Publisher's Letter
Parting The Sea With Matzah
A
11 right, admit it. When it comes to Jews and food,
there is no better example of the unbreakable link
between our culture, heritage, religion and stom-
achs than Passover. We don't need fancy demographic studies
to tell us that listening to the story of our Exodus from Egypt
at a seder (that is, when our mouths aren't full or we haven't
collapsed on the sofa from eating
exhaustion) is the most popular exer-
cise of Jewish expression — ranking
even higher than lighting a chanukiah
for the Festival of Lights.
This night, this week, was different
from all others because our kitchens,
those often-underutilized showplaces
for Sub-Zeros, granite countertops and
sleek convection ovens, are actually
hubs for food preparation. And the
recipes we use, handed down from •
generation to generation, connect us
with our past, with warm memories
and with a determination to pass them
on to our own children and grandchildren.
In addition to the lessons of slavery and freedom learned at
the seder, Passover food and wine have taught us the following:
Cost Accounting
Where else but a Passover seder can you enhance your math
skills? It goes something like this ... "Mom purchases 11/2
pounds of trout, 3 pounds of pickerel and 41/2 pounds of
whitefish at a cost of $51 and spends two hours of direct labor
grinding, boiling and cleaning up the mess. Mom's hourly rate
is $20. Her labor yields 27 pieces of gefilte fish. The cost per
piece of.gefilte fish is $2.63.
"Or, mom goes to Costco and buys two large cans of
Rokeach Old Vienna Gefilte Fish at $6.89 each with a yield
of 28 pieces. The cost per piece of gefilte fish is 49 cents.
Why does mom bother, especially when many of the guests •
don't like gefilte fish and it ends up in the garbage anyway?"
Because making homemade gefilte fish isn't about dollars and
cents. It's about passing along a tradition, a memory.
Geopolitics .
Aside from understanding and interpreting the map of the
Middle East, then and now, Passover also requires sensitivity
to the differences between Litvaks (those who trace their ori-
gins to Lithuania) and Galitzianers (those of Polish ancestry).
Did you ever witness the pained looks on the faces of guests
when they finally bite into that (expensive) piece of gefilte
fish and it's so sweet they spit it out (obviously Litvaks)? Or so
peppery that they gag on it (Galitzianers, for sure)?
Do matzah balls suffer a similar fate? Those rock-hard
versions rarely appeal to the light-and-fluffy crowd (hint:
it's the seltzer.water that puffs them up), and vice-versa. As
the Haggadah says, "Let all who are hungry, come and eat." It
doesn't say anything about swallowing.
You Are What You Eat
For 51 weeks a year, we watch our intake of cholesterol and
obsess about which statin is right for us. Why is it that this
week we practically swim in cholesterol, gobbling down
hard-boiled eggs, 12-egg sponge cakes and egg-dipped fried
matzah? Why is it that 51 weeks a year, we stay away from
saturated fats, and this week we indulge in whipped butter,
whipped cream cheese, real sour cream and processed cheese
slices?
I once asked David Techner of Ira Kaufman Chapel in
Southfield if he sees a spike in activity in the days after
Passover, when those clogged arteries perhaps get squeezed
a bit tighter. He wasn't sure. I think there would be a correla-
tion between David's business and Passover food, if someone
studied it.
Friends Don't Let Friends
Drink Manischewitz
Passover is a time to understand and appreciate trends. I
remember my Uncle Sid coming to our seder and, every year,
he'd bring a big bottle of Manischewitz Concord Grape wine.
The wine was here, the seder could begin.
In those years, the choices were simple: Manischewitz or
Manischewitz, with perhaps a Mogen David here or there.
Today, the Manischewitz is still on the seder table (in Elijah's
cup — we don't want to waste the good stuff on the prophet),
but those required four cups of wine are more likely to be •
select kosher reserves from Israel.
In the-past, our elders would hum the "Man-o.-man-o-
shewitz, Man-p-what-a-wine" jingle after they-downed that
final cup. Today, there are no jingles. Rather, through slurred
speech, we say something about "doing our part to support
the Israeli economy'
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The Last Cookie
For 30 years, my most meaningful Passover food ritual
centered on a relatively bland treat from a box with the over-
blown and expensive name: Manischewitz Fancy Cookies.
During Passover of 1975, an attractive student waitress
at the University of Connecticut Hillel named Gina (yeah, I
wondered about the name, too) arranged for me to receive
the very last "fancy cookie" from the Manischewitz boX. As I
reached for the treat, our eyes met. We've been together ever
since.
Each Passover- , Gina found an opportunity to surprise
me with the last cookie in the Manischewitz Fancy Cookie
box, even if it meant throwing out all of the other cookies.
Alas, this year, there are no Manischewitz Fancy Cookies to
be found. Seems like the cookies were so bad, maybe they
stopped making them.
Well, nothing lasts forever ... except the memories and tra-
ditions we pass along from generation to generation. CI
Beyond Pesach
ECO
Judaism
• Discuss how the
changes in habits we make at Pesach can help us continue
making changes in wasteful environmental habits through-
out the year. Make a list of them.
• Discuss whether or not the Jewish concept of freedom
extends to rights for animals, plants and even ecos.ystems.
How far does freedom go? Is "ecojustice" compatible with
Jewish tradition? Embrace readings from www.coejl.org .
– Michigan Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
(Ml-COEJL): Healing the Earth with Jewish Environmental
Values. For more information, call (248) 642-5393, ext. 7,
or e-mail mi-coepjfmd.org .
April 20 • 2006
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