B O R O
P A R K
C E N T E R
M A G A Z I N E VOLUME 9, ISSUE 2
תשפ"א ניסן
MARCH 2021
4915 10th Avenue // Brooklyn, NY 11219 718.851.3700 // www.BoroParkCenter.net
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RAIZY PAVLOV DIRECTOR OF RECREATION
EDITOR'S DESK
HELLO ALL Purim at Boro Park Center was a Purim that sparked joy and happiness in the hearts of all the residents here, old and young alike! It was hard to tell that visitation to the public was closed, as we were so distracted with the live music, balloon sculpting, hamentash baking, magic shows, and more! Aside from that, the Heimishe Community was so kind and eager to participate in our Photo Mishloach Manos Campaign- See the photo section for photos of some of the residents- they were elated and it was so meaningful to them. At Boro Park Center, we are all about bridging the gap between our home and yours. This campaign was one such example of how we invite you all to bring joy and cheer to our residents. Many more to come! Pesach is a time for Geulah- may we all be zoche to witness the coming of Mashiach so soon! Amen! A freilichen, kosher’n Pesach!
Raizy Pavlov
OUR MISSION:
PUTTING YOU FRONT AND CENTER
At Boro Park Center we practice a completely home-based approach to out-of-home rehabilitation and nursing care. Home means family, and our Center was founded on the ideal that residents and their families should never be far apart. Come on in, Live HappyTM, and enjoy an environment made possible by compassionate caregivers, therapy specialists, and most importantly, friends and family. Your comments and feedback are important to us so that we can continue to serve you as best as possible. Please email your comments to rpavlov@boroparkcenter.net
4915 10th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11219 718-851-3700 www.BoroParkCenter.net
SHABBOS SHIUR
LOOKING FORWARD TO...
March 6
Zumba with Malky............................................March 2, 2021
Mrs. Yehudis Blumenberg
Music with Henry..............................................March 3, 2021
פרשת כי תשא March 13th
פרשת ויקהל־פקודי
Mrs. Shlomtzy weiss
Flower Arranging..............................................March 4, 2021 Judy on the Piano.............................................March 5, 2021 Shabbos Shiur with Yehudis Blumenberg...March 6, 2021
March 20th
Music with Malky............................................... March 7, 2021
Mrs. Ruchy Weber
Bingo................................................................... March 7, 2021
פרשת ויקרא
March 27th
פרשת צו
Mrs. Shlomtzy Weiss March 29th
פסח יום א׳- Pesach Mrs. Meirav Veig
Women's Music Group with Toby.................March 8, 2021 Pizza Fun............................................................. March 9, 2021 Paint with Jimmy.............................................March 10, 2021 Falafel Fun........................................................March 10, 2021 Challah Baking................................................. March 11, 2021 Ice Cream Social..............................................March 12, 2021 Shabbos Shiur with Shlomtzy Weiss...........March 13, 2021 Women's Music Group with Chany.............March 15, 2021
WOMENS MUSIC GROUPS
Cookie Decorating.........................................March 15, 2021 Zumba with Malky..........................................March 16, 2021 Ceramics Workshop....................................... March 17, 2021 Kugel Fun..........................................................March 18, 2021 Oneg Shabbos................................................ March 19, 2021
March 1 Shoshana Gross
Shabbos Shiur with Ruchy Weber...............March 20, 2021
March 8th Toby Berkowitz
Women's Music Group with Chava.............March 22, 2021
March 15th Chany Kohn
Judy on the Piano...........................................March 26, 2021
March 22 Chava Schneider
Pesach Shiur with Meirav Veig.....................March 29, 2021
Music with Malky.............................................March 21, 2021
Du Dance..........................................................March 23, 2021
Shabbos Shiur with Shlomtzy Weiss........... March 27, 2021
BORO PARK CENTER SHABBOS AND YOM TOV SCHEDULES
PESACH ZEMANIM
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Thursday in the evening / March 25 Bedikas Chometz Friday in the morning / March 26 Taanis Bechorim Burning the Chometz
Chol Hamoed Tuesday - Friday / March 30 - April 2 Shachris.........................................9:00 AM Mincha...........................................1:45 PM Maariv............................................8:00 PM
שבת הגדול-פרשת צו
Erev Sh’evi Shel Pesach Erev Shabbos / April 2 Candle Lighting.........................7:03 PM Mincha...........................................7:25 PM
Shabbos / March 27 Shachris.........................................6:45 AM
Shabbos Sh’evi Shel Pesach / April 3 Shachris.........................................9:00 AM Mincha...........................................7:30 PM Maariv............................................8:05 PM
Erev Shabbos / March 26 Candle Lighting.........................6:56 PM Mincha...........................................7:15 PM
Last time for eating Chometz 10:56 AM Last time for getting rid of Chometz 11:59 AM Mincha...........................................7:15 PM Maariv............................................7:57 PM 1st Pesach Seder........................8:30 PM 1st day Pesach Sunday / March 28 Shachris.........................................9:00 AM Mincha...........................................7:30 PM Maariv............................................7:57 PM Sefiras H’aomer 2nd Pesach Seder.....................8:30 PM 2nd day Pesach Monday / March 29 Shachris.........................................9:00 AM Mincha...........................................7:40 PM Maariv............................................8:20 PM Havdalah.......................................8:30 PM
Candle Lighting after (not before) 8:35 PM
Achron Shel Pesach Sunday / April 4 Candle Lighting.........................7:03 PM Mincha...........................................7:25 PM Shabbos Sh’evi Shel Pesach / April 3 Shachris (Yizkor).........................9:00 AM Mincha...........................................7:40 PM Maariv............................................7:25 PM Havdalah.......................................8:37 PM
חג כשר ושמח
SHABBAT SHALOM
Torah Center
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Sippur Yetzias Mitzrayim – Giving Thanks To Hashem I’m going to ask you a question and I want a straight answer: When you say “Thank you” to someone, do you really mean it? You’re probably thinking: Who does this guy think he is pretending to know how I think? But the truth is, how many times do we say the words without conviction, as if by rote, just so as not to be impolite? For instance, a telemarketer calls up during dinnertime or while you’re bathing the kids, rattles on and on about how you, and only you, were selected to try out this wonder product from their company, and won’t let you even have the chance to say it isn’t a good time. She finally ends off by saying, “This is the perfect product for the perfect person” or something flattering like that, and what do you say – “Thank you very much”! For what?! So that the baby can fingerpaint his supper on the wall or the bathroom should look like a tidal wave hit!! I once even saw someone get pulled over by a cop, was made to sit for 20 minutes waiting – his car then died and he had to wait for another 20 minutes until he got a jump-start. He was stewing, but when the officer finally handed him his $95 ticket and said, “Slow down and have a nice day”, he politely answered, “Thank you”! Actually, it was me! When we thank Hashem – whether during davening, or while making a berachah on food, etc. – we’d like to think that we are sincere and forthright, but unfortunately, it isn’t always so. It’s hard to constantly maintain perfect concentration and our minds tend to wander from time to time. On Pesach, however, we are charged with a specific Mitzvah to thank Hashem sincerely for the wonders he performed for the Jews, and understanding and pure concentration is abso-
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lutely necessary or the Mitzvah is not considered accomplished. In the Haggadah we say, “Rabban Gamliel would say: If one does not speak these three things on Pesach, he has not fulfilled his requirement. These are: Pesach, Matzah and Maror.” The Rambam says that Rabban Gamliel is referring to the requirement of reciting the Haggadah and the tale of the Jewish exodus out of Egypt, on the night of Pesach. Furthermore, these three things represent the main theme of the miraculous events that took place in Egypt – Pesach, when Hashem passed over the homes of our ancestors and spared the Jewish first-born males. Matzah, on account of the dough that was unable to rise, during the exodus, and became matzos. Maror, because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors through slavery and hardship. Explains the Rambam, these three ideas must be expressed at the seder or the entire Mitzvah of reciting the exodus, will remain unfulfilled. Let us explain in further depth. In reality, there were three very serious obstacles to the departure of Bnei Yisroel from Egypt. One, the Jews in Egypt were really quite unworthy to be redeemed. We find that they were on an extremely low spiritual plane, akin to the Egyptians. Two, it wasn’t the proper time yet. Hashem told Avrohom Avinu that his descendants would be exiled in a foreign land for 400 years and that time hadn’t yet ended. The third obstacle was that the Jewish nation was oppressed and enslaved, hurting from the terrible labor forced on them and physically unable to free themselves.
However, cites the Tiferes Yisroel in Mishnayos, Hashem in his infinite wisdom and mercy, utilized these three obstacles in a manner which actually facilitated the early redemption of the Jewish people. The fact that they were considered unworthy necessitated that they be redeemed ahead of schedule, for had they lasted even a bit longer, Chazal tell us the Jews would have slipped down to the lowest possible spiritual plane, from which they could have never climbed back out. In order to achieve this, though, the Egyptians were necessarily harsh and overburdening to the Jews, so as to “pack in” the full amount of servitude within a shortened period of time. It is for this reason, continues the Tiferes Yisroel, that we remind ourselves of these three obstacles, turned acts of Heavenly kindness, through the three themes of the exodus: Pesach – although they were unworthy, Hashem still passed over their homes. Matzah – the lack of time to bake the bread, corresponding to the shortened exile. Maror – the bitterness of the oppression correlating to the harsh physical bonds of slavery. We can learn a tremendous lesson from these insightful words, a lesson that teaches us how, and why, to properly give thanks. The Maharal of Prague writes that the purpose of our elaborate and incessant recounting of the story of the exodus on the night of Pesach, is not just to lavish praise on Hashem, but rather to clearly identify ourselves as grateful individuals who know how to show our Hakaras Hatov to G-d for all the wonders that he has done for us. This is important, for as Rabbeinu Bechaye quotes from the Medrash, “One who is unmindful to show thanks to his friend will eventually become unmindful of G-d” – which inevitably leads to heresy. Hashem did not just redeem his children from the slavery of Egypt, fulfilling his prophetic words to Avrohom Avinu, all the while performing miracles and wonders. What Hashem, in essence did, was he altered the natural course of history that was instituted and put in place from the beginning of creation, he overturned and reversed the physical and social impediments, causing them to become beneficial aids for redemption and he went above and beyond any promises that were made regarding the fate of the Bnei Yisroel. By allowing the Egyptians to overburden and torment the Jewish people, more than they possibly would have done, this allowed the prophetic
decree of 400 years of enslavement to be condensed into just 210 years and afforded a nation, that was otherwise unrighteous, to be considered worthy of redemption. All the events that took place during Yetzias Mitrayim were unconditional acts of kindness – right down to the extreme bitterness of the enslavement – for a nation that was, at best undeserving, if not idol-worshippers themselves. A good deed performed by one person on behalf of another, whether out of a feeling of good will or a sense of responsibility to repay a kindness, is reason enough to show a little gratitude. We say “Thank you” to the gas attendant who pumps the gas for us under arctic conditions, or the customer rep. who credits our account after the phone company overbills us by $200.00 – but then again – that’s their job, they get paid to do that! However, Lehavdil, when we give thanks to Hashem on Pesach night, a perfunctory “Thank you” just won’t cut it! The quality and quantity of Chessed that Hashem performed for the Bnei Yisroel at Yetzias Mitzrayim, especially when we definitely did not have it coming to us, demands our utmost sincerity, understanding and concentration of true Hakaras Hatov to our most beneficent creator. Thus we now understand the words of Rabban Gamliel and the importance of discussing the 3 main themes of the seder night: Pesach, Matzoh and Maror. For these three, represent the extraordinary kindness, unwarranted wonders and unconditional Hashgacha that Hashem exhibited in releasing and redeeming His nation from tyranny and bondage, and were we not to actually speak out these incredible qualities – with the understanding of our words and utmost expressions of gratitude – we would not be fully fulfilling our requirement, on the night of Pesach, to praise and thank Hashem for Geulas Yisroel – Bnei Yisroel’s redemption. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we should not thank the grocery bagger for packing our bags or the postman for delivering the mail, but when we express our appreciation to Hashem, especially on Pesach, let’s try to make it a bit more meaningful and sincere, for the Chessed that He did – and does – for us, is truly the unconditional love of a father for his children. Source: torahtavlin.org
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Weekly Shemiras Halashon brought to you by Yeshiva Ateres Shimon of Far Rockaway, NY
In conjunction with YAD YOSEF Torah center of Ave. J (Brooklyn, NY)
Shmiras Haloshon
PROPER REACTION Based on the previous rules, it is clear that upon hearing loshon hora, one should promptly interrupt the speaker and reprimand him for his words. In a case where doing so would cause the speaker embarrassment (i.e. others are present), it is preferable that one tactfully change the subject, thus preventing the further speaking of loshon hora, and offer reproof later (in private). If one finds himself unable to change the subject, he should walk away. While incapable of fulfilling his obligation to reprove, one must, nevertheless, avoid transgressing the sin of listening to loshon hora. If one feels uncomfortable leaving, the least he should do is try his best to ignore what is being said, and use facial expressions to show disapproval. Certainly, he should not appear as though he is enjoying the conversation. One must train himself to defend his values, to be more concerned with truth than with his personal pride. Ultimately, one will find
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that the less he fears scorn and derision of scoffers, the more his self esteem will grow and his stature will grow in the eyes of others as well. It is a proven fact that to restrain oneself from speaking and listening to loshon hora is difficult for only the first few weeks. As others come to realize that an individual will not speak or listen to loshon hora, mockery or other forbidden speech, they will refrain from relating such talk to him, and will peddle their “wares” elsewhere. They will come to understand that such talk does not raise their esteem in this man’s eyes; to the contrary, he considers them nothing more than gossipmongers and scorners. He will hardly have to guard himself from hearing loshon hora, for the gossipmongers themselves will avoid telling their stories in his presence, lest he belittle their words before others who are present. What is needed is an initial firm resolve to acquire this sacred quality. Regarding such
spiritual striving do our Sages say, “One who reflects upon his ways in this world merits and sees salvation from the Holy One, Blessed is He” (Moed Katan 5a) SUMMARY - LOVING KINDNESS Most people live on the giving side of the chesed equation. While everyone needs help sometimes, usually they can manage on their own. There comes a time in almost everyone’s life, however, when the giver must, of necessity, become the taker. That time is in old age. For most people, advancing years means receding physical ability. Suddenly, the parent who always took care of everyone else needs a ride to the doctor, some help around the house, someone to pay the bills, do the shopping, cook the meals. Without the help and concern of those around them, the Chofetz Chaim observes, elderly people lose years of their lives. One who cares for an older person, therefore, is adding days, or perhaps years, to his life, and his reward is commensurate with the greatness of this chesed. The Sages (Sanhedrin 37a) state that “if you sustain one Jewish life, it is as if you have sustained the entire world.” That statement applies to every second of additional life one’s intervention brings. A person who brings an elderly person practical help, or makes him feel needed and appreciated, is credited with sustaining the world, even if it is just for an hour. The challenge in caring for the elderly is that the task requires great patience. While one might naturally accept limitations and irrational behavior in a small child, these factors in an adult are often more difficult to bear. A person must forearm himself with a
calm, respectful, loving attitude, whether he is dealing with his own relative or a neighbor in need of help. The effort is well worthwhile, because in a very real sense, the beneficiary of all this tender, patient care is oneself. This reality is reflected starkly in a famous story. A young child once observed his father throw his grandfather out of the house because the grandfather was unable to keep himself or his surroundings clean. Shaken as the child was, he could not deny the cruelty he had witnessed. Later, he met his grandfather wandering on the street. The grandfather asked the child to bring him a coat, so that at least he could avoid freezing in his homeless state. The child returned to his father and asked him it he could have a coat for the grandfather. “Go up to the attic,” said the father. “There’s an old coat up there that he can have.” When the child returned from the attic, he was holding half of a coat. “What happened to the coat?” the father asked. “Why has it been cut?” “I did it for you,” said the child, “so that when you grow old, you can have the other half.” In Yiddish, there is a saying: “What you think you are doing for someone else, you are really doing for yourself.” For most acts of chesed, the reward is bestowed by Heaven, but in the case of caring for the elderly, a person actually prepares the reward for himself. He teaches his children - who may one day care for him giving, at its genuine, selfless best. STEP BY STEP If there is an elderly person in my life, I will find a way to give him or her help, time or attention on a regular basis.
