Pesach on Saturday Night. Again.

And Egg Matzos for Shabbos: We Jews love Pesach (Passover). Absolutely love it. Whether we go the full Kosher-for-Passover route or simply taste the matzah and horseradish and drink the wine - we Jews love Pesach.

Before We Start

1. This blog post is an exact repeat of Abq Jew's blog

    post of March 3, 2021.

2. That's because the last time Pesach began on Saturday 

    night was - you guessed it! - four years ago, in 2021.

3. We all should keep a copy of this blog post

    in a very safe place.

4. The next time Pesach begins on Saturday night - 

    it will be 2045, twenty years from now.

We May Start

And this year - after a 4-year hiatus - we Jews will begin our love affair with Pesach with a rare event that happens only so often. That makes Once In A Blue Moon seem frequent. Abq Jew hereby advises you, his loyal readers -

Make sure you've got Egg Matzo!

Why? Because this year

Pesach begins on a Saturday night!

Abq Jew hears you, his loyal readers ask:

What's so special about this?

To which Abq Jew answers:

There are three (3) things you'll notice immediately. (And a fourth thing you've always wondered about that comes up during the Seder.)

1. Bedikat Chametz 

Bedikat Chametz takes place on Thursday night and Friday morning.

Why? Because the day before Pesach - when we would ordinarily burn the chometz - is Shabbat. No starting fires (or transferring flames) on Shabbat!

2. Fast of the Firstborn

The Fast of the Firstborn (or a Siyyum) takes place on Thursday morning.

Why? Because the day before Pesach - when the 'firstborn who open the womb' might ordinarily fast - is Shabbat. No fasting on Shabbat (except on Yom Kippur, of course)!

Fascinating fact: This is a logical AND operation. Which means -

• If you're a firstborn who was delivered via C-section, you don't have to fast because you didn't 'open the womb' - even though you're the firstborn. 
• If you're a secondborn to a mother whose firstborn was delivered via C-section, you also don't have to fast because you're not the firstborn - even though you 'opened the womb'.

And note: The other best way to avoid fasting for the Fast of the Firstborn is to instead hold a Siyyum - a public celebration over completing a portion of Torah / Talmud study.

3. Shabbat Meals

The Shabbat meals - both evening and lunchtime plus, believe it or not, Seudah Shlishit - may involve ... wait for it ... challah.

Why? Because you've got to have 'bread' for it to be considered a meal, so you can make HoMotzi, so you can bentsch Shabbos.

Therefore, defying all logic, you can serve challah right up to about 12 noonish on Saturday, as long as you keep it separate, on a separate dish - or better yet, on a paper plate.

Yes, this is in spite of the fact that you have already performed Bedikat Chametz, burnt the chametz, and publicly announced that any chametz remaining in your possession is 'ownerless property, as the dust of the earth'.

Thank G-d Judaism doesn't have to make sense! 

The Rabbis, in their finite but still immense wisdom, thought hard and found a workaround. You guessed it!

Egg Matzo!

How, Abq Jew hears you ask, does Egg Matzo provide a workaround to what is clearly and plainly a contradiction?

Here's how: At the First Seder, we are commanded to eat Matzo lechem oni, poor-man's bread, the 'Bread of Affliction.' To prevent us from jumping the halachic gun, the Rabbis forbade us from eating lechem oni during the hours just before the First Seder. 

Here's the clincher: Egg Matzo - because that delicious egg has been added to enrich the flavor - is NOT 'Bread of Affliction'. But it is (if you've shopped carefully) Kosher for Passover!

If you think Pesach on Saturday night is Moshe Kapoyre now - you should have seen in Temple times. Here's a story from the Talmud.

Hillel Knows Some Things

The Pesach offering - we all remember the Pascal Lamb, don't we? or is Abq Jew putting Descartes before the hoarse? - had a strict time limit. 

It had to be slaughtered bayn ha’arbayim (at twilight) - and it had to be totally consumed by midnight. Which naturally raised the question:

What to do if the 14th of Nisan falls on Shabbat?

The Mishna says: The following acts necessary for the sacrifice of the Pesach offering supersede the due observance of the Sabbath: The shechting, the sprinkling of its blood, the removal of its kishkes, and the burning of the fat with incense.

The Gemara tells us: The rabbis taught: The Halakha in the Mishna was not known to the Religious Authorities.  It once happened that the 14th of Nissan occurred on a Sabbath, and they did not know whether the Passover sacrifices superseded the due observance of the Sabbath or not. In other words:

Zevachim before Pesachim, or vice versa? 

The rabbis looked around for a man who knew the Halakha, and they were told that there was a man who had recently come from Babylon, called Hillel of Babylon, and who had learned under the two greatest men of that generation, Shemayah and Abtalyon. Hillel would probably be able to solve the problem. 

