200408
8th
April, 2020
In
Hebrew this festival is called the Festival of Freedom, Chag ha Herut. Strange
really that this year we spend the Freedom Festival in seclusion! On the other
hand the seclusion, while imposed, doesn't prevent us from celebrating as our
ancestors did.
This
week also leads up to Good Friday and Palm Sunday, to Easter. The seclusion
applies whatever one's faith so no church services, no Easter Parades or Easter
Bonnets; no pilgrimages to Jerusalem or anywhere else.
We have
all been given a rare opportunity to really contemplate our traditions and
religious obligations without the usual distractions. This year it is us and
our religious beliefs, clean, pure and undisturbed. No-one else is going to see
or judge our performance, it's just us and, if we are lucky, our closest,
nearest and dearest.
Our
world has changed drastically and we none of us know what will be when we come
out the other side, but in the meantime, let's think about that past week,
since Friday.
A 93
year old Monarch who has seen the world change drastically and served in a
World War, spoke to her nation and the Commonwealth, words of condolence and
encouragement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE4Cmr1j0tA
A young
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, ignored his own symptoms which were not
particularly severe, ran the United Kingdom from seclusion, and is now in the
ICU of St. Thomas's Hospital, leaving his chosen replacement Dominic Raab, to
make decisions of State.
The
world's Capital City, the heartbeat of the West, New York, is in distress, the
virus having taken too many lives. The number of those killed by the virus is
greater than the number killed on September 11th. I fear for my
loved ones there, and indeed everywhere.
Here in
Israel there has been enormous antipathy toward the Ultra-Orthodox community, a
proportion of whom ignored the edicts to isolate, which prompted President Rivlin to make a public statement declaring
that whenever he hears such atrocious comments, he wants to scream out loud.
"We are brothers who are responsible for each other," he said,
"and it is wrong for any section of the population to heap needless blame
on another. A whole community cannot be blamed for the
misdeeds of a few individuals"
So, we
enter this period of celebration with a heavy heart, but on the other hand, we
have survived worse and thrived. If there is one thing I have learned from the
recent months it is that despite the worst tragedy, one can continue living,
loving and being the person you were when your heart was free.
Zvi
just came in and brought me my morning cuppa, I have to say that for a Sabra he
makes a stonking good cup of the golden brew. One of the joys of recent years
is that Yorkshire Tea is "Kosher for Passover"!!
I can't
even begin to explain the rules of Passover, which basically stem from the fact
that we don't eat leavened (risen or yeast) bread, in recognition of the fact
that when the Jews fled slavery in Egypt they didn't have time to prove their
dough so the resulting bread, cooking on their backs, came out flat and crispy.
From that simple start we now have a myriad of rules and traditions. We Jews do
like to complicate our own lives!! Today one changes dishes and utensils, after
thoroughly cleaning and emptying all cupboards, creating a new and different
atmosphere for the first night of Passover.
Actually,
this is my favourite explanation of Passover by a London Cabbie in Cockney
Rhyming Slang…… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjN2-U0G1tE
As so
often happens, my cup of tea was accompanied by pearls of Zvi wisdom….. this
time about the first night of Passover (Seder, literally the order) and the book from which we read. I hear you
sigh, oh no, she's going to tell us a load of things we already know, but think
of this – the Haggadah, the book we read on the Seder Night, is, in fact, not a
story as we always thought, but, in fact, it is an agenda of our meeting with
history! Think about it. We start with blessings and then told that this is
about the time we left slavery in Egypt. We ask questions, go into a bit of
psychological analysis of 4 types of people, bless our luck at what we have
received, read a few Rabbis opinions, spill wine in recognition of the 10
plagues and then we eat, say grace and sing songs, some in a strange language.
There is no description of the 40 year travels through the wilderness, it's up
to us to teach the importance of freedom…………just a thought!
As a
child, the Passover meals were extra special. My beautiful Zeidy (grandfather)
always sat next to me, patiently explaining the proceedings, his large, square,
freckled hands pointing to each word; my Daddy at the head of the table in our
beautiful oak paneled dining room, the food set up on the big sideboard, ready
to serve; my siblings, Aunts and Uncles all knew who the real star of the
evening was – the beautiful lady with the big smile, never showing her
exhaustion after cooking a huge meal, her pride in the exquisite table obvious,
my Mummy. She would always set the table with a huge Madeira, hand embroidered,
tablecloth, ironed within a breath of its life, and the smile would waver for a
moment, knowing what came next, the moment Daddy would recite the first
blessing from the book. We would all hold our breath……….. then, he would smile
his wickedly wonderful smile and spill a little crimson wine onto the pristine
tablecloth "OK now you can all relax, I've already made the first
stain".