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EmunahCenter
By: R’ David Sutton
Our Daily Portion of Manna Weekly Dose of Emunah brought to you by Yeshiva Ateres Shimon of Far Rockaway, NY In conjunction with YAD YOSEF Torah center of Ave. J (Brooklyn, NY)
At the end of the Hakdama (Introduction) to Mesilas Yesharim, the Ramchal quotes a braisa from Rav Pinchas ben Yair for how one should work on themselves. This list of qualities serves as the basis for the entire Mesilas Yesharim, beginning with zehirus and concluding with the highest level: chassidus. Interestingly, the sefer immediately begins with החסידות ושורש העבודה יסוד, discussing Chassidus. After mentioning that the most lofty difficult level is that of Chassidus, the Ramchal then begins his sefer at exactly that point! Why doesn’t he begin with one of the lower levels and then work up to the more difficult, elevated standards?
Commenting on a Passuk in Tehilim, the Medrash Rabbah says, הגבר אשר שם ה’ מבטחו אשרי- Praiseworthy is an individual that places his trust in Hashem. The Medrash then gives an example of who this praiseworthy individual is: Yosef. Curiously, the same Medrash faults Yosef for his lack of Bitachon! It recounts how Yosef was punished with an additional two years in jail for relying on the Sar HaMashkim to remember him, rather than having full faith in Hashem. How can it be that the same Medrash says about Yosef אשרי הגבר אשר שם ה’ מבטחוand blames him for not fully trusting in Hashem; it is a complete contradiction!
Rav Neventzal shlita explains that first and foremost, a person must set have lofty goals and aspirations. Although a person may never be able to achieve or reach such goals, understanding that it is possible to achieve such a level gives a person what to yearn, strive, and daven for. After setting these high expectations, a person can then go back and slowly work towards their goals, but they must hold onto that picture of who they hope to become and maintain a proper perspective throughout their life.
The Sefarim explain beautifully that because Yosef was on such a high level in his Emunah and Bitachon, he was held in higher esteem. A regular person must invest hishtadlus and is expected to ask someone to remember them in that situation. But because Yosef was הגבר אשר שם ה’ מבטחו אשרי, someone who was so full of bitachon, he was held to that regard and should not have put in any hishtadlus, knowing that everything would have been taken care of by Hashem.
ג’( אשרי הגבר אשר שם ה’ מבטחו )תהלים מ ה( זה יוסף במדרש )ב”ר פ”ט
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For some tzaddikim, Emunah and Bitachon paves their way for a life of sustenance and tov, without any investment of hishtadlus. It is a high, loftly level, but it can teach a lesson to those not
on that level, as well. Though we are required to invest hishtadlus for parnassah, shidduchim, and all areas of life, we must know that ultimately, bitachon and emunah truly bring success. There is a famous machlokes in Gemara Brachos (35) between Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and Rabbi Yishmael. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai argues that a person should simply rely on Emunah and Bitachon; they can sit and learn Torah all day and Hashem will provide for them. Rabbi Yishmael disagrees and maintains that a person must have a balance of Torah im Derech Eretz- get a job, put in hishtadlus and sit and learn Torah. The Gemara says הרבה עשו כרבי שמעון ולא עלתה בידן, there are many who tried to be like Rabbi Shimon and it didn’t work. In other words, the average individual must get a job and earn a parnassah. The Maharsha explains that there are some tzaddikim on a very high level of Emunah and
Bitachon whose learning will provide for them. That is a Yosef HaTzaddik. As we go through life, we have to strive for that level of Emunah and Bitachon, even if practically we will have to invest tremendous amounts of hishtadlus in our own lives. We have to know that ultimately, Hashem is the only One Who provides for us and is always watching over us. He is always by our side and is always providing for us everything that we need. After leaving the beautiful, lichtige yuntif of Chanukah, the minhag is to take all of the leftover oil and wicks and burn them in a big bonfire. This minhag serves as a siman to us that we must maintain our “fires” from Chanukah and carry them into the rest of the year. We should be lit up from Chanukah and have that Emunah and Bitachon with us always and always feel Hashem at our side.
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Halachos of SHABBOS
We would like to thank Rabbi Ribiat and his son for giving us permission to take halachos from his sefer "The 39 Melochos" on a monthly basis.
בורר/ Sorting (cont’d) a) Grating exempt foods with a grater Although cheese, meat, eggs, etc. are exempt from the Melocho of Tochain, and may be chopped or ground on Shabbos, grating these foods with a grater or other device specifically designed for grinding purposes is forbidden.
1: Uvdin D’chol A grater may not be used for chopping any foods on Shabbos because it is a type of “Melocho tool” whose use is too closely associated with Melocho activities, and are thus classified as Uvdin D’chol (see SECTION ONE, Chapter VI;H for further elaboration of the concept).
2: Using an egg slicer However one may use an egg-slicer to slice or even chop up eggs, because it is essentially only a series of blades designed for slicing, not chopping or grinding. Hence, it is not viewed Halachically as a grinding tool, but merely as a cutting utensil, whose use is not considered Uvdin D’chol.
b) Why foods that do not grow from the ground are exempt from Tochain As seen from numerous references throughout this work, a Melocho, as performed in the Mishkan, was a significant act of achievement, which fulfilled a positive and meaningful purpose. IN general, any Melocho-act must also possess these basic qualities if it is to be similar to the Melochos of the Mishkan.
Section 3/Chapter II/A)/a) • 1: Casuing an inedible food iten to become edible is a significant act. • 2: Foods that do not grow from the ground are considered edible before grinding. • 3: Foods that grow from the ground are in a special category.
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1: Bringing food item to an edible state is a significant act of achievement Because food is essentially for eating, it might be said that transforming an inedible food to its edible state is almost equivalent to creating it for its purpose. Thus, an act which brings about this change is clearly a significant achievement. The Melocho of Tochain is such an act of achievement. The essence of Tochain is illustrated with the grinding of grain: Whole grain kernels are useless for practical eating purposes, because bread grain kernels are useless for practical eating purposes, because bread cannot be produced before the grain is milled into flour. Hence, grinding (Tochain) is a vital step in the process of making the grain edible.
2: Foods that do not grow from the ground are edible before grinding On the other hand, edible foods that do not grow from the ground are not subject to Tochain because they are already edible in their present state. → Example: Cheeses, eggs, cooked meat, etc. are all edible without grinding or further preparation, (even if they are hard or tough, and difficult to chew). Foods that do not grow from the ground are, at the outset, in their ultimate state of completion because they are basically edible. Therefore, the act of chopping, grating, or grinding such foods cannot be defined as a “significant act of achievement”, and is consequently not a true class of Melocho at all. (It is not even subject to Rabbinic restrictions in most cases. This explains why, as a general rule, Tochain does not apply to foods that do not grow from the ground.) However, there are excceptions: If the food items that
do not grow from the ground are inedible, they are subject to Tochain, because in such cases, the grinding process is indeed a significant act of improvement. → Examples: Chopping raw meat or fish is the Melocho of Tochain, even though they are not earth-grown foods. (Note: Raw meat and inedible foods are also ordinarily Muktza). In truth, this Halacha is not really an exception to the rule that Tochain does not apply to foods that do not grow from the ground. Chopping raw meat or fish is Tochain because these items are not Halachically classified as foods while in their raw state, but rather as nonfoods. The act of grinding these raw substances is therefore Tochain because it brings about a significant change (i.e. preparing them to be transformed into foods).
3: Foods that grow from the ground are a special category of Tochain In the case of foods that grow from the ground, Tochain applies in all cases, even where the food was fully edible before the grinding. The explanation is as follows: In the Mishkan, grains and herbs were chopped and ground into tiny particles to produce the Lechem Hapanim and the dyes (see Introduction, A). The grains and herbs were earth-grown foods that, in their raw state, were inedible and unusable for their intended proposes. In the Michkan, Tochain was a vital step in bringing these food items to their edible (or usable) state. However, the use of Tochain in the Mishkan as a primary labor with earth-grown foods, establishes its general application to include all earth-grown foods, even those that are fully edible before grinding. Because the primary Melocho activity of Tochain in the Mishkan was with earth-grown foods (i.e. grains and herbs),
this trait became established as an overriding characteristic in the Melocho. Therefore, any earth-grown food falls within the typical Tochain-group, even if it is fully edible; fridning it is a full-fledged Melocho, even though the Melocho act does not produce. Grinding any item that is categorized as a food which grows from the ground is Tochain for this reason.
4: Summary Earth-grown foods are different from foods that do not grow from the ground. Grinding earth-grown foods simulates the act of Tochain as it was actually performed in the MIshkan. On the other hand, edible foods that are not earth-grown are excluded from the “Tochain group”, because no such food items were subject to Tochain activitires performed in the Mishkan. (However, inedible foods that do not grow from the ground are subject to Tochain just like any non-foods, see no. 2 above, paragraph beginning, “In truth…” for explanation.)
c) Rock, dried mud, salt, and other nonfoods Crushing stones or dried mud, or filing metal is considered Tochain even though these substances do not grow from the ground, because the exemption of Ain Tochain Ello B’gedulei Karka applies only to foods. Nonfoods are therefore subject to Tochain even if they do not grow from the ground. → Examples: • Crushing coarse salt into a fine powder • Crushing chalk or sheet-rock into dust • Pounding stones or rock into sand • Sanding wood and producing sawdust
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Halachos of PESACH
By: Rabbi Dovid Heber
Erev Pesach is one of the busiest and most unique days of the year. With every hour comes another set of halachos. Many halachic times, including the time for searching for chometz and the latest time for eating chometz, are well known. However, many halachos of Erev Pesach are often confusing and not commonly understood. The purpose of this article is to elucidate some of the lesser known laws of Erev Pesach.
must be put away by that time.
Note: These halachos apply to Erev Pesach that occurs on a weekday. If Erev Pesach occurs on Shabbos, special halachos apply to both Friday (13th of Nissan) and Shabbos (Erev Pesach).
4. Chometz in the Mail- If one receives chometz in the mail or with the newspaper on Erev Pesach (after the 5th halachic hour) or on Pesach, one should not assume ownership of the item but rather leave the chometz outside. If mail is delivered through a mail slot into one’s home, he should have the intent not to acquire the chometz (i.e. not taking legal possession) and kick it or push it outside with a stick to avoid handling it. If it is still around after Pesach, he may assume ownership at that time and use it, provided that the sender is a gentile.