They sent for Hillel and asked him: "Do you know whether the Passover-sacrifice supersedes the Sabbath?" and he answered: (condensed version) “Sure it does.”

But they insisted upon his basing his assertion upon some actual text. Which Hillel promptly provided, showing how the Torah's use of the word biMoado (at its appointed time) proved that Zevachim and the Passover offering may supersede the Shabbat offering.

When the rabbis heard this, they immediately put Hillel in charge. 

Whereupon Hillel began to reproach them, and said:

Why have you put me in charge?
You should have been taking advantage of
the learning of the two great men of
your generation, Shemayah and Abtalyon.

Everyone knew that Passover Pilgrims were forbidden to carry their slaughtering knives to the Mikdash on Shabbat. So the Religious Authorities asked  Hillel:

What is the law if a man forgot to bring the
shechting knife on the day before the Sabbath?
Hint: No carrying knives or anything else in public on Shabbat.

Hillel not-so-famously answered:

I have heard the Halakha but have forgotten it.  

And famously continued:

Leave this, however, to the Israelites themselves,
for if they are not prophets they are descendants
of prophets, and they will know what to do.

The next day, Hillel saw that those who brought sheep as a sacrifice had the knife thrust in the wool of the sheep, and those that brought goats as a sacrifice had the knife stuck between the horns. 

Hillel then (amazingly) remembered the Halakha covering the case and exclaimed:

Thus is the tradition which I have received
from my masters Shemayah and Abtalyon.

But Hillel's remembering brings up the much larger question:

How Could Hillel Or Anyone Else Forget?

How was it possible that, among the thousands of Passover Pilgrims who had assembled for the holiday, they could not find a single person who remembered what had been done the last time Passover followed Shabbat?

Answer #1: Blame it on God. The Talmud says: God caused the people to forget in order to make Hillel's achievement appear more impressive, and to facilitate his rapid rise to leadership.

Answer #2: Let’s do the math! Pesach on Saturday Night. How often, one wonders, doesn't one, does this happen?

Abq Jew first became aware of this question in 1977, when he was privileged to study Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary with now-Rabbi but then 'only' Professor Judith Hauptman. 

Back then - there was, you will recall, no Internet and no Google, although there was now-Rabbi Burt Visotsky, the genius who lived down the hall - Abq Jew did the research using a [printed hardcover of the] 150-Year Jewish Calendar.

And discovered that there were regular intervals of 3, 4, 7, 13, and 20 years between instances of Pesach on Saturday night. As Wikipedia tells us today:

While the coincidence of the Eve of Passover and Shabbat can occur as often as three times in a decade, it is also possible for as many as 20 years to pass between two instances. 

The percentage of the Eve of Passover on Shabbat occurring is 11.5%. 

During the 20th century, the Eve of Passover fell on Shabbat 12 times: in 1903, 1910, 1923, 1927, 1930, 1947, 1950, 1954, 1974, 1977, 1981, and 1994. 

In the 21st century, it has occurred three times: in 2001, 2005, and 2008. Future occurrences in the 21st century include 2021, 2025, 2045, 2048, 2052, 2072, 2075, 2079, and 2099.

So ... 

Do you remember where, when, and with whom you celebrated Passover in 2008? In 2005? How about in 2001? Which version of the Haggadah did you use? And whose child, now likely Married With Children, asked the Four Questions?

Taking ancient life spans and 20-year gaps into account, it seems entirely reasonable to Abq Jew that living memory of what to do when Pesach begins on Saturday night might fade.

Which brings us to:

The Fourth Thing
You've Always Wondered About

You will find the Fourth Thing You've Always Wondered About right there in the Passover Haggadah. On page 25. 

It's in the blessing right before the second cup of wine, which is based on a Mishnah in Pesachim.

Blessed are You, G-d, our G-d, King of the universe, who has redeemed us and redeemed our fathers from Egypt, and enabled us to attain this night to eat Matzah and Maror.

So too, G-d, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, enable us to attain other holidays and festivals that will come to us in peace with happiness in the rebuilding of Your city, and with rejoicing in Your service [in the Bet Hamikdash].

Then we shall eat

Note: if the festival is on any day except Saturday night say:

of the sacrifices and of the Passover-offerings; 

if the Seder is on Saturday Night say: 

of the Passover-offerings and of the sacrifices

whose blood shall be sprinkled on the wall of Your altar for acceptance; and we shall thank You with a new song for our redemption and for the deliverance of our souls. Blessed are You, G-d, who redeemed Israel.

In other words: Through the liturgy, we recognize that 

The Passover-offering supersedes the Sabbath.

You know - just like Hillel said.

Here, Hillel. Have a sandwich.

One Little Goat

By Dara Horn: A new "graphic novel" that has just been published and is now available. Just in time for Pesach!

