night before the first Seder. Following the outlines of the traditional practice, I hide ten pieces of bread (chametz) in the kitchen (you might want to wrap them in a napkin or saran wrap). My children each have different roles in this sacred game of hide-and-seek: One child uses a candle to shine light on the pieces of chametz, while the other uses a feather to brush the pieces of chametz onto a wooden spoon. After collecting all ten pieces of bread in a paper bag, the search is complete!

The next morning, we burn the 10 pieces of chametz to symbolically articulate our readiness to give up eating chametz for the 8 Days of the Passover holiday. 

Prayers for the Chametz Rituals:

Before the search and burning, we recite the following:

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who sanctified us by commanding us to remove all chametz. 

After the search and burning, we recite the following:

All chametz in my possession, whether I have seen it or not and whether I have removed it or not, shall be nullified and ownerless as the dust on the earth. 

 

 

Engraved Napkin Rings

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This Passover, highlight your seder table with hand stamped leather napkin ring holders. So easy and fun to make – they really are addicting! Think up magical, meaningful, and memorable words to appear on the leather and stamp away! When you’re done, highlight the impressed letter with colorful accents! Who knows your guests could be wearing these as keepsakes on their wrists on the way home from your seder!

Materials

Napkin-Rings-materials

Step 1:

Lightly dip leather area you want to engrave into water.

Napkin-Rings-step-1

Step 2:

While leather is wet, hammer one hit for each letter in a line, spelling the word or name you’ve chosen to write.  Continue until the word is complete.

Napkin-Rings-step-2

Step 3:

Leave as is to dry or…

Napkin-Rings-step-3

Step 3:

Once leather completely dries (10 minutes or so) use a fine tip (oil-based preferred) Sharpie to color in letters.

Napkin-Rings-step-4

How beautiful your table will look when napkins are wrapped in these beautiful handmade leather engraved napkin rings. They’ll double as bracelets guests can wear home.

NapkinRing_final

Passover Gnome Garden

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Your guests will be tickled pink seeing these adorable little terrarium gardens set on your seder table this Passover, complete with Parsley “Karpas” sprigs “growing” from the garden, Andy’s favorite Garden Gnomes, and Frogs (one of the Passover Plagues)! We like to use what we have laying around the house to fill the bottom of the garden – there are so many variations on this activity. Feel free to send us your imaginative garden ideas on our Breaking Matzo Facebook page; we would love to see your creative creations!

Materials

  • Gnome 2” mini gnome
  • Sitting Garden frogs (pack of 3)
  • Bulk gnomes and mushrooms (if you’re looking to order a lot)
  • Jar, glass bowl, or plastic container, wine glass (upside down) or right side up
  • Colored sand, aquarium gravel, rocks, pebbles
  • Moss
  • Parsley sprigs
  • Glue
  • Optional: Wood sticks (skewers or toothpicks or green floral stakes) only if you are transporting your Passover Gnome Garden
Gnome-Garden-materials

Step 1:

Layer Sand

Gnome-Garden-step-1

Step 2:

Layer Gravel

Gnome-Garden-step-2

Step 3:

Layer Rocks

Gnome-Garden-step-3

Step 4:

Layer Moss

Gnome-Garden-step-4

Step 5:

Lay garden items and gnome on top layer. If transporting garden, glue frogs and gnome onto a stick so that stick slides under rocks and garden doesn’t shift.

Gnome-Garden-step-5

Step 6:

Clip and push sprigs of parsley into top of garden. Your Gnome Garden is now complete!

Passover Gnome Garden Final