I. CHOMETZ 1. Searching for Chometz- The opening line of Meseches Pesachim states that one should search for chometz on the night of the 14th of Nissan (i.e. the night before Pesach). This should begin immediately after nightfall (50 minutes after sunset for this application). 2. Eating Chometz- One may eat chometz until the end of the “4th halachic hour” of the day. There are different opinions regarding the calculation of the length of the day and halachic hour. Ideally, one should use the following calculation: One may eat chometz until the end of 1/3 of the “day”. For this application, the “day” begins 72 minutes before sunrise and ends approximately 50 minutes after sunset (in Baltimore and New York). 3. Burning and Selling Chometz- Chometz must be disposed of by burning or selling it before the end of the “5th halachic hour”- 5/12 of the day. Kol Chamira is recited following the burning, before the end of the 5th halachic hour. One should be aware of the following: a. Once Kol Chamira is recited by the head of the household, no chometz may be eaten by anyone at home. For example, if the father burns the chometz and recites Kol Chamira at 8:30 a.m., he and his family (even if they are not at home) may no longer eat chometz. Everything
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b. Be cognizant of the latest times. All times apply to chometz eaten at any location. One year, the gentile owner of a doughnut shop told the Star-K that he saw individuals eating doughnuts in their cars after the latest time for eating chometz! Also, chometz should not be burned at the last second. This is true whether one burns chometz outside his home or at a public biur chometz.
5. Kashering on Erev Pesach- Ideally, all kashering should be completed by the end of the 4th halachic hour. If one forgot to kasher before this time, he may kasher the vessel until candlelighting time on Erev Pesach with the following condition: The vessel did not come into contact with anything hot (whether Kosher L’Pesach or not) within the past 24 hours. In the event the vessel came into contact with something hot within the past 24 hours, or if one requires kashering of a chometz vessel on Pesach, a rav should be consulted. 6. Finding Chometz on Erev Pesach- There is a well known halacha that states if one finds chometz on Chol Hamoed or on Erev Pesach after the 5th hour, one should immediately burn it. On Yom Tov, one should cover the chometz (because it is muktza) and burn it after Yom Tov. This halacha applies only if he did not sell his chometz to a gentile. However, if he sells chometz to a gentile the sale includes all chometz, wherever it may be found. Therefore, if one discovers pretzels in a drawer or bagel
chips in a coat pocket during Pesach, he may not burn this chometz since it belongs to the gentile to whom the rav sold the chometz! Rather, he should store the item with the “locked up” chometz sold to the gentile. On Yom Tov, one should cover it and lock it up on Chol Hamoed. It may be eaten after Pesach when the chometz is repurchased.
II . Eating on Erev Pesach & Preparing For the Seder 1. One may not eat even Kosher for Pesach matzoh all day Erev Pesach. This prohibition begins at dawn (72 minutes before sunrise). There are many individuals who have the custom not to eat matzoh begining from Rosh Chodesh Nissan or even Purim. A child under the age of six may eat matzoh even on Erev Pesach. Products containing matzoh meal that are baked (e.g. matzoh meal cake) may not be eaten all day Erev Pesach. Kosher for Pesach matzoh meal products that are cooked (e.g. knaidlach) may be eaten until the beginning of the 10th halachic hour of the day- three halachic hours before sunset. One who does not eat gebrochts on Pesach may only eat knaidlach and other cooked matzoh meal products until the latest time for eating chometz. He may not eat baked matzoh meal products all day. Matzoh made with fruit juice, including Kosher for Pesach egg matzohs, grape matzohs, chocolate matzohs and Pesach Tam Tams, etc. may be eaten until the end of the 4th halachic hour (same as the latest time for eating chometz). The sick or elderly who cannot eat regular matzoh and have consulted with their rav may eat Pesach egg matzohs any time on Erev Pesach and Pesach. However, even such an individual can not fulfill the obligation of eating matzoh at the seder with these matzohs. Meat, fish, salad, cheese, eggs, horseradish, fruits, vegetables, and potato starch cakes may be eaten until sunset. However, one should not fill up on these items so as to ensure a hearty appetite at the seder. He may drink
wine or grape juice on Erev Pesach in quantities that will not affect his appetite at night. 2. All first born males (whether from the father or mother) must fast on Erev Pesach. A father must fast in place of his first born child who is between the ages of thirty days and bar mitzvah. The custom is to end the fast early by partaking in a siyum. First born girls do not fast, and a mother does not fast for her first born son (under bar mitzvah when the husband is a b’chor) if her husband or son attends a siyum. 3. Preparations for the seder including roasting the z’roa meat, cooking and roasting the egg, mixing the salt water, preparing the charoses, grating the horseradish, and all necessary b’dikas tolaim (checking lettuce for bugs), should preferably be done before Pesach as special restrictions apply to preparing these items on Yom Tov. If the first day of Pesach falls on Shabbos, the z’roa and baitzah must be prepared before Shabbos. Additional restrictions apply to the preparations of the other items on Shabbos. 4. If one has a difficult time drinking wine at the seder, one should mix the wine with grape juice and/or water. Ideally, this mixture should contain a minimum of 4% alcohol. Therefore, if the wine has 12% alcohol content, he should make a mixture consisting of 1/3 wine, 1/3 grape juice and 1/3 water (or 1/3 wine and 2/3 grape juice). He must be aware that many wines available have a lower alcohol content Therefore, if the wine has an 8% alcohol content he should make a mixture consisting of 1/2 wine, 1/4 grape juice and 1/4 water (or 1/2 wine and 1/2 grape juice). Wine with 6% alcohol content requires 2/3 wine and 1/3 grape juice. If one prepares these mixtures with a measuring cup, it should be done before Yom Tov. If one may become ill by drinking any wine, he may instead drink grape juice. 5. One may not say, “This meat is for Pesach,” as this may appear as if he is designating meat for the Korbon Pesach. Rather one should say, “This meat is for Yom Tov.”
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Halachos of PESACH
By: Rabbi Dovid Heber
III . Work after Chatzos During the days of the בית המקדש, the קרבן פסחwas brought on Erev Pesach after chatzos (midday). Therefore, various ( מלאכותwork activities) are prohibited during this time. Although there is no בית המקדשat the time of this writing, the prohibitions remain intact and are similar to the prohibitions of Chol Hamoed (with several exceptions). The following is a list of those מלאכותthat apply to Erev Pesach after חצות: 1. During Chol Hamoed, a מעשה הדיוט, simple work, may be performed only if it is לצורך המועד, for the sake of the holiday. For example, one may fasten a hook to the wall on Chol Hamoed to hang up a picture to beautify one’s home for Yom Tov. Similarly, one may assemble an afikomen present of a tricycle on Chol Hamoed for a toddler to ride on Chol Hamoed. However, under normal circumstances one may not perform a מעשה הדיוטif it is not לצורך המועד. For example, one may not fix a broken chair that will not be used until after Pesach. Also, before Pesach one may not plan ahead and postpone a מעשה הדיוטactivity for Chol Hamoed even if the activity is לצורך המועד. These halachos also apply to Erev Pesach after chatzos. 2. During Chol Hamoed, in most cases, one may not perform a מעשה אומן, a skilled task requiring a craftsman, even לצורך המועד. For example, installing siding or laying bricks are not permissible, even to beautify the home in honor of Yom Tov. There are some major exceptions where even a מעשה אומן is permissible on Chol Hamoed. This includes לצורך אוכל ( נפשe.g. repairing an oven that broke and could not be fixed before Yom Tov) to avoid major financial loss (e.g. repair a roof to avoid structural or flood damage from rain), and in certain cases ( לצורך הגוףe.g. fix an only pair of eyeglasses or repair the only toilet in the house). These halachos also apply to Erev Pesach after chatzos. However, there is one major difference between Chol
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Hamoed and Erev Pesach. On Chol Hamoed, one may not hire a gentile to perform the above noted skilled tasks. On Erev Pesach this is permissible לצורך המועד. For example, a major car repair (e.g. rebuilding a transmission) may be performed by a gentile on Erev Pesach, even after )חצות, if it is ( לצורך המועדe.g. for a Chol Hamoed trip). Under normal conditions, asking a gentile to perform such a task on Chol Hamoed is prohibited. 3. Laundry, Dry Cleaning, Haircuts & Shaving – In general, these four activities may not be performed after חצותon Erev Pesach or during Chol Hamoed. However, after חצות on Erev Pesach one may ask a gentile to perform these tasks לצורך המועד. Therefore, if one forgot to shave, get a haircut or wash/dry clean clothing he may ask a gentile to do so for him ( לצורך המועדi.e. go to a gentile barber or dry cleaner). However, a gentile may not perform these tasks for a Jew on Chol Hamoed even לצורך המועד. 4. Drying clothes in a dryer and ironing clothes (except pleats) are classified as a מעשה הדיוטand are permissible on Chol Hamoed and Erev Pesach after chatzos, under the conditions mentioned above (לצורך המועד, etc.). 5. It is preferable to clip finger nails and toe nails before חצותon Erev Pesach. בדיעבד, this may be done all day. If one clips nails on Erev Pesach, he/she may clip them again on Chol Hamoed. If this was not done on Erev Pesach, the nails may not be clipped on Chol Hamoed unless it is לצורך מצוה, (e.g. )טבילה. 6. Picking up serviced goods (e.g. at the tailor, shoemaker or dry cleaner) is מותרall day Erev Pesach. Regarding Chol Hamoed, a rav should be consulted. In years when Erev Pesach occurs on Wednesday, an Eruv Tavshilin should be prepared. Some people have the custom of studying the laws and reciting the order of the קרבן פסחafter Mincha on Erev Pesach. May the next ערב וליל פסחbe the busiest ever, with a new Bais HaMikdash, ונאכל שם מן הזבחים ומן הפסחים במהרה בימינו.
Featured Articles & Stories
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W E E K LY S E R I A L
reprinted with permission from the author Aharon Margalit
WEEK 133 CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: A YEAR BEGINS… I spent Yom Kippur of 5766/2005 together with Abba, at his nursing home in Yerushalayim. As soon as the fast was over, I received a phone call from my dear son, Chaim Yankele. “A gut yahr, Abba. How are you feeling? How did the fast go?” “Baruch Hashem, I’m fine. And how are you, Chaim Yankele?” He and his wife had recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. “Baruch Hashem, everything’s fine. How was the davening,
Abba?” I sighed slightly, thinking, If only we could know. “That we don’t yet know, Chaim Yankele. Ask me at the end of the year, and I’ll tell you how the tefillos of the Yamim Nora’im were…” *** Six days after Simchas Torah. Rivkah, Chani, and I were in London, at the home of my brother Menachem, for the bar mitzvah, that night, of his son, Yisrael Yitzchak. That same day, Chaim Yaakov and his wife had arrived in Havana, Cuba, on a short business trip. That evening, the phone rang in Menachem’s home. It was our daughter-in-law, Chaim Yankele’s wife, asking to speak to me urgently. With growing alarm, I heard her confused words: She and Chaim Yankele had gone for a stroll near
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“Oy, Ribbono shel Olam! It can’t be!” I wailed from the depths of my soul.
their hotel... A gang of drunken youths with knives had attacked them... (A police investigation later revealed that the youths had intended to attack someone else who had beat up one of their gang members, but they had mistakenly targeted my son.) She wasn’t harmed, baruch Hashem, but Chaim Yankele had been critically wounded, rushed to the nearest hospital, and was now in the operating room, fighting for his life. “Oy, Ribbono shel Olam! It can’t be!” I wailed from the depths of my soul. Dropping all preparations for the bar mitzvah, I began making phone calls, asking friends and acquaintances how I could help by long distance, and trying to book the first possible flight to Havana. An hour later, the phone rang again. Our daughter-in-law was sobbing. I heard what she had to tell me and cried out with a loud and bitter cry, “Baruch Dayan HaEmes!” Our sweet son was plucked from this world, in full bloom, on 27 Tishrei 5766 (October 30, 2005).
You asked me a question, my dear son, and I didn’t know how to answer you. It took less than three weeks for me to know the answer, but there was no one to hear it. Now you are no more, and the answer, as certain as death, sticks in my throat, like an aching lump. No doubt my tefillos would have been more urgent had I imagined the sacrifice I would be called on to offer up. *** Our son, Chaim Yaakov Koppel, Hy”d, was named after my beloved brother, Yaakov Koppel, Hy”d, who fell in the War of Attrition, in 5730. My brother had been named after my grandfather, Yaakov Koppel, Hy”d, murdered in the Holocaust. The tragic loss of our son was the wailing opening note of a year that was to end with another terrible loss, and that was fraught with various painful challenges. All other wounds I’ve suffered have healed somehow. Not so the gaping, bleeding wound of the loss of our son. May his memory be blessed.
to be continued... 19
StoryCenter
SPLITTING OUR SEA
Taken with permission from "Life Unwrapped" by Rochel Braverman (As told to the author by Sarah Taub)
Beautiful family you’ve got there,” the photographer declared as he snapped pose after pose. It was the afternoon of my son’s wedding, and there we were, every bow and yarmulke in place. As my gaze swept over my seven daughters clad in identical gowns that they themselves had sewn, my breath caught in my throat.
Like his Biblical namesake, Yossi was blessed with a rare charm from the time he was born. Whenever I’d take him outside, people would stop to comment on his golden curls, enormous chocolate-colored eyes, and dimpled cheeks. As he grew older, his many talents became obvious; he was an extremely musical, creative child.
