America garish Periodical Cater
CLIFTON MIDI • CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
PAGE THREE
TIEVLTROD;AWISB etRON1CLE
in the seder service, the
THE SEDER TREASURE HUNT; children
atikomen was once regarded by
A Tale of the Afikomen
Passover Greetings
and 'Best Wishes
By BERNARD POSTAL
Editor'. Note.—One of the quaintest
part. of the symbolic Passover service is
the .eareh for the atikomen. What is the
origin of this pirtorenque game of hide
nd meek with a piece of matzoth? The
Jewiih Teleuraphle Agency end The De-
troit Jewish l'hroniele nrenent here an
arooxinu story on the origin or this cus-
tom, together with • number of snOvilotes
hinging on the allkonten.
••••
Except in the more Orthodox of
Hendrie•Hall-
Murphy
Investment
Securities
Jewish heroes, the quaint custom
of the master t ceremonies hiding
the liftmen before the Passover
Sl. der begins and presenting the for-
tunate finder with anything he or
she demands (within the purse of
the master of ceremonies) is fast
dying out among American Jewry.
Even in some farily Orthodox
homes the hoary and picturesque
game of hide and seek with a both-
en piece of matzoth is gradually
becoming extinct as the elders ne-
glect to hide the ntikomen and the
children ignoring the entertaining
practice.
Before it heroines as rare as the
warring of the arba-kanfoth it
might be well to pause this Pass-
over and retrace the interesting
steps that have led to this rather
amusing pastime and to recall how
it came to be included in the Seder
ritual.
It has long been the custom to
break off a piece from the middle
the three matzoth on the table
and to secret the fragment under
the pillow of the head of the house.
What remained after the piece had
been hidden away was to be taten
of
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Passover Greetings
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Season's Greetings
LII
Origin of Custom.
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Passover Greetings
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Passover Greetings and Best Wishes
Film Truck Service
(Copyright. 1991. J.
T
A I
Who first shall reach the mill,
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Phone Cadillac 6475
410 Film Exchange Bldg.
DETROIT
Books are the best of things,'
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What is the one end, which all
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Proprietor
3708 Trumbull
Holiday Greetings
•
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WORLD;i4,' F
1933 44
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We Extend the Season's Warmest Greetings to the
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Passover Greetings
thought it devilishly hard that a
Jew should hang a Christian."
Noah's characteristic retort was'
"pretty Christians to require hang- I
ing."
Established 1904
Motor City
Spring Co.
That colorful character, Morde-
cai M. Noah, who combined the tal-
ents of a Tammany politician, man
about town, playwright, pioneer
Zionist, diplomat and journalist,
also has an amusing alikomen story
told about him. While Noah was
sheriff of New York City it hap-
pened to be his duty to order the
hanging of a Christian on a tat'
that coincided with the first day of
Passover. A Jewish friend of
Noah, who was with him at a seder
and found the afikomen, pleaded
with the master of ceremonies to I
urge Noah to do what he could to I
get the condemned man off and I
pointed out that many Christians
Glendale 0776-0075 0
WHOLESALE
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Friends and Clients
the table and prepares to make his B'rith, of which Levitan is a lead- I
demand!
ing member, established the Wis-
In addition to being utilized as consin chapter of the Hillel Foun-
a means of retaining the interest of dation.
Holiday Greetings
CLARENCE J.
CHANDLER & SON,
Inc.
To Our Many Jewish
JIIII I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN
r
i
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Passover
Greetings
It is quite likely that this prac-
tice of hiding the atikomen arose
front a misunderstanding of a pass-
Afiliomen Anecdotes.
age in Mishnah Ives. X 109a. Some
Among. Jewish anecdotes there
perplexed father or fathers, versed
in rabbinical lure and hard put to are a few extant that hinge on the
awaken the curiosity of their chil- linkman. Stant., or perhaps all,
dren at the seder, or perhaps puz- of them luny be as apocryphal as
zled as to how to keep them awake the atikomen custom's historical or
for the duration of the somewhat religious 'oasis is doubtful, but that
lengthy services, may have delib- is of little moment.
A story is told about David
erately misinterpreted the passage.