Yes, Abq Jew has written about Dara Horn amd her books several times, including -

• October 2023's The Story Continues
• March 2023's Remembering Varian Fry
• February 2023's Thinking About Anne Frank
• July 2015's ELI Talk: The Problem of Eicha

Abq Jew again points out that the entire Horn family, may they all be happy and well, davened at Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, New Jersey - where the entire Abq Jew family also used to daven.

Dara has two sisters, Ariel and Jordana,, may they live long and prosper, who are also writers, and who have been written up in The New York Times. The three sisters also have a brother who is not a writer (go figure).

Emily Schneider is not one of Dara Horn's sisters. She is, however, a writer and educator living in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Forward, Tablet, Jewcy, and Family Reading at The Hornbook.

Ms Schneider also review books for the Jewish Book Council. She recently spoke with acclaimed author Dara Horn about her new graph­ic nov­el, One Lit­tle Goat: A Passover Cat­a­stro­phe. Here is a taste:

Por­tal to Passover: A Con­ver­sa­tion with Dara Horn

Emi­ly Schnei­der: Dara, I’m going to start by ask­ing you what may be an obvi­ous ques­tion. You have a very suc­cess­ful and acclaimed career as a nov­el­ist and a pub­lic intel­lec­tu­al writ­ing about a range of sub­jects. What moti­vat­ed you to write One Lit­tle Goat, a graph­ic nov­el of inter­est and con­cern to both chil­dren and adults?

Dara Horn: I actu­al­ly first thought of this idea a num­ber of years ago. I was on a road trip with my fam­i­ly in Cal­i­for­nia, with my four chil­dren, and we stopped at a com­ic book shop. My kids are all into this kind of thing. 

And one book that they came home with was a very, very thick graph­ic nov­el by this car­toon­ist, Theo Ellsworth. They were fight­ing over this book through­out the whole trip! I bor­rowed this book from them, and I was just enchant­ed by the art­work. 

And at that point, an idea I’d had for a graph­ic nov­el sort of came roar­ing back to me. I could see how it could come to life, now that I saw an artist whose work I real­ly appre­ci­at­ed. 

And I looked this artist up; I knew noth­ing about him. He’s a pret­ty acclaimed indie comics artist. Theo Ellsworth, lives in Mon­tana. He’s prob­a­bly not Jew­ish. This is a kind of deep in the weeds idea for some­one who does­n’t know much about Passover. 

I cold-emailed him, said, ​“Hi, I love your work. I’m a writer. Here’s an idea. It’s a lit­tle hard to explain.” And he was total­ly game. But the deep­er ques­tion that you’re ask­ing is, 

Why would I do this when I’m real­ly writ­ing for adults my whole career? 

This is an idea I’ve been think­ing about since I was a child. I’ve always been fas­ci­nat­ed by the seder and how it is much more sim­i­lar to oth­er seders than it is to oth­er days of the year. 

When you’re at the seder table, it’s much more sim­i­lar to being at a seder table ten years ago than it is to some­thing that hap­pened the week before. And it feels much more con­nect­ed through time than space. 

This is some­thing I’ve been fas­ci­nat­ed by since I was a kid — the idea of Jew­ish life and texts being a por­tal to a past that we real­ly should­n’t have access to is some­thing that I’ve writ­ten about in all of my books. All of my books are some ver­sion of this. This is sim­ply the most direct version.

ES: You begin your jour­ney into Pesach, the fes­ti­val of free­dom, by recon­sid­er­ing a myth. This is a hol­i­day Jews through­out the world are cel­e­brat­ing. It’s so imbued with mean­ing for every­one, across a broad range of reli­gious obser­vance. 

So it must be an unal­loyed joy for chil­dren, right? 

DH: Yes, and also because it’s a hol­i­day that’s osten­si­bly sup­posed to be cen­ter­ing children.

ES: That is real­ly at the cen­ter of your book. For many kids, it could be tedious, repet­i­tive, a lit­tle bit opaque, even though, as you said, chil­dren have a star­ring role. 

DH: Yes, this hol­i­day’s cel­e­brat­ing free­dom, but you are stuck at that table for a very long time. This is a dynam­ic that I’m very famil­iar with because my whole fam­i­ly’s life has been built to pro­tect chil­dren from it. I’m the host of my fam­i­ly seder. 

I’m one of four chil­dren, and, in the seder that I grew up in, my par­ents avoid­ed this bore­dom by hav­ing us be very involved in a cre­ative way. We would have to write songs and skits, act­ing out the dif­fer­ent parts of the sto­ry. It was dif­fer­ent every sin­gle year. 

We would work on this whole show that we would put on at dif­fer­ent points in the seder. The sto­ry of Abra­ham smash­ing the idols would be Mesopotami­an Idol, a par­o­dy of Amer­i­can Idol. 