Time flies—soon they, too, will be entering the tumultuous world of shidduchim.
He attracted friends like bees to nectar. Everyone was mesmerized by his winsome personality—and his Houdini-like stunts.
The chassan, Yossi, flashed me a smile, laden with meaning. My heart melted as I bade the tears to stay put. But later, when I saw his kallah—a vision in white—they refused to obey. I hugged this sweet neshamah, rivulets of tears streaming down my face as the past two decades flashed through my mind. Did Yissocher and I ever dream we would find such a perfect complement to our complex son? And that he would emerge from his teenage years, stronger than ever? At that moment, I felt like composing our own unique shirah to the One Who split the sea for us, much like our ancestors did after their miraculous redemption…
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Truly, a wonder boy in every sense of the word. But as I was to learn later on, all these gifts were crucial tools he’d need to survive the tough years ahead. The trouble began when he entered third grade. Suddenly, his antics were not so adorable anymore. For the first time, his endearing smile held no power over his exasperated rebbi. Especially when Yossi’s carefully crafted airplane (admittedly, a fine specimen) literally took a nosedive, landing smack in the middle of the rebbi’s face. Our phone started delivering all sorts of worrisome tidings. Yossi was sent to the princi-
pal twice in one week. Yossi failed his math test. Yossi could not sit still for one second.
What exacerbated Yossi’s situation was the constant comparison to Simcha, the star talmid.
We were completely perplexed. Yossi’s older brother, Simcha, was a model student—a well-mannered, obedient child. We’d only heard nachas reports about him from day one.
“You’re Simcha Langer’s brother?” his rebbeim would ask in disbelief. “You definitely don’t, um…look like him!”
How did we go wrong with our second son? We had Yossi undergo a slew of evaluations. ADHD was ruled out, but the experts could not pinpoint his difficulty. Clearly, he was suffering from some sort of learning issue—but no one could give a definitive diagnosis. As he struggled his way through cheder, all his rebbeim acknowledged that he was an enigma: an obviously bright boy gifted with street smarts and social intelligence who could not deal with the learning structure and testing system. He was able to grasp the material when it was taught one-onone, but in the classroom setting he was pitifully lost. There is nothing more heartbreaking for a mother than to watch her child encounter failure time and again. Yossi became the focus of my tefillos as he fell increasingly behind his peers while they advanced in their Gemara study. Please, Hashem, help Yossi taste the sweetness of Your Torah! I’d murmur as I’d fold mounds of laundry or wash endless dishes. You can do anything. Please open up Yossi’s mind and help him understand!
But at the same time, no one could deny that Yossi possessed a heart of the purest gold. It was he who saved a timid boy from a mean bully and built him up until he was a true member of the team (his mother thanks me to this very day for the life-changing chessed Yossi did for her son). Another time he came to me practically in tears, telling me of a ragged woman he’d seen begging for money on the street. He vowed to collect tzedakah for her and bring her food. His sensitive soul could not bear to see others in pain. Even when he plugged up the cheder’s drain so that a huge puddle could form on the floor, he still came early the next morning (equipped with a few plastic forks) to unclog it so the school should not sustain any permanent damage. I’d hold on to these episodes to keep me strong each time the school called with another complaint. I tried my best to give Yossi healthy outlets for his excess energy that wasn’t being tapped in school: I allowed him to construct a whole ecosystem on our porch—he had a massive fish tank and chicken coop, not to mention cacti and all sorts of flora. And despite our tight budget, I bought him a drum set so he could pound
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away all his frustrations.
machinery in the garage.
But if we thought cheder was a rough journey, mesivta was a thousand times more complicated. Now the stakes were much higher. It was one thing to be penalized for playing chess during class in cheder, quite another to flunk your third consecutive bechinah in mesivta. He floundered in misery for three years, his spirit becoming more deflated with each passing zman.
At that time, I gave birth to my ninth child. Instead of convalescing at the kimpeturin home like I usually did, I went straight home so I could keep tabs on Yossi’s whereabouts. I knew that a dejected bachur with too much time on his hands was a recipe for disaster.
Yissocher and I understood that Yossi needed a small framework with lighter academic expectations. We did extensive research and found such a yeshivah. The problem was that the boys there did not meet our expectations, so after only a month we withdrew Yossi from there. We felt trapped. On the one hand, Yossi was not a bum and did not belong in a setting where the clientele struggled with the basics of Yiddishkeit. On the other hand, he was not on the same page as his yeshivish counterparts. And so began our most challenging era yet. Our sixteen-year-old son was home, with no yeshivah to attend. Yossi’s mortification knew no bounds. What was so wrong with him, that he could not find a suitable yeshivah? He was forced to keep a low profile so none of his friends would realize that he was hanging around like some useless piece of
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Exhausted as I was with a newborn to tend to, keeping Yossi occupied was my foremost priority. “Ma, I’m going out to find some good biking trails, okay?” he called one day, halfway out the door. My brain raced into overdrive. “You know what?” I said brightly. “I was just thinking that it’s about time we painted this ceiling. How about I give you some money and you pick out some paints in the hardware store?” I needed paint-splattered floors then like a hole in the head, but I knew such a project would keep him busy for at least a week or two. It did—in a Michelangelo-inspired fresco, he painted an ocean scene, with the waves blending in interesting patterns. When that was done, I had him build a desk for the girls’ room…and then a shtender for the dining room. Most of all, I made myself available at any random hour to soothe and validate over hot cocoa and cookies. Only late at night did I succumb to my tears and plead with
Hashem to send Yossi a yeshuah. At the back of my mind, I recognized that as soon as we’d be able to remove our preconceived notion of the accepted standards—that’s when we would hit our breakthrough. I consulted with my rebbetzin, a distinguished ba’alas eitzah. She advised me to give a “present” to Hashem, and add another tefillah each day. She bentched me warmly with hatzlachah. In addition to tefillah, I cut off an inch from my sheitel as another zechus for my dear Yossi. And then we decided to send him to my parents who lived in Lakewood. My father, a veteran mechanech, spent much time talking to him and trying to find a good learning method for him. My mother showered him with warmth and attention. My siblings, who lived close by, spent hours learning with him and boosting his morale. Away from the pressure and embarrassment of our hometown, he thrived under the loving, nonjudgmental care. He was learning at his own pace, and he was enjoying the give-and-take like never before. Yet we knew this was only a bridge to a more permanent solution. Now that he had tasted success, he required the structure of yeshivah to bring his achievements to the next level. His friends back home were impressed that he’d learned in Lakewood—and this restored his confidence significantly. After a year or so, we took the bold step of sending him to a yeshivah for ba’alei teshuvah, a place renowned for its close-knit, warm environment. Frankly, I was terrified of what this would portend for his shidduchim, but we had to swallow our pride and accept the fact that this was what our son needed right then. Baruch Hashem, the moment he stepped foot in there, he was an instant celebrity. As the only FFB bachur there, he was dubbed “Rabbi” and became the go-to address for all queries in halachah and hashkafah. These boys had seen the ugly world out there; they were hungry for the real thing. They could appreciate Yossi’s sincerity like no one else. Yossi would take them to the forest and lead them in song with his guitar, or he’d get the whole dining room moving in a spontaneous dance. We were astounded—and not a little amused—at his new status. Like the famous Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, he’d gone from being a zero to a hero, but without the aid of a magic yarmulke—though perhaps the magic touch of the wonderful hanhalah.
nim stargazing with his telescope? My Tehillim and I were inseparable; I sent up hundreds of tefillos that Yossi would merit to find a bas Yisrael who’d appreciate all his qualities and quirks. I undertook new kabbalos as month after month passed with only peculiar suggestions coming our way. And then, shortly before Sukkos, I told Yossi that as a gesture of hakaras hatov to his rosh yeshivah, he should go build him a sukkah. Yossi agreed readily and went over to begin the task. While he was hammering away, the rosh yeshivah’s neighbor stopped in for a few minutes and noticed a personable young man, working energetically while singing contentedly. Without even knowing his identity, he suddenly had this thought that maybe his friend’s vivacious daughter, Riki, would be a great match for this bachur… The rest is history. If Riki’s European parents had any reservations about Yossi’s atypical background, the instant they met him, they were captivated by his joie de vivre and selflessness. We were ecstatic that he’d actually been zocheh to a truly ideal, Torahdig family who valued him like a prized gem. Truth be told, Riki was more open-minded and animated than the average Bais Yaakov girl, but that is precisely why they were a pair made in Heaven. Watching the two of them set up their new home filled us with an indescribable joy. Today, Yossi is active in kiruv, inspiring the hearts of so many with his trademark charisma. He and Riki are partners in chessed, always seeking to benefit others in tangible ways. It’s been a long, winding road; at last we have merited to see true Torah nachas from our precious son. But I had never lost faith in him all along—I always believed that one day he would be able to fulfill his potential. Because every single child can reach the heights of Moshe Rabbeinu. We have to daven for the right tools to encourage and elevate our children as they navigate through life’s bumps and potholes.
Our relief was vast. Yossi was happy, his rosh yeshivah was happy, and he was learning in an unconventional way that was the best possible fit for his personality.
Perhaps our role as mothers is At pesach lo—offering our children an opening, a second chance to recreate themselves.
At the same time, thoughts of shidduchim were constantly simmering in our conscience. Who’d want to marry a boy who walked down the street in Crocs, who spent his bein hazma-
That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu offered us over three thousand years ago, and that’s why we are still here today, celebrating our redemption. 23
Shul Chronicles Highlighting Shuls Around the World By Michoel Bretter
Glory Amidst the Ashes: The Nozyk Synagogue Trivia question. Before the onset of World War Two, which European city had the most Jews? The answer is Warsaw. In fact, no city in the world other than New York City had more Jews at the time. Even Yerushalayim.
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Some 350,000 Jews lived in Poland’s capital, nearly one-third of the total population. Warsaw was home to many prominent Jewish businessmen and leaders. Various major chassidishe courts thrived in the city, with hundreds of small Shuls and shtiebels dotting the Jewish neighborhoods. Some 90% of the city’s Jewish children were enrolled in Jewish schools. NOZYK SYNAGOGUE In the late 1800s, there was one major official
synagogue in the city – the “Great Synagogue” – but it was Reform. The Orthodox community needed an edifice like that of its own. Zalman Nozyk, a wealthy retailer, and his wife Rivka purchased a vacant property at 6 Twarda Street for a Shul in 1892. The Nozyks were childless and saw this as a lasting contribution to the community and their eternal memory. The property cost 157,000 Rubles, a hefty sum. The Nozyks dedicated themselves to make this edifice truly majestic. They hired a famed Warsaw architect, Karol Kozlowski – who designed the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra Hall and other prominent structures - to design the Shul. Construction began in 1898. After some 250,000 Rubles were spent on construction, the Shul officially opened its doors in the spring of 1902.
Nozyk Synagogue is an impressive large structure, with Neo-Romanticist and Neo-Byzantine architectural cues. It is rectangularly shaped, with a cathedral style ceiling and ornate moldings. The Aron Kodesh features ornate pillars and an impressive dome on top. A gallery served as the Ezras Nashim. In total, 600 mispallelim were accommodated at once. This beautiful structure became an instantly beloved landmark in Warsaw and it had an air of prestige. In fact, official membership was initially limited to the “Baalei Batim,” successful professionals and merchants. Poorer Warsaw residents could only daven there if there was a second Minyan that day. Zalman Nozyk passed away months after his beloved Shul opened. Over a decade later, in 1914, Rivka Nozyk passed away. Per the couple’s will,
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the Shul was then officially bequeathed to the Jewish community of Warsaw. As the Nozyks left behind no children, their fortune was given to the community to be used for Shul’s upkeep. The only conditions were that the Shul must bear the Nozyk name and tefillos must be said in memory of the couple each year. The Nozyk Synagogue continued thriving. In 1923, the Shul already underwent an expansion, adding space for a semi-circular choir at the Mizrach wall. TRAGIC DEVASTATION
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Unfortunately, the bliss did not last long. Warsaw came under Nazi siege in 1939 and draconian laws were enacted against the Jews. A ghetto was built in 1940. The ghetto was divided into two sections, the “Large Ghetto” and “Small Ghetto,” which were connected by a footbridge. The Nozyk Synagogue was located in the Small Ghetto. About 400,000 Jews from Warsaw and its surrounding region were crammed into 2.4% of the region’s landmass. The conditions in the ghetto were dire, with starvation and disease the norm. Nearly 100,000 inhabitants tragically died of “na-
tural causes.” In the summer of 1942, approximately 250,000 inhabitants were deported to Treblinka and murdered Hy”d. In 1943, as ghetto inhabitants learned of the fate of their deported brothers and sisters, they began organizing the famous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Many fierce battles took place, but unfortunately the Nazis ym”s ultimately prevailed with their evil plans. The ghetto was destroyed and surviving Jews were deported, almost all to their deaths Hy”d. During this awful era, the Nozyk Synagogue sustained damage from the fighting but it remained intact. The Nazis used this beautiful building as a stable for their horses. Nozyk Syngagoue was the only pre-war synagogue building in the city to survive. REBUILDING FROM THE ASHES In the late 1940s, the Nozyk Synagogue was returned to the Jewish community and underwent basic repairs and renovations. Unfortunately, this former capital of European Jewry remained a skeleton. Of the few survi-
vors, the overwhelming majority emigrated to the United States, Israel and other nations. Still, a communal infrastructure was rebuilt in Warsaw and remains there through today. Poland’s Chief Rabbi resides in the city and the local community organization serves as the de facto capital for Poland’s remaining 20,000 or so Jews. In 1977, a comprehensive renovation project for Nozyk commenced. The Shul was beautifully rebuilt and a new wing was added to accommodate local Jewish communal organizations. The Shul was officially reopened during a high profile ceremony in 1983, marking the 50 year anniversary of the uprising. High profile politicians and religious leaders from around the world attended. The Nozyk Synagogue is led by the Chief Rabbi and is the only Shul in the entire country that has a full schedule of minyanim. Unfortunately, the Shul has been the frequent target of anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism, but its beauty and regular use remain undeterred. The Shul is a top tourist attraction, a beautiful testament to a glorious past and an indestructible Jewish spirit.
