Crypto-Jewish Passover Seder

This past Saturday evening, March 24th, our Edot families re-enacted a Crypto-Jewish Passover seder. The details of how Crypto-Jews in Spain observed the rituals of the Passover seder have been gleaned from very detailed Inquisition records. Where they met for their seders (caves, by running rivers, in attics and basements), which songs they sang (Dayeinu, Adon Olam, Ladino version of Chad Gadya, called Un Cavritico), their recollection of the rituals involved in each of the 15 parts of the seder ceremony, even their recipes, were all recorded as witnesses testified against the accused. We all dressed in white, as the Crypto-Jews did, and students played the roles of Moses and the Israelites and even the waves of the Reed Sea, as the story of the Exodus was acted out, as the Crypto-Jews acted it out. Our seder meal was composed of roasted lamb, garbanzo beans prepared in honey with cilantro, huevos haminados (vermillioned eggs), haroset balls, and fresh fruit, similar to a seder meal the Crypto-Jews ate, according to Inquisition records. Edot students prepared special Crypto-Jewish haggadot, in which were included paragraphs they had written in class describing how it felt to always have to hide your true identity, to feel "sandwiched" between Judaism and Christianity, how they interpreted the four major themes of the Passover seder (freedom, slavery, hospitality, and return to Zion), and shared questions they would ask the Prophet Elijah during the "Cup of Elijah" part of the ceremony (Why are we being punished by God?  When will our suffering end?).  Selected students read from their paragraphs during the ceremony.

We completed our evening with a Havdallah service, which was perfectly timed, as we began it at 7:15, just as the sun was setting on a very rainy Shabbat. Hopefully, the students and their families came away from the seder with a clearer understanding of what the rituals involved in the Passover seder are, the origins of some of the rituals, like the Cup of Elijah, and an appreciation of the risks Jews have taken over the centuries to maintain their Jewish identity and beliefs, sometimes in the face of certain death. I will consider this seder a great success if they share what they have learned with friends and family at their own seders.

Passover begins at sundown on April 6th this year.  Chag Pesach Sameach - Happy Passover holiday - to all.

Here are a few photos from the event.

Preparing for our Crypto-Jewish Seder

Our Edot class has been preparing over the past few sessions for our upcoming Crypto-Jewish Seder, scheduled for this coming Saturday evening.  We have learned the history of the Jews of Spain, with particular emphasis on the period following the 1492 unification of the Christian states of Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, when Jews were forced to leave the country or convert to Catholicism. Scholars believe that approximately a quarter of a million Jews left Spain at that time, and that as many and perhaps even more stayed in Spain, unwilling to give up the country they had called home for over a thousand years by that time. Of those Jews who converted, many became true Christians, but many could not give up the religion of their ancestors, and secretly continued to practice Judaism, very often on pain of torture and ultimate death. These "Crypto-Jews," as we refer to them in English (they called themselves "conversos" and the Spanish authorities referred to them as "marranoes," meaning "swine" in 15th century Spanish) lived in constant fear, always wondering if a servant, neighbor, or friend, or even family member who had been arrested and tortured, might give them away. They prayed by running rivers, in caves, or in underground chambers, usually at night. During the day, they had to go to mass, and celebrate all Catholic holidays. Without benefit of rabbis, synagogues, Jewish calendars, Jewish prayer books and other religious texts, they began to confuse the Christian and Jewish rituals and prayers, and, over several generations, forgot most of them.

There was one holiday which they never forgot - the Passover.  This is the time when Jews have always retold the Exodus story, when we were slaves in Egypt and then led to freedom, ultimately reaching the Promised Land. For the Crypto-Jews, slavery was real - they had no control over their lives; freedom was still a dream, of the time they could return to the Land of Israel, or perhaps even remain in Spain and be allowed to live openly, without fear, as Jews. They held Passover seders (the ritual meal of Passover, during which time the Exodus story is retold) in secret places. They forgot many of the seder rituals, and instituted their own. Thankfully, they never forgot the Exodus story itself since the Catholic Bible includes the Hebrew Bible. The Exodus story is told in the Book of Exodus, the second of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, referred to in Hebrew as the Torah.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella invited the Office of the Inquisition to begin operations in Spain in 1481. It was the mission of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, first established by the Catholic Church in the 12th century,  to root out all heretics. In Spain, the focus was on the Jews, and, following 1492, on the "Crypto-Jews". The Inquisition had its own army and network of spies, who studied Jewish belief and ritual in order to help identify secret Jews. Passover was a very busy time for them as they searched for evidence of seder rituals in homes (matza, koshered meat, etc.). They were also known to raid seder ceremonies. During the trials of accused Crypto-Jews, detailed notes were taken by the Inquisition, and it is from these notes that we learn about details relating to the Crypto-Jewish seder ceremonies such as the new rituals created by Crypto-Jews to replace those they had forgotten, and even recipes they used for their seder meals.

