Acting out on Pessah

By DAVID GOLINKIN

Pack your bags and split the sea — this is one festival that should be experienced to be appreciated. The writer is the president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

Modern Jewish educators frequently use drama as an educational tool in order to bring a biblical or talmudic story to life, or to get a child more actively involved in the subject under discussion. Much of the Pessah Seder is also geared toward children, in order to fulfill the mitzva of v’higadta l’vincha — "and you shall tell your children" (Exodus 13:8). Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a number of Pessah customs use drama in order to arouse the interest of children and bring the Exodus to life.

In 1853, the Jewish traveler Benjamin II described a ceremony which he saw at a Seder "in Asia."

They dress up a young man in kley golah (Ezekiel 12:3 — "exile costume‘) and before the recitation of the Haggada, he appears before the participants, staff in hand and satchel on his shoulder. The father asks him: ’From where do you come, O pilgrim?"

"From the land of Egypt," says the lad.

"Did you go out to freedom from the bondage of Egypt?"

"Yes indeed,‘ replies the lad, ’and now I am a free man."

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to Jerusalem," he replies.

With great joy the participants begin to tell the story of the Exodus

THE JEWS of Morocco had a similar custom. After reading the Haggada, all the men put a stick with a bundle on their shoulders and leave the house in haste, running and shouting: "So did our ancestors leave Egypt, ’their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders’ (Exodus 12:34)."

These customs are widespread among Sephardi and Oriental Jews to this day. However, surprisingly enough, this custom was first mentioned in Germany 650 years before Benjamin II described it in Asia, and it is also documented in Poland, Germany and Hungary.

In 1210, Rabbi Asher of Lunel states in his Sefer Haminhagot: "I heard that in Allemagne [Germany], after eating karpass, they uproot the table and take the matzot and wrap them in coverings and bear them on their shoulders and walk to the corners of the house, and then they return to their places and recite the Haggada."

Rabbi Shlomo Luria (Lublin, 1510-1573) devoted one of his responsa to the laws of the Seder: "After the meal [the person leading the Seder] takes out the afikoman wrapped in a cover, and he drapes it behind him and walks approximately four cubits in the house and says: ’So did our ancestors go, with their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks.’"

IN 1951, Prof. Alexander Scheiber documented similar customs among his students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest. In Puntok, when they reached yahatz, the father would wrap the afikoman in a scarf, put it on his shoulder, stand up, and say to his family in Yiddish: "Geimir, geimir!" (Let us go! Let us go!).

This custom survives among German Jews until today. When I lectured on this topic in Jerusalem a number of years ago, a woman told me that in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, her father would put the matza wrapped in the sedertuch (white matza cover) on his shoulder and say: "So sind die Kinder Jisroel aus Mizraim gegangen, so war es" (Thus did the Children of Israel leave Egypt; so it was).

A SECOND set of customs takes place not at the Seder, but on the seventh night of Pessah. According to the Sages, our ancestors crossed the Sea of Reeds on the seventh night of Pessah. Various groups of Jews have developed ways of reenacting the splitting of the sea.

The Gerer hassidim gather in the shtibl on the seventh night of Pessah; they drink wine, dance and then pour a barrel of water on the floor, lift up their long cloaks and "cross the sea‘ while declaring the towns located on the way to Gur. At each ’town‘ they drink l’hayyim, then continue to Gur. When they ’reach‘ Gur after ’crossing the sea" they once again drink l’hayyim and thank God for reaching their destination.

A similar custom from Reishe, Galicia, in the 1890s is described by my great uncle Herman Leder of blessed memory in his Yiddish memoir Reisher Yidn:

There were several other Jews who were devoted to certain mitzvot more than to others. One of them was Reb Ephraim Tzibele… He lived in a little wooden house which consisted of one room for himself and his family. One heard little about him all year long But when the seventh day of Pessah arrived, everyone talked about Reb Ephraim Tzibele, because on that night he used to lead his wife and children through the Sea of Reeds. Since there was no sea in his house, he created a miniature "sea.‘ He turned over the keg of water which stood by the door and flooded the room with water. He then took his family and crossed the ’sea" with them, from one side of the room to the other. Many people used to gather there that night to witness the demonstration.

IN JERUSALEM, the hassidim of Reb Arele (1894-1947) in Meah She’arim recreate the splitting of the Reed Sea in a different fashion. The disciples act as the sea and the rebbe represents the Children of Israel. The rebbe passes through them and the students slowly part, allowing him to pass through.

Finally, Rabbi Ya’akov Moshe Harlap (1883-1951) developed a custom which was continued by his disciple, Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli (d. 1995). Hundreds of Jews of different backgrounds would congregate at his house in the Sha’are Hesed neighborhood of Jerusalem. Rabbi Harlap would deliver divrey torah interspersed with singing. At 12 midnight, he would stand up, put on a white kittel and begin to chant Shirat Hayam (Exodus 15). He would sing a special niggun (tune) with those assembled, followed by responsive singing of Shirat Hayam, one verse at a time. After Shirat Hayam, they would sing the Melekh Rahaman paragraph from the Musaf service and dance with great fervor.