As it was translated it read: Emanuel, the gallant Jew who was
They hasten (the eating of) the goovernor of Georgia in 1801, who
matzoth in order to keep the chil- Was master of ceremonies at a se -
dren awake." It can also be trans- der in Savannah. The finder of the
lated: "They snatch away the atikomen asked that the governor
nuotzoth." And so from the wilful do what he could to aid Georgians
or purposeful erroneous transla- recover their investments in the
tion of the passage in question the infamous Yazoo land scandal.
custom grew up to permit the chil- Whether or not his action Was in
dren at the seder table to abstract response to this Passover plea, it
the atikomen from under the fath- was through Governor Emanuel's
er's pillow ail to retain it until intervention that Georgian invest-
ors were repaid more than even
redeemed by hint with gifts.
Picturesque as is the origin of the most optimistic had hoped for.
Equally interesting, but probably
the atikomen game, even more so
are the requests made by the for- with less basis in fact, is the tale
obout
the late Julius Kahn, for
tunate finders of the morsel of
matzoth. Often as not the demand many years member of the House
of
Representatives
from San Fran-
is for money. Not infrequently a
petty trinket or an item of cloth- cisco. As the Kahn fatuity was
ing is the price of redemption. gathered around the seder table in
Things the children would never 1916 a timid knock was heard at
think of asking for at any other the door. The Congressman him-
time of the year are demanded self answered and ushered in a lit-
with more or less impunity in ex- tle old lady whose eyes were tear- I
change for the afikomt.n. It Wan a stained. It appears that she,. a
churlish father or master of cere- widowed Jewess, hal left her own
monies that disillusioned the ex- seder table, to come to the Kahn
pectant children by refusing the house to appeal to the Jewish con-
gressman to use his influence to
request.
have her only son exempt from the
Bargaining for Prise.
More entertaining (oven than the draft.
Another pleasant afikomen tale
variety and multiplicity of de-
mands made as the price of ran- concerns Jacob II. Schiff. It is
soming the afikomen is the good- codnmonly believed that the great
natured haggling indulged in be- Jewish banker's well-known friend-
tween the master of ceremonies and • ship for Japan was due to the re-f
the finder. The bargaining in- quest of all eloquent speaker at a
stinct is brought into play and the public seder that Schiff prevent
father often does his level best to Russia from getting anywhere dip-
talk the finder of the afikomen out lomatically, in retaliation for the
of his reward. An amusing de- Czarist pogrom policy, by aiding
parture front the practice of hid- Japan financially.
A Personal Reminiscence.
ing the atikomen under the pillow
of the muster of ceremonies often
leads to what might almost be ate at the University of Wisconsin
called a Seder treasure hunt with attended a student seder sponsortql
the broken piece of matzoth as the by the local Junior Ila(lassah. The
elusive treasure hunt. Almost any- • venerable and white-lwarded Sol
where in the proximity of the seder Levitan, then, as now, treasurer of
table has come to be a legitimate the state of Wisconsin, presided.
hiding place for the atikomen. Be- The writer, who sat at Levitan's
fore the family seats itself around right, found the afikomen but by
the festive board the children and a pre-arranged plan permitted the
others anxious to retrieve the ati- Jewish captain of the University's
komen already have their eyes debating team, now a member of
glued on the master of ceremonies the Wisconsin state legislature, to
and his every movement is watched. , demand the ransom for the afiko-
Generally however he is able to Se- men. The speaker, in a moving ad
cret the matzoth without being dress, asked Levitan to take the
seen. And then the gay shout of initiative in a campaign for a Jew- M
the lucky finder as he gleefully dis- ish students' house on the campus.
plays the piece of matzoth which Six months after the impassioned
he cheerfully shares with ()there at plea made at the seder, the li'nai
CHARLES BLASKAY
Cherry 1560
=7.
11
of the Passover service is, like
many other customs, shrouded it
considerable doubt. The word atiko-
men itself is of Greek derivation,
meaning according to one interpre-
tation, a call for a festal song.
El/WARD F.RICKSON
BAKING CO.
PHONE GLENDALE 7590
at the end of the service. The ori-
gin of this came omnipresent part
Jews as having the power to ward
off fires and to protect against the
"evil eye." As a protection against
tires a hole would therefore be
lored every year through the atiko-
men which was then hung on the
wall until the next seder. Simi-
larly a piece of the atikomen would
he placed in the pockets of chil-
dren's arba-kantoth, as a safeguard
from witches and (other manner of
evil beings. Thus a sort of like
grew up that " he who is tilled
' with touch afikomen lives long and
the corollary that he who died at
a ripe old age "has eaten much
atikomen."
Holiday Greetings
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Passover Greetings
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