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HISTORY
THIS MONTH IN HISTORY Triangle Shirtwaist Factory interior, destroyed sewing machines, gutted by a fire that killed 146.
TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE MARCH 25, 1911
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable– most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers.
WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY
on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. It was a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English and worked 12 hours a day, every day. In 1911, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational and the workers had to file down a long, narrow corridor in order to reach it. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it, even in the best of circumstances.
The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building,
The danger of fire in factories like the Triangle Shirtwaist was well-known, but high levels of corruption in both the
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garment industry and city government generally ensured that no useful precautions were taken to prevent fires. Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased, a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again. Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris’ notorious anti-worker policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working 12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more predictable hours, Blanck and Harris’ company was one of the few manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way.
WHAT STARTED THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE?
kers at the factory when a fire began in a rag bin. The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but was unsuccessful, as the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. As the fire grew, panic ensued. The young workers tried to exit the building by the elevator but it could hold only 12 people and the operator was able to make just four trips back and forth before it broke down amid the heat and flames. In a desperate attempt to escape the fire, the girls left behind waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The girls who fled via the stairwells also met awful demises–when they found a locked door at the bottom of the stairs, many were burned alive. Those workers who were on floors above the fire, including the owners, escaped to the roof and then to adjoining buildings. As firefighters arrived, they witnessed a horrible scene. The girls who did not make it to the stairwells or the elevator were trapped by the fire inside the factory and began to jump from the windows to escape it. The bodies of the jumpers fell on the fire hoses, making it difficult to begin fighting the fire. Also, the firefighters ladders reached only seven floors high and the fire was on the eighth floor. In one case, a life net was unfurled to catch jumpers, but three girls jumped at the same time, ripping the net. The nets turned out to be mostly ineffectual.
On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 wor-
Within 18 minutes, it was all over. Forty-nine workers had burned to death or been suffocated by smoke, 36 were
Many Women Who Died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 Were Young Immigrants
Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire reported on the front page of The New York World newspaper for March 26, 1911
29
Fire hoses spray water on the upper floors of the Asch Building, housing the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
dead in the elevator shaft and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks. With two more dying later from their injuries, a total of 145 people were killed by the fire.
IMPORTANCE OF THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE The fire helped unite organized labor and reform-minded politicians like progressive New York Governor Alfred E. Smith and Senator Robert F. Wagner, one of the legislative architects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal agenda. Frances Perkins, who served on a committee that helped to set up the Factory Investigating Commission in New York in the wake of the fire, would later become Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. The workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York’s Fifth Avenue to protest
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the conditions that had led to the fire. It was attended by 80,000 people. Despite a good deal of evidence that the owners and management had been horribly negligent in the fire, a grand jury failed to indict them on manslaughter charges. To settle lawsuits against them, they eventually paid $75 in compensation to each victim’s family—a fraction of the $400 per death that they were paid by their insurer. Still, the massacre for which they were responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a reform party. Both were crucial in preventing similar disasters in the future.
Quote OF THE MONTH “It is impossible to govern the world without G-d. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty G-d, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly implore His protection and favor” - George Washington
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How the Horrific Tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Led to Workplace Safety Laws The 1911 factory blaze shocked the nation and spurred new regulations to protect factory workers.
Young women became trapped by tables, bulky equipment and doors that locked or opened the wrong way as flames enveloped the eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the Asch Building in New York City’s Greenwich Village on March 25, 1911. As people struggled to escape, several fell into the flames, their bodies piling by blocked exits. Others leapt—in twos and threes—out the burning building’s high windows. The March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was one of the deadliest workplace catastrophes in U.S. history, claiming the lives of 146 workers, most of them women immigrants in their teens and twenties. The fire was so horrific it shocked the conscience of New Yorkers and others across the nation and, ultimately, led to changes in safety regulations and more diligent efforts to enforce them.
DEPLORABLE WORKING CONDITIONS The fire, says Paul F. Cole, director of the American Labor Studies Center, “awakened a nation to the dangerous and deplorable conditions that many workers faced on a daily basis.” The disaster’s causes were complex. In the early 1890s, immigrants from Italy and eastern Europe came to the United States in search of a better life, but instead often found themselves in places such as the Triangle Waist Company, where they worked 12-and-a-half-hour days for $6 a week, according to an AFL-CIO history of the fire. They had to supply their own needles, thread, irons and sometimes, even their own sewing machines.
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Working conditions were so bad that the women didn’t even have access to a bathroom in the building, and doors were locked so that they couldn’t go outside and slow down production. And though the place was filled with highly flammable materials, there was little attention paid to fire prevention. Discontent over wages and working conditions at Triangle and the city’s other garment factories led tens of thousands of workers to strike in 1909, seeking concessions such as a 20 percent pay hike and a 52-hour week, as well as safer working conditions. Most of the factory owners quickly settled, but Triangle’s owners resisted the demands. When the strike ended in February 1910, workers went back to their jobs without a union agreement, according to the AFLCIO history. “Triangle was the most hostile of the owners to the union,” explains Richard Greenwald, historian and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University and author of a 2011 book, The Triangle Fire, Protocols Of Peace And Industrial Democracy In Progressive Era New York. “They moved production out of NYC in 1909 to avoid the strike, hired thugs to beat writers and most likely bribed the police to arrest strikers.”
TRIANGLE FACTORY’S FIRE SAFETY: EMPTY WATER BUCKETS On the afternoon of March 25, a Saturday, 500 people were working in Triangle’s factory, which occupied three floors
in a building that had been built just 10 years before. Court testimony later placed the blame for the blaze on a fire that started in a fabric scrap bin on the eighth floor, which probably was ignited by a discarded cigarette, shortly before the factory’s 4 pm closing time. Triangle had water buckets in place for extinguishing fires, a common practice in garment factories at the time. But as one worker, Mary Domsky-Abrams, later recalled in an early 1960s interview with author Leon Stein, the buckets were empty. “On that particular morning, the day of the tragedy, I remarked to my colleagues that the buckets were empty, and that if anything were to happen, they would be of no use,” she said. Another worker, Cecilia Walker Friedman, who worked on the ninth floor, said that she was ready to leave work when she looked to the window and saw flames. Everyone around her started to scream and holler, but many were hindered in getting away. “The girls at the machines began to climb up on the machine tables, maybe because it was that they were frightened or maybe they thought they could run to the elevator doors on top of the machines,” Friedman said. “The aisles were narrow and blocked by the chairs and baskets. They began to fall in the fire. Firefighters eventually found a six-foot-high pile of bodies jammed up against a door to the back stairway, according to the New York Tribune. Friedman herself somehow made it to the elevator, only to watch as the elevator car went down the shaft, leaving the door open. Desperate, she wrapped a decorative muff around her hands, leaped into the shaft and grabbed the elevator cable, sliding all the way to the bottom. The impact broke her arm and finger, and she suffered a head injury and a burn that stretched the length of her body. But she survived. Others weren’t so lucky. The fire escape bent under the weight of workers trying to flee. Some workers waited at the windows for help, only to watch in dismay as firefighters’ too-short ladders couldn’t reach them. Faced with being burned alive, some workers chose to leap—sometimes in twos and threes—to their deaths, according to a 2011 New York Times retrospective. The fire didn’t destroy the building itself, and by sunset, police and firemen were laying out bodies on the sidewalk.
NEW YORKERS DEMAND REFORM A week after the fire, New Yorkers packed an emergency meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House to call for action on fire safety. A few days later, an estimated 350,000 people joined in a massive funeral procession for the fire’s
victims. The factory’s owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, were put on trial for manslaughter, but were found not guilty in a trial that December, after the judge gave jury instructions that made it difficult to convict them. As journalist David Von Drehle, author of a book on the fire, notes in a 2018 essay, the pair had to be escorted out a side door of the courthouse to avoid an angry crowd. To settle lawsuits against them, they eventually paid $75 in compensation to each victim’s family—a fraction of the $400 per death that they were paid by their insurer, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While the factory had hazardous conditions inside, some of the blame also fell on New York City government, which hadn’t done much to ensure safe workplaces and wasn’t prepared for such a fire. “There was no clear city agency responsibility to insure the safety of workers and factories,” Greenwald says. “No one was responsible for building safety. There were no clear regulations for fire safety and no modern fire equipment.” With public outrage growing, New York state legislators enacted a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission, a watchdog agency with sweeping powers to probe labor conditions throughout the state. Over the next two years, it would investigate thousands of workplaces—not just garment factories, but to meat-packing and chemical plants as well. “The FIC was led by the Tammany Hall machine leaders, so the reforms that were suggested found their way into laws,” Greenwald says. “There were over 20 laws passed which changed fire safety, building safety, charged the state with worker safety.”
REFORM AGENDA EMPOWERS FDR’S NEW DEAL Additionally, the fire helped unite organized labor and various reform-minded politicians, including progressive New York Governor Alfred E. Smith and Senator Robert F. Wagner, one of the legislative architects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal agenda. Frances Perkins, who served on a committee that helped to set up the FIC, would later become Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. “In a clear way, one can argue that the fire led to the New Deal,” Greenwald says. “Perkins said so herself in her oral history.” On a larger scale, the Triangle fire convinced the nation that the government had a responsibility to ensure workers had a safe place to do their jobs.
Background Image: Demonstrators mourning the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, 1911. 33
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4915 10th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11219 34 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
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פסח S E C T I O N
35
A
Miracle inBaghdad
By Nuta Yisrael Shurack
It was midday when an elderly traveler entered the Jewish quarter of Baghdad. The marketplace, where merchants from many lands sold their fabrics, spices and other wares, seemed strangely empty for such a day. He sighted the grandest building in the section, and determined that must be the great synagogue. He continued his trek towards it until he entered its courtyard and sat down to rest, opening his small sack to take out a few dried figs to refresh his strength. Yet no sooner had he started his lunch than he became aware of a commotion from within the sanctuary. He peeked inside, and beheld a moving spectacle—hundreds of Jews fervently chanting Psalms amidst tears and sobs. “What has happened?” he asked of the first Jew whose attention he could grasp. Hurriedly, and in a voice of desperation, the man told him the story as best he could. The Sultan had decreed that the Jewish people of Baghdad must produce a leader who could perform miracles as Moses had done. Since Moses was the leader of the Jewish people in Egypt, and he was able to do
36 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
miracles, the Sultan expected the same from the leader of the Jews of Baghdad. If they would not produce such a miracle-maker, the Jews would be expelled from Baghdad. Therefore, all of the Jews were fasting and praying to G‑d for salvation. In his calm and patient disposition, the wise traveler approached yet more Jews, until he had finally pieced together the entire story: The Sultan’s chief advisor, Mustafa, was a vicious Jew-hater whose mission it was to destroy the Jews, or at least to have them banished from Baghdad. He had convinced the Sultan that the Jews were not only infidels for denying the prophet Mohammed, but that they were thieves and liars as well, deserving immediate expulsion. At first the Sultan was hesitant to believe Mustafa; however, the Sultan was told about what had happened when the Jews left Egypt and what Moses did to Pharaoh. He began to worry that perhaps one of the Jewish leaders of Baghdad would attack him with plagues, and decided he did not want to take any chances. Therefore, he issued a decree that
the Jews had to produce a leader like Moses, or leave Baghdad immediately. The wise, elderly traveler sat in contemplation for several moments, and then approached one of the rabbis at the front of the synagogue and whispered in his ear. Soon all the leaders of the community were talking quietly, and then suddenly there was a loud clap on the lectern, and one of them spoke. “This man who is visiting our town says that he has a plan. He will travel to the Sultan immediately to try and save us. If he is successful, we will rejoice. However, if he fails, he will tell the Sultan that he acted alone. Meanwhile, we will continue to pray for his success!” The man headed for the palace, pounded on the entrance gate, and said, “I am a Jew who can do miracles, and I demand to see the Sultan immediately.” Before long, he found himself face to face with the ruler of Baghdad. “So,” said the Sultan, “You claim you can do miracles like Moses. What can you do?” Dozens of people, from the baker and the court jester to the royal guards and advisors, stared at the old man with the white beard and piercing eyes. “If you would be so kind,” said he, “I will perform a miracle akin to those which Moses himself did. Before your very eyes, I will cut off a man’s head with a sword, and then put him back together and make him live!” The Sultan smiled nervously and glanced around, not knowing what to think or make of the situation. Perhaps the fellow was completely crazy. Or perhaps he was telling the truth. After all, he seemed extremely confident, and spoke with such conviction. What if he was telling the truth? If he doubted him, then who knows what kind of wrath would be unleashed on the Sultan and his kingdom. He continued, “There is but one condition. The man whose head I cut off must be truly wise. In fact, he must be the wisest man in the realm. If not, his head will not properly reattach.” Intrigued, the Sultan decided he must see for himself if the Jew was telling the truth. He looked around the room until his eyes fell on Mustafa, his chief advisor and the wisest man in the kingdom. Before the Sultan said a word, Mustafa cried out, “No, he is lying! The Jew is an impostor! He can’t
really cut someone’s head off and reattach it.” “That might be true,” said the Sultan, “but what if he is telling the truth and we don’t accommodate him? Surely you don’t want to put the whole kingdom at risk! Afer all, were you not the one who had advised me to expel the Jews, lest we be put in danger?” “Bring the sword immediately,” cried the Sultan. “Mustafa has volunteered!” With that, Mustafa began to tremble and yelled out, “No, I admit it. I was both wrong and very foolish. The Jewish people do not have extraordinary powers!” Mustafa ran out of the palace, never to be seen again. The Sultan annulled the decree, thanked the Jew for coming, and said that the Jews were welcome to live in Baghdad as long as they desired. The man returned to the synagogue to share the good news. Immediately, there was unbelievable rejoicing, and a banquet was held in honor of the miracle that G‑d had done for His people. Then quietly and quickly, the old man slipped out and left the town before anyone could even get his name. Some people say that he was Elijah the Prophet. Some say he was a great mystic. Yet others believe that he was just a Jew who simply cared about his fellow Jews as much as he did about himself. This story helps elucidate a very interesting aspect of the Pesach observance. Every holiday is marked by mitzvahs. Yet, many of these mitzvahs are not equally fulfilled by all. For example, most of us hear the shofar from someone else who blows it, and on Chanukah, many have the custom that the head of the household kindles the menorah as a representative of the entire family. Yet, on Pesach, everyone must eat his or her own matzah. On Pesach, we are all equally significant. The Exodus was the time when our people came together as one. Leaving Egypt united as one people set the stage for the mitzvah that Hillel considered to be the core of the entire Torah: love for a fellow Jew. The hero of this story actualized that which we all know to be true, that each of us is complete only when we do all that we can to ensure that every single Jew is being taken care of as well. This is why the Pesach haggadah begins with an invitation, “All who are hungry, let them come and eat.” Our table is complete only when it is open to others!
