Crypto-Jewish Seder

As the culminating activity for our unit of study about the Jews of Spain, we held a Crypto-Jewish seder in our classroom yesterday morning, and invited Shira students who were studying the same subject to join us. The result was a great success, and I'm hoping that my Edot students will be able to share some of what they learned yesterday with family and friends at their own seders this coming Friday evening. Below is a glance in photos of the event:

The room was set up with two sets of tables facing each other, with the leader's (my) table up front.

After lighting the holiday candles (props from our Hebrew Through Movement program), chanting the Shehecheyanu blessing, and singing the Sepharadi melody to "Kadesh U'r'chatz" (the 15 steps of the seder ceremony), we began the actual seder. We blessed the first cup of wine, dipped our fingers in a bowl of water to symbolically wash our hands (without saying a blessing), dipped parsley into (VERY) salted water and recited the appropriate blessing, and then began the Crypto-Jewish version of the Yachatz step of the seder. It involves a grand total of 6 Moses' leading the Israelites to freedom. Above are the first 3 Moses' putting their index fingers up to their lips to remind everyone in this secret ceremony to be as quiet as possible so as not to be discovered by Inquisition spies.

Then each of the 3 Moses' went to one of the several plates holding 3 pieces of matza, and lifted up the plate, circling slowly around in place to symbolically show them to everyone. 

After setting down the plate of matza, they each took the middle piece and broke it in half, setting the larger piece back between the two other pieces. 

They then each put the half piece of matza into a white "sack,", slung the sack over their right shoulders and lifted up rods which served as walking sticks to begin the journey to the Promised Land.

Now we begin the Mageed (the telling) section of the seder ceremony, as they begin their journey by forming a circle.

As they circle slowly around, they call upon the Israelites to join them. Three Israelites join the circle, and the following exchange is recited between the Israelites and everyone at the seder:  All at the Seder: Where are you coming from? 3 Israelites:  From the land of Egypt. All at the Seder: And where are you going to?  3 Israelites: (Joyously!) To Jerusalem! 

Following the above exchange, the first 3 Moses' and the Israelites go back to their seats, and a second set of 3 Moses' takes their place, taking over the sacks and rods.

By the way, every thing that is acted out and said during the Crypto-Jewish seder comes to us directly from Inquisition records. The Inquisitors kept very detailed notes of the testimonies given by witnesses and the accused as to what went on during the ceremony, even including such detailed information as what they ate and wore!

Below, the second set of Moses' "continue the journey" by reciting lines directly from the Book of Exodus, as the rest of us at the seder respond to them. It should be noted here that all Crypto-Jews knew the story of the Exodus from Egypt, since the Hebrew Bible is a part of the Catholic Bible, and many wealthy Crypto-Jews actually had copies of the Bible in their homes. In case you can't hear what is being said in the video clip, this is the exchange:

3 Moses’es: We celebrate Passover with these ceremonies. Before leaving Egypt, the people of Israel ate lamb with bitter lettuces and unleavened bread.

All at the seder: “They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the Lord.” (Exodus 12:8 and 12:11)

3 Moses’:  For seven days we must eat only unleavened bread.

All at the seder: “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.” (Exodus 12:15)

Here's a quick glance at our "Haggadot" (the scripts all the participants read from). The brownish things lying all over the tables are dried figs, dates and apricots. The Crypto-Jews used these to symbolize the manna that God sent down from the heavens when they had no food to eat in the wilderness. The Crypto-Jews believed that God would provide for them as God provided for the Israelites. 

There were only 3 symbolic foods on the seder plate that the Crypto-Jews could remember: the roasted shankbone (which looks suspiciously in the photo like a chicken leg!), the bitter herb (Romaine lettuce) and parsley.  

Following the Mageed step (the recounting of the Exodus story), it's time to symbolically wash our hands again, this time saying the blessing for washing the hands. 

We didn't have the actual seder meal, of course, so I described some of the the foods they ate for the meal, according to Inquisition Records -  roasted lamb, chickpeas with cilantro, huevos haminados (eggs boiled with onion skins and vinegar for 5-6 hours, resulting in a beautiful marble dye from the onion skins decorating each egg), and fruit. After the meal, comes the Tzafoon section of the seder. Tzafoon means hidden. Usually, this is the step where the children search for the half piece of matza that is hidden away during the Yachatz step. But to the Crypto-Jews, it was not matza that was hidden, but the Jewish part of them, which begged to be found. As part of the ceremony, a family of Crypto-Jews at the seder (in our case, an Edot and Shira student) would leave the room, and then return, as the leader would chant:   Blessed is the Holy One who led our ancestors out of hiding in Egypt and brought us to freedom and light in the Promised Land. Blessed is the Exalted One who will find us and raise us out of the darkness of our hiding places and lead us into the light.

At this point, I asked two students to each read a paragraph that Edot students had written the previous week, describing how it felt to always have to look over your shoulder, wondering if anyone suspected you of being a "Marrano" (old Spanish for "swine"). Here, a Shira student is reading the paragraph. We learn from Inquisition records that each participant in the secret seders shared how they felt during this step of the seder.

As you will see in the video clip below (which will be inserted here shortly), there was good reason to be afraid of being discovered. Just as we drank the final drop of our third cup of wine, we received a very unwelcome visitor! (stay tuned)

Following our close call with the Inquisition soldier, we continued our journey to freedom by symbolically crossing the Reed Sea. This was accomplished having a Narrator quote from the Book of Exodus the events of the crossing, as 9 other students played the Reed Sea waves, Moses, the Israelites and the Egyptians very capably. Once we were on the "other side," and free, it was time to praise God in the Hallel section of the seder.

The Crypto-Jews knew that the Hallel part of the ceremony involved praising God, but they didn't know most of the praising songs in the Haggadah. So they would each say one word in praise of God instead. I printed words of praise on the white board behind me, and each student chose one of the words to say.

The one song the Crypto-Jews did recall was "Chad Gadya" ("One Kid"), the very last song sung at the Pesach seder. They recalled it because it had been written in Europe during the Middle Ages, and had been translated to the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language of the Sepharadim. The Ladino version is "Un Cavritico" ("One Kid"), which we had learned the previous week.  (Check my March 19th entry to hear the song.)

Finally, we arrived at the final step of the seder, Nirtza. This is when Jews all over the world utter the words, "L'shana ha'ba'a bee'yerushalayeem." ("Next Year in Jerusalem.")  This the Crypto-Jews definitely remembered. But it was not the actual city of Jerusalem they longed to see. To them, "Jerusalem" symbolized a Spain where they would be free to be Jews in the open - that, to them, was the Promised Land. They said the words seven times over, each time saying them more softly than the previous time, until the final time they moved their lips without making a sound, symbolically internalizing the dream.

And in case you've been wondering why I'm dressed all in white, below are photographs taken by the French photographer Frederic Brenner in 1988 and 1989, of two Jewish families in Belmonte, Portugal, descendants of Crypto-Jews, who, together with other families in Portugal, still observe Crypto-Jewish seders as their ancestors did, hiding in their attics or basements. Again, we know what they wore from Inquisition records.