HOLIDAYS
Why Is
This Night
Different?
Some answers to offbeat
questions about Passover.
Compiled from staff reports
by Kimberly Lifton.
y
ou can keep your
ants, but you'd better
get rid of that pet
food.
As we ask the Four Ques-
tions after sundown tonight,
think of the questions that
inundate our local rabbis
this time of year. They are
abundant, and some are odd,
but these are the questions
our rabbis get asked. Why is
your question different from
the others?
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
of Young Israel of Southfield
tells the story about a ques-
tion he was asked while liv-
ing in Los Angeles. A person
had an ant farm, and he
wanted to know if the ant
farm was treife since ants br-
ing crumbs into the ant hill
and underground.
For all of you Detroiters
who own ant farms, here is
the answer:
A talmudic law, he says,
determines how far some-
thing should be under-
ground for it not to be
considered inaccessible. As
long as the ants weren't
trained to bring crumbs back
to the surface, they can stick
around for Passover.
Pet food is another story.
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg
knows all about pet food,
which is not, in any way,
kosher for Passover.
"Thirty years ago, (obser-
vant) people didn't have dogs
or cats," he says. "Now, with
the rise in baal teshuvahs
(newly religious), they are
bringing their animals with
them. Pet food is not kosher
for Passover. You can't feed
chametz to dogs or cats."
Instead, he says, feed the
animals foods with grains.
You can feed them treife
meat, but not chametz, he
says.
"The only other option is
to give your pets to a gentile
family for the holiday,"
Rabbi Silberberg says. "It's
like selling your chametz in
a way."
A common subject is the
afikomen.
What is the significance of
the afikomen?
"People are not fully
aware of the significance of
the afikomen," says Rabbi
Irwin Groner. "It is often a
prize for which children
receive presents. Yet it has
far greater significance. It
symbolizes the paschal lamb
"Through the ages,
it (afikomen) has
become a way to
keep the children
interested. It
encourages them
to keep awake."
Rabbi Irwin Groner
What time does the con-
gregational seder begin? I
forgot to make a reservation.
Is it too late?
Rabbi David Nelson of
Congregation Beth Shalom
jokes that these callers
usually hold their questions
until erev Passover. But his
favorite of the bunch is,
"What time is Yizkor?"
Guess what? He'll never
tell. Yizkor takes place
"sometime during the ser-
vice."
that had to be consumed one
night in its entirety.
"Through the ages, it
(afikomen) has become a way
to keep the children inter-
ested. It encourages them to
keep awake."
But, Rabbi Nelson warns,
money should not be
handled on Passover or any
other holy day. Instead, how
about purchasing a little gift
(before the holiday begins, of
course).
What do we do with our lef-
tover chametz?
Temple Kol Ami has solv-
ed this dilemma. Rabbi
Norman Roman says con-
gregants are encouraged to
donate their chametz to
charity and local food banks.
Project Chametz, sponsored
by The Jewish News and the
community for several years
is one way of donating
unopened boxes of chametz
to the needy.
No chametz should be left
in the house during
Passover, according to the
Torah. Last night, we all
should have thoroughly
searched our homes for
traces of chametz.
"We don't buy into the
legal fiction of selling
chametz to non-Jews and
buying it back after
Pesach," Rabbi Roman says.
"We encourage our members
to clean, sweep and donate."
Why can we cook with
peanut oil, but we can't eat
peanuts?
Better ask a rabbi's wife
this one. It took Hillel Day
School teacher Alicia Nelson
years to explain this to her
husband, Rabbi Nelson.
Rabbi Nelson says this is
one of the most often asked
questions that took him
years to figure out. His wife
did the research.
"In the Middle Ages, rabbis
said a peanut looked like a
bean, so they thought it was
a legume. To avoid any
possible confusion, they
banned them all on
Passover."
Can we eat rice?
No matter which rabbi you
ask, the answer is the same.
If you are Sephardi, you may
eat rice. According to
Ashkenazi ritual, the an-
swer is no.
Why do we have two seders?
"People outside of
Jerusalem had to receive
word by messenger when the
sun set over Jerusalem
before they could have a
seder," says Rabbi E.B.
Freedman of Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah. "Having two
seders was a way to be safe,
to cover the 48-hour period
when they thought the holi-
day might take place."
If you are an Israeli living
in America, one seder will
suffice, he says. And if you
are an American visiting
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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