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SHMERL'S SEDER By Tuvia Bolton
It was well past midnight on the first night of Pesach, and the great Chassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev had just concluded enacting the Pesach Seder in the presence of his disciples. They had recited the Haggadah, recounting the story of the Exodus and discussing the deeper meanings implicit in each of its passages; they drank the four cups of wine, dipped the karpas in the salt water and the bitter herbs in charoset, ate the matzah, the korech and the afikoman, sang the psalms of praise and gratitude — all in accordance with the letter of the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) and the esoteric principles found in the awesome mystical works of the saintly “Ari”. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s disciples had participated in many of their Rebbe’s seders in the past, but this one surpassed them all. The Rebbe and all those present felt transported into a different world, as though they had risen above their bodily limitations and into a world of pure G‑dliness. Suddenly the room filled with the sound of a deep rumbling like thunder, and from within the thunder an awesome voice announced: “Levi Yitzchak’s seder was pleasing to G‑d, but there is a Jew in Berdichev called Shmerl the Tailor whose seder reached even higher!” The Rebbe looked around him. It was obvious that only he had heard the heavenly announcement. “Has anyone heard of a tzaddik (righteous person) called Shmerl the Tailor?” he asked his Chassidim. No one had. After several minutes of silence one of the elderly Chassidim offered: “There is one Shmerl here in Berdichev that I
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know of, and he used to be a tailor about thirty years ago, but he’s certainly no tzaddik. In fact he’s pretty far from that. They call him now ‘Shmerl the Shikker’ (drunkard) and he lives with his wife in a old large shipping on the edge of town.” But Rabbi Levi Yitchak was thinking to himself, “Ahah! this must be one of the hidden tzaddikim. And he lives right here, in Berdichev, while I knew nothing about him!” It was two o’clock in the morning when the Rebbe stood at the door of old Shmerl’s hovel. An old Jewish woman answered his soft knock. “Good Yom Tov!” said Rabbi Levi Yitzchak quietly. “Please excuse me for the late hour. Is your husband Shmerl at home?” “Good Yom Tov,” She answered. “Just wait one minute please, Rebbe, wait right here.” She disappeared into the house, and the unmistakable sound of a bucket being filled with water was heard from inside. Then a minute or two of silence and suddenly... SPLASH! She threw the bucket of water on her sleeping husband. “Aaahh! Oyyy! Where am I? Ooiy vai!” he screamed, and then his wife was heard shouting, “Get up you drunk! The Rebbe has come to punish you! Wake up, you good-fornothing!” Poor Shmerl staggered, sopping wet, to the door. When he saw that it really was the Rebbe standing there at his door in the middle of the night, he fell at Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s feet and began weeping, “Please, Rebbe don’t punish me.
It’s not my fault... I didn’t know any better... Please, have mercy...” The Rebbe of Berdichev was completely astounded at this bizarre scene. Could it be that this man’s seder was loftier than his own? He bent down, lifted poor Shmerl to his feet and said, “Listen, Shmerl, I didn’t come to punish you. In fact I don’t even know what you are talking about. Please let me in, let’s sit down and talk. I only want to ask you something. Go put on a dry shirt and we’ll talk.” Minutes later they sat facing each other over Shmerl’s small table. The Rebbe looked at him kindly and said: “Shmerl, listen. I want you to tell me how you conducted your seder last night. Don’t worry, I promise that I’m not going to punish you, I promise.” “Oy!” moaned Shmerl and began weeping again. “My seder! But Rebbe, I really didn’t know any better... Oooy!” Gradually he calmed down and began speaking. “Early this morning, that is... yesterday morning, I’m walking in the street and suddenly I notice that people are rushing about. This one has a broom over his shoulder, that one is carrying a box, the other one something else, everyone is scurrying about — except me. “So I stopped someone I recognized and asked him, ‘What is everyone rushing for? Where are they all going?’ “So he answers me, ‘Oy Shmerl, are you so drunk that you forgot that tonight is Pesach? Tonight is Pesach! Do you remember what Pesach is?’ “I tried thinking but my mind wouldn’t work. Pesach, Pesach, I... I can’t remember. It sounds very important though; I remember something about Matzos... and Egypt. ‘Please,’ I begged the man, ‘do me a favor and tell me what it is again.’ “The man looked at me in a strange way, and answered ‘Listen, Shmerl, tonight you have to make a seder. You know, recite the Haggadah, eat three matzos, bitter herbs, four cups of wine. You’ll enjoy the wine Shmerl,’ he said with a sad smile, ‘though I guess you won’t enjoy abstaining from your foul vodka for eight days...’ “’Eight days!’ I cried. ‘Why? Why can’t I drink for eight days?’ I was trembling and beginning to remember a little. “’Because that’s the law!’ he answered. ‘For eight days, if you’re a Jew, no chametz (leaven) passes your lips. Vodka
is chametz. If you can’t hold out for eight days, maybe go to Israel,’ he laughed, ‘there chametz is only forbidden seven days...’ “I was stunned. No vodka for eight days! I rushed home, took all the money I had, bought a big bottle of vodka, poured myself eight large cups one after the other, and drank them down... hoping that that would help me make it through the holiday. “The next thing I remember is that I’m sleeping soundly in my bed when suddenly my wife throws a bucket of water on me — you saw how she does it — and starts screaming, ‘Shmerl, you bum! You drunk! You good-for-nothing! All Jews all over the world are making the seder tonight, and you are lying there like a drunken ox. Wake up and make a seder!’ “So I staggered to my feet, put on some dry clothes and sat down at the beautifully set table. “The candles were shining brightly and making the plates and silverware sparkle so nicely. Everything was new, clean. I felt so different, almost holy. The wine and the matzos were on the table, the Haggadah was open in front of me. My wife had even set up the seder plate with all its things like she remembered from her father. She herself was sitting in her place opposite me like a queen, and was even smiling. Everything was so beautiful. “But then — I looked around me and didn’t know what to do. The vodka was still swirling in my head, but, to be honest, Rebbe, even sober I don’t know how to make a seder. “So I took a large bowl, and put everything in there. The three matzos, the bitter herbs, the dish of charoset, all those little items my wife had set up on the seder plate, I poured in the four cups of wine, and swirled it all together. “Then I lifted up my seder bowl and started talking to G‑d. Just like I’m talking to you now. I started talking to G‑d and I said, ‘G‑d, listen... I don’t know You, but You know me. You know that after my father got killed I had to work all the time and I never had a chance to learn, right? So I don’t know how to read this book, in fact I can’t read anything! And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with all this stuff either. But one thing I do know... I know that a long time ago You sent Moses to take us out of Egypt, and I’m sure that you will send Moshiach to take us out of all our troubles now!’ “And then I gulped down the whole thing.”
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A Seder Without Wine By Nissan Mindel
Published and copyrighted by Kehot Publication Society
A Seder without wine? How can it be? you ask. Everybody knows we have to drink four cups of wine at the Seder, in remembrance of the four stages of liberation from Egyptian bondage. Indeed, so important are these four cups of wine that we make a blessing on each of them, while on the first cup of wine we make the kiddush. A Seder without wine is almost unthinkable! Yet, it happened once upon a time when a whole Jewish community had to make the Seder without wine. This is what our story is about. It happened many years ago, in a land ruled by a king who was not unfriendly to the Jews. Indeed, one of his best friends was the rabbi of the community, whom the king admired for his wisdom and learning, kindness and humility, a combination of virtues he did not find among his courtiers. The king just loved to spend time with the rabbi, discussing matters of importance. And when the king had any problem, he asked the rabbi’s advice, and he never had any cause for regret. Everything would have been well, except that the king had a prime minister who was no friend of the Jews, and who was especially jealous of the friendship the king showed to the rabbi. One day the prime minister asked the king why he was showing such friendship to the rabbi. “Why not?” replied the
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king. “I admire his wisdom and learning; there is nothing but kindness and fear of G‑d in his heart, and he is most loyal to me and wishes me well. He certainly deserves my friendship!” “What if I proved to Your Majesty that the rabbi is not all that he pretends to be, and that behind Your Majesty’s back he will not hesitate to break your laws, and speak unkindly of Your Majesty?” “I doubt very much if you can prove any such thing,” replied the king confidently. “But if you do, I will know how to deal with him. On the other hand, if you fail to prove your reckless accusation, I will know how to deal with you. And so, my dear Prime Minister, how do you propose to prove your accusation?” “The day after tomorrow, the Jews will begin celebrating their Pesach festival. On the first two nights of the festival they have a special feast, a ‘Seder,’ they call it, when they drink four cups of wine. So important is wine for their Seder that a Jew will gladly sell his last shirt to be able to have wine for the Seder. “Now, I suggest, Your Majesty, that you command the rabbi to tell the Jews that no one, not even the rabbi himself, shall drink any wine at the Seder. Then you will see if the rabbi and the other Jews carry out your order, and what they say about Your Majesty.”
“And how are we going to find this out?” asked the king. “I know that before the rabbi sits down to his own Seder table, he visits the Jewish guest house, where a public Seder is arranged for the poor and homeless wandering Jews who happen to be in town. If we disguise ourselves, it will be easy for us to join the crowd and witness the Seder.” “So be it,” the king agreed. “But I warn you: you are playing with your head!” “It’s my head against the rabbi’s head,” the prime minister challenged. The following day the king sent for the rabbi, and when he appeared, the king said to him: “I command you to tell the Jews that no one, not even you, my friend, shall drink any wine at the Seder on penalty of death!” The rabbi was surprised and saddened, but he answered dutifully: “Your Majesty’s command shall be obeyed.” True to his word, the rabbi sent out word to all the Jews in the city: “By order of the king, Jews are forbidden to drink wine at the Seder. But except for that, the Seder should be celebrated in the usual way, and with the usual joy and inspiration. And each time, when the Haggadah calls for the drinking of a cup of wine, an empty cup should be lifted,and the following prayer recited: “‘Master of the World! It is revealed and known to you that we sincerely desire to do Your Will, but His Majesty the King forbade us to drink wine tonight on penalty of death. Since, according to Your holy Torah, the saving of life puts aside the mitzvah of the four cups, we pray for Your forgiveness for not drinking wine tonight.’” In the guest house, the table was set for the Seder. For each place setting there was a Seder plate, with matzah, bitter herbs and the other required items; there were spotless wine glasses and cups, and bottles filled with red wine.
he had composed for this occasion: “Master of the World,” etc. Everyone faithfully followed the rabbi’s instructions, and the wine bottles were left untouched. Otherwise, the Seder proceeded as joyously and inspiringly as ever. The king and his prime minister sat through the entire Seder and heard the same prayer repeated four times. Everyone, including the king, enjoyed the Seder meal; only one person sat there like a bereaved man among bridegrooms—the unhappy prime minister. When the Seder was over, the king and his prime minister left the guest house together. Before parting at the gate of the palace, the king told his prime minister to be sure to appear before him the following day in mid-afternoon. The following morning, the king sent a messenger to the rabbi to summon him to appear before the king in mid-afternoon. At the appointed time the rabbi and the prime minister met at the gate of the palace, and both were ushered in before the king. Turning to the rabbi, the king said: “Unknown to you, worthy Rabbi, I and my prime minister were your guests at the Seder last night. We were disguised, of course, and we came to see with our own eyes if you would obey my order. The foolish prime minister had staked his head, assuring me that you would not. “I am happy that you did faithfully carry out my order, though I sincerely regret having caused you and all the Jews unnecessary heartache by interfering with your sacred Seder celebration. But the prime minister shall pay for his folly. I place him in your hands: choose any kind of death for him, and it shall be done!” “Your Majesty,” the rabbi replied, “ever since we lost our Sanctuary in Jerusalem, no rabbinic court is authorized to pronounce a death sentence on anyone.”