It was always some­thing based on what­ev­er was trend­ing in pop cul­ture at that time. 

Now, I also have four chil­dren. My par­ents have a total of four­teen grand­chil­dren. So it’s a large seder I host, with a lot of young peo­ple. I had to make a deci­sion. 

Either I can read every sin­gle page of the Hag­gadah, or I can have my chil­dren enjoy Pesach. 

That involves a ridicu­lous amount of cre­ativ­i­ty, and that’s what we’ve done. Our seder is very tra­di­tion­al in that we do read every page of the Hag­gadah. It’s very untra­di­tion­al in that we use tech­nol­o­gy. We have all these dif­fer­ent set­tings that you move through and you meet dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters in the Pesach sto­ry. 

In one room, the angel of death pops out of a clos­et and slays the Pharao­h’s son. In anoth­er room, we have a blue lasers and fog machine that fills the space with a blue fog, but only up to waist height. It cre­ates this wave-like look on the sur­face. And as you walk through it, it parts in front of you. 

Every­body in our seder is per­son­al­ly expe­ri­enc­ing com­ing out of Egypt. Some of these ideas I got from clas­si­cal Jew­ish sources. Every­body’s very invest­ed and the oth­er most impor­tant part is the kids have roles in our Seder. And it’s become a com­pe­ti­tion every year of who can make it new­er, more inter­est­ing, fun­nier. 

My daugh­ter’s the wan­der­ing Aramean; she comes and she has a scroll that she wraps around the entire room that has the pas­sage we all read out loud togeth­er. We have light-up Had Gadya ani­mals that my hus­band made by sol­der­ing a bunch of LED lights togeth­er. So it’s like a Vegas seder! 

Every year we make a movie out of these pieces and recre­ate the Pesach sto­ry. We divide up the sto­ry into the dif­fer­ent fam­i­ly pods. This group of sib­lings is assigned to do the burn­ing bush or some oth­er piece of the tale. And then the final prod­uct is screened. 

No one knows what the oth­er peo­ple have done, but every­body feels very invest­ed in their part.

Pesach Prep 5785 Begins!

Ready for Pesach?  If you're thinking "Pesach is coming when the winds finally die down" - nope, this is New Mexico, and the winds are still blowing. But Purim has come and gone, so it must be time to get ready for Pesach!

Here are a few ways we prepare for Pesach:

1.  We set the clocks forward one hour, so we can start the Seder even later than ... we used to in the good ol' days, when there was at least a chance that Daylight Saving Time wouldn't begin until after Pesach.

2.  We wake up on Shushan Purim (or the day after) with a terrible headache.

3.  We report the first Albuquerque sighting of Pesach food. This year, it was Rabbi Emeritus Arthur Flicker of Congregation B'nai Israel who reported on March 14 that the Mother Lode of Passover Food has begun to congregate at the Smith's at Constituion and Carlisle.

So far, these Pesachdik items have shown up:

Pickles, Sardines, Tuna, Beets, Chicken Soup Mix, Matzah Ball Mix, Cake Meal, Matzah Meal, Potato Starch, Strawberry Preserves, Apricot Preserves, Raspbery Preserves, Ketchup, Salad Dressing, Borscht, Gefilte Fish, Honey, Egg Matzah, Shmurah Matzah, Manischewitz Matzah.

4.  And - the best sign that Pesach is coming?  It's when we get Mesifta Beth Shraga's Bedikas Chametz Kit in the mail!

What, you may ask, is a Bedikas Chometz (Search for Chometz) Kit?

Well.  First - you do know that all chometz (food products that just might contain even a smidgen of leaven or leavened bread) must be removed from your house and / or no longer owned by you, right?

So, after all the cleaning with blunt instruments has been completed, the night before the first Seder we get down to tachlis.  What do we need?

1. A candle - so we can see into every nook and cranny to make sure there's no chometz there.
2. A feather - so we can reach into every nook and cranny and eradicate any chometz.
3. A wooden spoon - so we've got something with which we can transfer the chometz we find.
4. A burnable bag -  so we've got something into which we can place the chometz we find before burning said chometz and bag the next morning.
5. A petek - with the right legal formulae (let's not call them prayers) to absolve us of all guilty ownership of any chometz we didn't see.

Viola!  Or another stringed instrument!  Here's your Bedikas Chometz Kit!

The petek traditionally has a couple slightly different versions of the statement

All chametz, leaven and leavened bread, that is in my possession which I have not seen, removed, or is unknown to me, should be annulled and considered ownerless like the dust of the earth.

Homemaker's Hint:  If you believe what you're saying - and you should - your efforts to clean the house before Pesach need not go beyond the reasonable and customary!

Which is to say, you don't have to drive yourself crazy.  Abq Jew knows - for some of us, we don't have to drive.  We can walk!   It's not that far ....