It's
memories like those, memories that carry us through life and bring a smile to
even our darkest moments, those memories are the reason behind traditions. I
used to hold huge Seder Nights when my children were small, using the family
Seder Plate – thinking nothing of having 45 people sitting down to the meal. It
is just one of the many joys of living in a small community where we were each
other's family. So many thoughts race through my mind as I write, one of my
favourites is Valerie and Martin gingerly walking down the 5 steps from the
driveway to the front door, carrying huge saucepans and Pyrex's full of her
half of the meal, then helping me set up before lighting the festival candles
together. My Daddy glowing with pride at his little girl's welcoming table; the
children asking any question the wished as long as it was pertinent to Passover
– clearly good training for Gideon, today a fine lawyer, a Queen's Counsel!
In
recent years "Seder Night" evokes memories of our table in front of
the view, Zvi's Father, Saba Kalman, sitting in his cream silk jacket, proudly
listening to Alla, Zvi's Mother, reading from the Haggadah in dramatic voice,
worthy of a performance in Habima, Habima Theatre which her family founded in
Russia and brought to the nascent state. Tomer, today a soldier, standing on
his chair aged 2, excitedly reciting "Ma Nishtana". Throughout the
years one thing is constant, apart from the traditions – my world famous
Charoset (combining) made to Mummy's recipe.
There
is a deep moral to this year's festival, a moral over and above the usual
family get-togethers. If I may return to the beginning, it is a Passover that
forces us to contemplate our world, our own little world and our place in it.
Suddenly a plague is not only in the story of our escape from slavery but it is
very real, in modern language, a clear and present danger. Perhaps this plague
will free us of our preconceptions, our chasing bigger and better, perhaps it
will free us too.
My
musings have taken me to places that barely touch on politics; I think you all
know that tolerance, teaching children to accept each other, children of every
colour and creed living in a world where the full rainbow of diversity is part
of their everyday education. Those thoughts, perhaps influenced by today's lack
of acceptance and the clear teachings of hatred in school curriculae, drew me
to a special organisation which began as Hebrew University Professor Yochanan
Manor's dream and has grown into a force to be reckoned with in the world of
education and tolerance. Impact-se is the epitome of how I want to see the
world and two days ago, in a Zoom meeting, they honoured me by making me the
Chairperson of the Vaad, of the guiding committee. Thank heaven I will be
helped in the huge responsibility by Marcus Sheff, Nir Boms, David Lui and Jay
Ruderman, as well as having our guiding light, Yochanan as our President. In
addition Marcus announced that the library of Impact works, which will be in
the Hebrew University, will be named "The Dr. Daniel J. Cammerman Library"
which he would have loved as yet another expression of his love for all
children.
Please
take a look at the incredible work, expressed in reports as well as successes.
Perhaps the greatest success is right here in Jerusalem where the school
curriculum of East Jerusalem was changed, removing the extreme incitement, and
the teachers retaught that either we learn to live together or we will die
together. www.impact-se.org I am so proud of our
work.
What
music suits Passover, Easter and Ramadan?
The
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, all sequestered in their own homes, have made a
glorious video for Passover https://www.afipo.org/backstage/video-gallery/
For my
Christian friends, the exceptional Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote and Sarah
Brightman sang Pia Jesu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N12zCiY-xWk
We open
the proceedings tonight with a series of four questions all based on one big
one "Ma Nishtana" "Why is this night different to all other
nights". This year so many things are different it is difficult to count! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmabziV1LiY
Oh dear
friends, we live in scary times but by staying positive, by performing our
traditions, by being together while apart, we can get through it and meet the
changed world the other side of the virus. I wish you a beautiful, kosher Pesach;
a blessed Easter and a Ramadan Kareem.
Our
little tiny orange tree is smothered in burgeoning buds, ready to burst into
the most beautiful scent in the world; the view of Jerusalem spreads before us
the moment we open the blinds and I try to remember that next year we can be
with our children, sitting around the same table and telling stories of Grandpa
Jack spilling wine on Grandma Betty's tablecloth – a tradition happily followed
by yours truly. I will shed a tear, or two or three, for my beautiful son
Daniel, who can no longer sit at our table but will be there in spirit.
With
much love from a silent, carless, locked down but still oh so beautiful,
Jerusalem.
Sheila
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