Soon the room was filled with celebrants, who seated themselves around the table. Among them were two strangers, dressed as poorly as the rest; but since all were strangers, no one paid any particular attention to them. Certainly it did not occur to anyone that those two were none other than the king and his prime minister.
“In that case,” said the king, “I shall pronounce his death sentence: he shall be hanged publicly forthwith!”
Presently the rabbi came, and all rose respectfully in his honor. He seated himself at the head of the table and greeted everyone with a hearty “Good Yom Tov.”
The happy news quickly spread among the Jews and was received with great jubilation. The second Seder was celebrated with extraordinary joy and deep gratitude to the Almighty, in celebration not only of the miracles and wonders of the liberation from Egypt, but also of the miracle that happened to them in getting rid of a cruel enemy.
The first item of the Seder was, of course, Kaddesh: to make kiddush on the first of the four cups of wine. The rabbi reminded all the guests of the king’s decree. He bade them to rise and lift up empty wine glasses and recite after him the prayer
Then the king told the rabbi that the decree prohibiting wine drinking was lifted, and the rabbi could now make it known to all Jews that they could again drink all the wine they wanted.
It was the happiest Pesach that they had ever celebrated.
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4
Hidden Messages of the Seder by Slovie Jungreis-Wolff
On Pesach, we do not simply retell a story. We see ourselves as being the ones redeemed at this very moment. Here are four hidden messages to share at your table.
1.
HARNESS YOUR STRENGTH The Torah teaches us “And you shall tell your child on that day: it is because of this that G-d did for me when I came out of Egypt.” (Exodus, 13; 8). We are commanded to speak about all that happened that night of leaving Egypt. The events that led to freedom, the bitterness of slavery, the fight for survival, even understanding how we ended up traveling down to Egypt in the first place, are all part of our Seder. Even if you don’t have children, if you are all alone at the table, you must retell the story of the Exodus. Every single soul must be reminded that G-d redeemed us from Egypt. And just as we have been redeemed in the past, we will once again be redeemed. Seder night is a time of hope. There is no soul that has sunk so low that it has lost its connection to its Source. Every soul matters. You are vital to the completion of our nation. Tell yourself the story; remember it well.
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WE CAN OVERCOME DESOLATION G-d led us through the deep sea and the depths of the barren wilderness. Both share the quality of being uninhabited by humans. The message is most powerful. We can create a dwelling place anywhere in the world. There is no home that is devoid of G-d’s presence if we so wish it. We should not allow past or present to make us feel bleak about our future. Some feel that they have gone too far or that negativity has overtaken them. Fear is paralyzing. Pesach gives us the strength to believe once again in ourselves and our connection to G-d. We can establish our ‘mikdash me’at’, our sanctuary in miniature, no matter where we find ourselves. We begin the Seder with ‘kadesh’, from the language of ‘kadosh’, holiness. This is in our spiritual DNA.
3.
THE KEY TO JEWISH CONTINUITY At the Seder we celebrate thousands of years of Jewish survival despite the fact that “In every generation they stand up and try to destroy us.” We drink four cups of wine. There are many symbolisms in the number four but here is one of my favorites. Each cup is a hint to the four sources of virtue that ensured the future of our people. If we desire to be a strong nation, despite persecution and exile, the key is not physical might or a strong army. Instead we must look at our spiritual reserves that parallel each cup of wine. The Jewish people did not change their Hebrew names nor did they adopt non-Jewish names. They retained their language and held onto the ‘holy tongue’. They maintained the sanctity of their homes and did not engage in illicit relationships. They were loyal to one another and felt each other’s pain. To survive we must hold onto our identity. More than sending a child to Hebrew school this means empowering ourselves and the next generation by living Jewishly. Ethics, kindness, character are all vital to family life but then there is the greatest classroom of all: Our home. I am saddened when I meet young people who are clueless when it comes to their Jewish identity. Parents who do not know how to transmit Judaism to the next generation simply because growing up it was not considered important enough. Or despite the knowledge, their Judaism has become another subject to do well in. The inspiration has gone missing. Let us use the Seder as a springboard to reconnect with the beauty of our legacy. Let us rediscover the meaning of our Jewish names, the wisdom of our teachings and the values that have anchored us against the strong tides that pull us down.
4.
NEVER GIVE UP HOPE We eat charoses, a sweet mixture made of apples, walnuts, wine and cinnamon. Charoses symbolizes the mortar used by the Jewish nation to make bricks while enslaved. But there is also a deeper and most beautiful meaning to the apples on our Seder plate. Charoses symbolizes the apple trees under which the Jewish women gave birth. They concealed their pain so that they would not be detected by the Egyptians. The slavery and suffering had stripped the men of hope. They separated from their wives and thought that bringing children into such a dark world was pointless. It was the women who never gave up. They chose to give birth beneath the apple trees which first produce fruit and then protective leaves. They declared with perfect faith that they would do the same. First they would give birth to their fruit and undoubtedly they would be sheltered from Above. The women sweetened the bitterness of harsh slavery. When tasting the maror we dip it into some charoses to remember this courageous message. Life is both bitter and sweet. The bitter is tempered through hope. Faith keeps us going. This Pesach, engage yourself and engage those around you. Tap into the meaning of the Hagaddah and free yourself from all that has bogged you down. Raise your Seder plate and lift yourself higher. Celebrate the birth of our people.
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718.851.3700 BoroParkCenter.net
Home and Food Corner
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NEWS TIDBITS
March, 2021
News source: boropark24 news
Vaccinated Yeshiva and Seminary Students With Proper Documentation Can Return to Israel after Pesach boropark24.com ISRAEL — Yeshiva and seminary students who have been vaccinated for COVID or have certificates of recovery will be allowed back in Israel after Pesach, the Israel Population and Immigration Authority said today. Upon returning to Israel, students must have with them valid student visas, Israeli vaccine certificates, or Israeli certificates of recovery. The Yeshiva and Seminary Coalition for B’nei Chul reminded in a letter that students’ reentry into Israel assumes that COVID-19 infections in Israel continue to decline. Students who wish to come home for Yom Tov, however, should be warned
that if COVID numbers in Israel begin to rise, flights will be cancelled, the coalition warned.
Whether new students are allowed to arrive in Israel after Pesach will be announced in the coming days.
“There is a significant risk factor that he or she might not be able to return on time for the Pesach zman,” the coalition wrote in a latter. Married students, their spouses, and their children must also provide proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID. In addition, the coalition said it “is currently working out the details of which certification will be acceptable to the relevant government agencies, as the green passport is not yet working.”
MTA Ridership Slowly Increasing, Stimulus Provided $14 billion boropark24.com NEW YORK — After a year in which subway ridership dropped by 70%, New Yorkers are once again hopping in the subway. A year ago, on Wednesday, March 17, to protect New Yorkers from COVID, Mayor Bill de Blasio shut down the city’s schools and restaurants. As a result of the lockdowns and fears of virus transmission, the city’s use of public transportation plummeted to such an extent that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) found itself $44.8 billion, the MTA’s website said in September 2020. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus, which he signed last week, however, will help the MTA to fight its way out of debt by provide the beleaguered agency with nearly $14 billion. “It is so great to see more and more New
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Yorkers riding the subway again. To set back-to-back record highs in the same week is an indicator that people are eager to return to their normal lives,” Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg said in a statement. “Our team will continue to keep the system as clean as it has ever been and as safe as it has ever been as New York City comes back.” Although only just more than two million of the city’s 8.4 million residents have been vaccinated so far, the New York Post reported that subway ridership has been slowly increasing since the end of last summer, when the MTA reported ridership levels returning to 30 to 40% of what they had been pre-pandemic. MTA consultants, however, have estimated that a return to ridership that is
100% of what is was before COVID will take years to return. In fact, because many New Yorkers might continue to work at home with greater frequency or get around town in ways other than subways and buses, ridership, consultants say, may remain between 80 and 92% of the levels the MTA saw pre-pandemic.
Thief Arrested after Stealing $8,000 worth of Sheitals boropark24..com BROOKLYN — A thief who stole four sheitlach worth $8,000 on Monday afternoon was arrested 10 minutes after Shomrim received a call from a sheital macher on Fort Hamilton Parkway and 46th Street. Shomrim immediately arrived on the scene to download the store’s camera footage to get a description of the perpetrator before setting out to search the area. Within minutes, Shomrim volunteers recognized and found the sheital thief on 46th Street. After calling the NYPD, who arrested the perpetrator, Shomrim recovered all four sheitlach, and returned them to their owner.
Car Thief Apprehended Minutes Before Shabbos by Shomrim Volunteers boropark24.com BORO PARK — A car thief who managed to steal a car on Friday afternoon with a teenage passenger inside, was quickly chased by Shomrim volunteers and located within minutes of the Zman Shabbos. The incident started on Friday afternoon around 5:30pm when the suspect stole a vehicle on 45th Street between 15th and 16th Avenues, while a teenage passenger was sitting in the rear seat. When the suspect drove off and realized there’s a passenger in the vehicle he brandished a knife and the passen-
ger managed to jump out. since in 2020 such a gathering would have presented a serious challenge with the COVID-19 lockdowns. Ovitz passed away Monday at the age of 105, attributing her long life to the way in which she honored her parents before and during the Holocaust. It is appropriate that she passed away the week after the reading of “Honor Your father and mother in order that your days be lengthened.”
diate search occurred within the vicinity of the area. Just a few short moments later the vehicle was located at Cortelyou and East 3rd Street with suspect still seated in the drivers seat. NYPD was summoned to the scene and placed the suspect under arrest. The suspect was also being sought for another recent incident where he stole a vehicle that had the motor open on a local Boro Park street.
Shomrim was quickly called and given the license plate of the vehicle and an imme-
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Purim Bakin g! 48 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
Purim Day! 49
Spring Cleaning
Tips
Spring has arrived – which means it’s time to get your home in tip-top shape. A good, deep spring clean-up is a tradition that not only promotes wellness by keeping your environment clean and organized, it also helps carry the fresh-start feeling brought on by a new year well into the summer.
REMOVE WATER STAINS WITH LEMON FOR A NATURAL FAUCET FIX This spring, make faucets clean and sparkly by rubbing a lemon half on the water stains. The citric acid helps remove hard water marks. Then, use the other half of the lemon for our next tip.
Are your dresser drawers a mess? Instead of putting away folded clothes flat, stack them vertically for easy access.
USE NEWSPAPER TO CLEAN DIRTY WINDOWS AND MIRRORS
USE WHITE VINEGAR TO BEAT SHOWER HEAD BUILDUP
Mix ¼ cup of white vinegar, 2 cups of water and 2 teaspoons of liquid soap into a spray bottle. Spray the mixture onto the glass and scrub with newspaper for a streak-free window or mirror. The ink acts as a mild abrasive and allows you to make use of old newspapers.
Looking for more natural ways to clean your bathroom? Vinegar can dissolve the mineral deposits that accumulate in showerheads over time, causing reduced pressure and water flow. Fill a plastic bag with white vinegar, secure it over the showerhead with a rubber band and leave it overnight to get rid of buildup. Just be sure to run the shower before you hop in, or you risk smelling like vinegar all day.
CLEAN YOUR MICROWAVE BY HEATING LEMON JUICE AND RINDS IN WATER Cut a lemon into halves, squeeze the juice into 1/2 cup of water and drop the rinds into the mixture. Microwave for three minutes and let it stand for five minutes without opening the door. The trapped steam will loosen the grime, so you can wipe the microwave clean with less elbow grease.
CLEAN STAINLESS STEEL SINKS WITH BAKING SODA Simply wet your sink and faucet, sprinkle baking soda, and scrub with a sponge. If you need more heavy-duty scrubbing power, add salt to the baking soda.
ORGANIZE YOUR FRIDGE AND CABINETS WITH ROTATING TURNTABLES Don’t limit rotating turntables and Lazy Susans to your tabletops. After discarding old condiments and spices, organize your pantries and refrigerator with this useful storage hack.
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UNPACK AND STACK YOUR SPRING/SUMMER CLOTHES VERTICALLY
CLEAN YOUR GRILL WITH AN ONION Get your grill cleaned up and ready for the warm weather. First, heat it up and spray some white vinegar onto the grates to help loosen the residue. Then, scrub the area firmly using half an onion. The acid from the onion will rid your grill of any leftover remnants.
LET COFFEE FILTERS DO MORE THAN PUT A SPRING IN YOUR STEP Does your TV screen or computer monitor show fingerprints, smudges and dust? The fiber in coffee filters is be gentle enough to rub them away, even on delicate TV screens. Just don’t press too hard!