Our Edot class Crypto-Jewish seder will be a "living reenactment" of one such seder ceremony, using the information garnered from Inquisition records. Our meal will consist of roasted lamb, chickpeas in honey and cilantro, haroset balls, and huevos haminados, along with fresh and dried fruits. In preparation for the seder, each of our Edot students has been assembling a "Crypto-Jewish Haggadah," which includes symbolic drawings representing the parts of the seder ceremony, the blessings for the seder plate foods, and paragraphs they have written, imagining how they feel as Crypto-Jews living in Saragossa, Spain in the year 1591. The Haggadot will also include the "Dayeinu" song, which is a summary of the major events of the Exodus story, the "Adon Olam" song, which praises God and which the Crypto-Jews sang directly after the seder meal, adding their own praising words to God after they had forgotten the original words, and the Ladino version of "Chad Gadya" ("Un Cavritico"), the last song in the Passover Haggadah, which assures Israel that God will destroy all its enemies. This last song was especially important to the Crypto-Jews, who dreamed of being redeemed by God.

The students also painted "Dayeinu" song posters (one poster for each verse of the song), which we will use during our seder on Saturday evening, pointing out the illustration for each verse as we sing it.  As always, the students rolled up their sleeves and worked together to create amazing art work. I am always so impressed with the results, given the very little time we have in Religious School. Bravo to our Edot artists. 

Stay tuned next week for my  blog about our Crypto-Jewish Seder!

Making Menena for Purim

Our Edot class has recently completed its unit of study about the Iraqi Jews, the very first Edah.  We began by studying the history of the Babylonian Jews, going back to King Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of the Kingdom of Judah and destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem in the year 586 B.C.E., when he forced the elite of Judah's society - its craftsmen, political and religious leaders - into exile in his capital city of Babylon. We learned about how the Prophet Jeremiah advised the exiles to "...seek the welfare of the community in  which you live, for in their welfare you will find your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7) We learned how over the ensuing centuries, the Babylonian Jewish community thrived, how they became famous for their institutions of Jewish learning known as "yeshivot," and even had a chance to study a page of the Babylonian Talmud relating to when the "Sh'ma" prayer should be said in the morning. The Edot students were introduced to the basic beliefs of Islam, and to the culture it nurtured in the Middle East and North Africa. We learned how by the mid-8th century C.E., 9 out of 10 Jews lived in Muslim-ruled lands, and it was thus not very surprising that Jews should have borrowed elements of Muslim art, cuisine, music, dance, and literature.  We learned how to make the Muslim amulet, the Chamsa, out of copper foil, and finally, last week, we prepared "Menena" in class - the Iraqi Jewish name for the Arabic pastry called "Ma'amoul".  These are "tartlets" filled with crushed nuts or date fillings (we used date filling, since our school is a nut-free zone!).  Our timing was perfect, since Menena pastries are popularly used by Iraqi Jews to fill their "Shalo'ach Manot" Purim baskets, and we were just a week away from celebrating the Purim holiday.

Preparing food, especially tasty desserts, is always fun, and our "Menena" activity was no exception. To prepare the pastry, you have to shape a walnut-sized piece of dough into a small cup, with very thin walls. This is easy for an experienced baker, but this didn't keep our "baker's apprentices" from having fun trying to come as close as they could to preparing the dough to put in the date filling.  A lot of interesting shapes resulted and the end results were very tasty!  We even had some mixing of the Jewish cultures, when a few Iraqi menena's came out looking very very similar to Ashkenazi hamantaschen!

Chag Purim Sameach!  (Happy Purim Holiday!)