We’ve compiled some of the best DIY spring cleaning tips so you can declutter and deep clean your house to make it sparkle all year round.
PLACE A WET DRYER SHEET ON YOUR CERAMIC STOVETOP TO REMOVE BURNT-ON RESIDUE
PUT THE SPRING BACK IN YOUR DIRTY KEYBOARDS WITH COTTON SWABS
Dryer sheets are non-abrasive and a great way to remove burnt-on food from your stove. Place the wet dryer sheet on your stovetop at least 15 minutes before rubbing the gunk away.
If certain keys or sticking, or your entire keyboard just doesn’t have the same pop that it used to, chances are dirt and crumbs are the culprits. Sweep cotton swabs between your keys to dislodge dust and grime. And for a real deep clean, use compressed air to blast away any leftover dust, and follow it up with one more sweep through your keys, this time using a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to kill germs.
PLACE A WET DRYER SHEET ON YOUR CERAMIC STOVETOP TO REMOVE BURNT-ON RESIDUE Dryer sheets are non-abrasive and a great way to remove burnt-on food from your stove. Place the wet dryer sheet on your stovetop at least 15 minutes before rubbing the gunk away.
AVOID SCRATCHING FLOORS BY PLACING CLEAN TOWELS UNDER FURNITURE WHILE REARRANGING Looking to freshen up your home by rearranging furniture? Slide heavy pieces like couches and tables easily and without damage by placing folded, clean towels under each end of the furniture.
USE CREAM OF TARTAR TO CLEAN TOASTERS AND TEA KETTLES Combine 1 tsp of cream of tartar with just enough water to create a milky paste. Rub the solution onto your stainless steel appliances and wipe away to reveal their original shine.
USE VELCRO STRIPS TO KEEP DRAWER ORGANIZERS IN PLACE Attach the grippy strips to one end of your drawer and the other to your drawer organizers. This keeps the organizers in place, but lets you remove them when needed.
USE A BUTTER KNIFE TO CLEAN AIR VENTS Don’t let that dust build up for another minute; use a butter knife to reach those tough get places between and behind your vents. Simply wrap the knife in a rag and wipe between the slats. Then, pen the windows and run your central air to fill your home with fresh spring air (just be sure your heat or AC isn’t on while you’re running the fan).
RECYCLE OLD SOCKS TO USE AS DUSTING MITTS Cotton is a great fabric for trapping dust particles. Try using a (clean) pair of socks as dust mitts and you’ll have more control over where dust goes.
USE A DUSTPAN TO HELP FILL A LARGE MOP BUCKET Not all mop buckets fit in bathtubs or sinks. If your bucket is too large, try using a dustpan as a spout by placing it flat on your sink to transfer water to the bucket. This handy hack is also helpful for other large containers you want to fill.
WRAP A TOWEL OVER A BROOM TO CLEAN HARD-TO-REACH PLACES Cobwebs and dust can collect in room corners and on ceiling fans. Wipe them away by securing a towel over the bristle end of a broom with a large rubber band. The dust and cobwebs stick to the cloth.
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ALLERGY-FREE PESACH RECIPES By Sara Atkins
Food allergies still do bring lots of challenges, as many of the traditional foods eaten on Pesach contain one or more of the Big Eight. We try to have fun in our house, but at the same time get back to the basics with simple ingredients . . .
Pesach is my family’s favorite holiday. However, food allergies still do bring lots of challenges, as many of the traditional foods eaten on Pesach contain one or more of the Big Eight (wheat, soy, eggs, dairy, nuts, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish). We try to have fun in our house, but at the same time get back to the basics with simple ingredients. Here are some of our family’s favorite Pesach dishes. My kids love the sweet charoset, and I can never make enough of it. The Seder is difficult, because you can find lots of allergens lurking right on the Seder plate. Since we have airborne anaphylactic kids to eggs, we leave off the egg. For charoses, go with a very simple recipe. We blend, in the food processor, an apple and a pear, and then drain off the excess liquid. We mix a bit of wine into the charoset of those who can have wine (two of my kids were allergic to grapes, but both recently out g rew
this allergy) at the table. My kids love the sweet charoses, and I can never make enough of it. They like it even better after it has sat in the fridge for a day. For matzah—well, until this year we have been a gluten-free home and therefore used gluten-free matzahs. You can find gluten-free oat matzahs at most bigger Jewish grocery stores. My kids loved it, but my husband will not be missing the bill for it (they’re on the expensive side) now that we have outgrown our wheat allergies. ONE DELICIOUS RECIPES I MAKE IS MEATBALL SOUP: • Meat bones (we use lamb because our daughter is allergic to beef, but flanken makes this soup very rich and tasty) • Loads of veggies • Chopped meat (lamb or beef) • An onion • Tomato Time to cook up your soup. Begin with chopping the veggies (we tend to use celery, sweet potato, white potato, carrots, onion, turnip, parsnip, zucchini). Place the bones at the bottom
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of the pot and add the veggies. I load the pot up with veggies because they make it a really hearty, rich soup. I probably fill it to about twothirds full. Fill the pot to pretty full with water. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Simmer. When the soup is about 3/4 done (or later!), mix chopped meat with a grated onion and tomato, salt and pepper. Make small meatballs (below) and put into soup. Finish cooking. CHICKEN/TURKEY SOUP BALLS • A few chicken breasts or cut chicken • Grated potatoes • Grated carrots • Cubed zucchini and sweet potato • Onion Throw meat in food processor and blend. Mix in the potatoes and carrots. Add some salt and pepper. Put cut-up zucchini, sweet potato and onions into a pot. Let simmer for a few minutes, and then start adding in the chicken balls. Let simmer till the chicken is cooked through and you can smell the rich chicken broth that has formed. The chicken balls will make the water into chicken broth. My boys love this soup, and I make it during the year as well. We do not eat fish because two of the children are anaphylactic to fish. So, during the fish course, I just make loads and loads of salads. During the Intermediate Days we like to eat light lunches, and have to find substitutes for the egg salad we used to live on. Here are a few of our favorites. EGGPLANT SALAD Cube a few eggplants and roast them in the oven with a bit of oil or shmaltz. Sautee onions and tomatoes together, so the mixture gets saucy. Mix in the eggplant. Add a bit of salt. This is tasty served warm or cold. ISRAELI SALAD
Cut veggies into small pieces. Drizzle lemon juice, oil, salt, pepper. LETTUCE SALAD Cut lettuce small. Add salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice. Cube an avocado and mix together. AVOCADO SALAD Mash a few avocados. Cut finely a quarter of an onion, a thick slice of tomato, lemon juice, and salt to taste. My kids also love my Zucchini and Tomato Side Dish. • Five tomatoes, cut up • Four zucchini • Two onions Sautee the onions and when clear, add zucchini. When they are almost fully cooked, add the tomatoes. With a tad of salt and fresh ground pepper, it’s ready to go. This is good served on top of fish, chicken, or turkey to add flavor, or you can serve it as a side dish. As for other sides, since we can’t serve kugel (have yet to figure out that one without eggs), we tend to be heavy on serving French fries, mashed potatoes, or roasted potatoes with meals, and a good veggie stir fry.
Editor's note: While all of the ingredients in the Pesach recipes are kosher for Pesach, each community has its own customs as to what to use or not use on Pesach. Please also note that any processed food must have a reliable "Kosher for Pesach" certification.
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RecipeCenter
Super Simple Lemony Roast Chicken TAKEN WITH PERMISSION FROM GOURMETKOSHERCOOKING.COM
54 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
Super Simple Lemony Roast Chicken
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
(Serves 4)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
½ loaf stale challah, torn into pieces (for Pesach use 2 lbs. baby red potatoes cut in half)
On a baking sheet, toss bread, shallots, lemons, and garlic. Place chicken pieces on top. Drizzle everything with olive oil and generously sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika.
4 shallots, quartered 2 lemons, quartered 6 cloves garlic, each cut in half
Roast in oven for 50 minutes. Serve warm with pan juices and lemons squeezed on top.
¼ cup olive oil 1 chicken, cut in 1/8’s Kosher salt and pepper to taste ¼ cup parsley, chopped
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RecipeCenter
Mushroom Cauliflower Soup TAKEN WITH PERMISSION FROM GOURMETKOSHERCOOKING.COM
56 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
Mushroom Cauliflower Soup
Rich and rustic but light on calories, this dish has become a household favorite. The cauliflower adds that thick, creamy consistency so you can skip the cream you’d usually add to a mushroom soup.
DIRECTIONS
Pareve • Pesach • Gluten-free • Freezes well Yields 8 servings
Add mushrooms; sauté for 5 minutes longer, until softened.
INGREDIENTS 1-2 Tbsp grapeseed oil 1 large onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp) 6 cups button mushrooms, sliced 1 large head cauliflower, cored, cut into small florets 6 cups water or vegetable broth 2 tsp kosher salt freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves, plus additional whole thyme leaves, for garnish
Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 6-8 minutes, or until softened.
Stir in cauliflower, water, salt, pepper, and thyme; bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer, partially covered, for 30-40 minutes, or until cauliflower has softened, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. Using an immersion blender, process soup until smooth. If soup is too thick, add a little water. Adjust seasonings to taste. Garnish with additional thyme leaves.
NOTES Buying Tips: Look for thick, compact heads of cauliflower with creamy white florets. Storage Tips: Store unwashed cauliflower in the refrigerator in an open or perforated bag, stem-side down, for up to a week. Pre-cut florets will stay fresh for 2-3 days. Preparation: Don’t wash cauliflower until it’s ready to be used. Soak in salt water or vinegar and water to help force out any insects lodged between the florets. Remove outer leaves; then cut away the stalk with a sharp knife. Cut each cluster from the core, leaving a little bit of the stem with each cluster. Cut into florets.
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RecipeCenter
Avocados Stuffed with Roasted Vegetable Salad TAKEN WITH PERMISSION FROM GOURMETKOSHERCOOKING.COM
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Avocados Stuffed with Roasted Vegetable Salad
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
(Serves 4)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
4 medium carrots, cut into 1/2” rounds and rounds cut in 1/2
In a large bowl, combine the carrots, zucchini, squash, and red pepper. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well. Spread in 1 layer on a foil lined baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When done, set aside to cool.
1 medium zucchini cut into 1/2” dice 1 medium yellow squash, cut into 1/2” pieces 1 medium red pepper, cut into 1/2” dice 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 ripe avocados 1 lemon, zested and juiced (2 to 3 tablespoons juice and 1 tablespoon zest) 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped chives 1-tablespoon chopped dill Mixed greens or arugula
Cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove pit, leaving the skin on. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to prevent avocados from discoloring. In a large bowl, mix roasted vegetables, remaining lemon juice, the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, and fresh herbs. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Place each avocado half on a small bed of mixed greens or arugula, if using. Top each avocado half with a generous serving of the roasted vegetable salad. Sprinkle lemon zest on top and serve.
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RecipeCenter
Almond Butter Bites TAKEN WITH PERMISSION FROM GOURMETKOSHERCOOKING.COM
60 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
Almond Butter Bites
My friend Audrey sent me this fabulous recipe. These almond butter bites are not only a delicious dessert but a great snack for the kids. Almond butter is natural, contains both fiber and protein and has no additives. My kids love it and spread it on English muffins and even mix it into their yogurt. One other amazing thing about this recipe is that almond butter is available for Pesach so these cookies are a keeper for Pesach too.
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
2 cups almond butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1-1/2 cups coconut (or other raw) sugar
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Drop by the rounded teaspoon/tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat mat. Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes They should be JUST baked (no longer raw, but not at all dry)
2 eggs 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspon salt (if your almond butter is salted – mine is not, be careful about adding too much salt) 6 ounces choc chips
(Makes about 2 ½ dozen)
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InspirationCenter 62 / The Center Spirit / March 2021
Finding Hope By: Pat A. Fleming I've always viewed life from the side lines, Just watching it passing me by. In the past, too afraid to just let go and live, And lately too tired to try. I've envied the people around me So invested in living each day, While I spent my time hiding out from the world And searching for ways to escape. For most of my life I truly believed I was here to help somebody else, But now it's so clear it was just an excuse. To avoid living life for myself. It's sad that our lives and the pain we endure Can weaken our strength to move on, But if we get lost in the scars of our past, Without knowing our lives will be gone. It's true, people are disappointing, They can turn in the blink of an eye, But we can't avoid hurting each other, When we all want a chance at this life. But there's something I've learned through the wisdom of age, A truth about all of our lives, And that is no matter what path we each take, In the end, we just want to survive. So the time has now come to conquer my fears And to stand up and face a new day. Let the hurts of my past wash away with my tears And stop letting my life slip away.
Fun & Games
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GameCenter
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PHOTOGRAPHY
ALLERGIES
FLOWERS
MAY
SPRING BREAK
APRIL
FROGS
NEW LEAVES
SPRING CLEANING
BASEBALL
GOLF
PLANTING
TULIPS
BEES
GRASS
RAIN
WARMER
CROCUSES
GREEN
RENEWAL
WET
CYCLAMENS
GROWTH
ROBINS
DAFFODILS
IRISES
SEASON
DANDELIONS
LILIES
SNOWMELT
EQUINOX
MARCH
SOFTBALL
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GameCenter
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Solutions PHOTOGRAPHY
The hidden sentence is: APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS
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