44 April 18 • 2019
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Matzah Madness continued from page 42

passover

Passover Haggadot rewritten to incor-
porate the hiding of the bitter herbs.
I’
m looking forward to our family’
s 
two seders. And frankly, since I reg-
ularly put my keys, glasses and cell 
phone somewhere where I can’
t find 
them; I will volunteer as the most qual-
ified to hide the afikoman. As a matter 
of fact, I think I’
ll just hide my keys 
with the matzah and give the kid who 
finds them an extra buck.
Speaking of which, this year, as an 
act of tzedakah, our family has agreed 
to pool all the afikoman prize money 
and donate it to Lori Loughlin and 

Felicity Huffman’
s kids to pay for their 
new university admissions. 
I hope your families create their 
own great afikoman-finding stories 
this Passover. For a final word about 
matzah, I leave you with the sage 
advice of the one and only Jeff Zaslow 
who reminded people in his speeches 
that matzah could be very binding. 
That’
s why he created Fiber Matzah, 
whose slogan is “Let My People Go.
” ■

Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting 
talent, speaker, and emcee. Visit his website at 
laughwithbigal.com,“Like” Al on Facebook and 
reach him at amuskovitz@renmedia.us.

seder asked, “Where are the green 
onions?” That is how the Finkelman 
family learned to strike each other with 
scallions during “Dayyenu,
” a practice 
which most of us look forward to con-
tinuing at our next seder. 
One family in the Detroit suburbs 
does so well at welcoming people who 
would otherwise be alone that one year 
they wound up hosting both ex-spous-
es after a bitter divorce. They sat the 
former couple at opposite ends of a 
long table. 
An Israeli professor, stranded in 
South Africa for a conference that 
took place on Passover, arranged to 
spend the second seder with Jeffrey 
Dorfman, a professor of immunology 
in Johannesburg. The guest shared 
lovely stories, charmed the hosts’
 chil-
dren and then took a taxi back to his 
hotel room (an Israeli, he was not real-
ly observing the second day as a festi-
val). Only then did the hosts find out 
that the guest had spent the first night 
alone in his hotel room. Dorfman calls 
this “an unfortunate missed opportu-
nity.
” 
Rabbi Sid Vineburg of Oak Park 
used to lead the Jewish synagogue in 
Green Bay, Wis. As the only rabbi for 
many miles around, he maintained 
community relations with religious 
and political leaders throughout the 
state and often had them as guests 
at the Vineburg family seder. Bishop 
Robert Banks, head of the Roman 
Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, sat 
next to the rabbi at a seder. When it 
came time to wash before HaMotzi, 
the bishop washed the rabbi’
s hands. 
Rabbi Vineburg remembers this as a 
profound spiritual moment: “
A feeling 
of God’
s presence: the way it should be, 
peaceful cooperation.
” 

Mark Saul of New York reports 
that his daughter Susanna has friends 
from Luxor who attended their 
seder. Saul found it “interesting” to 
conduct a seder with real Egyptians. 
Similarly, Mike and Roz Grand (active 
at Congregation B’
nai Moshe) hosted 
some Saudi classmates of their son 
at Wayne State University; the guests 
were thrilled with the home-cooked 
meal and with how many of the rituals 
reminded them of Islamic practices.
A family reports: “When we opened 
the door for Elijah the prophet, our 
neighbor’
s friend showed up. Our 
neighbor’
s seder ended too soon for his 
taste, so he hopped over to our house 
for more.
” 
At the end of the seder, the 
Haggadah serves up a series of medi-
eval poems, which participants try to 
sing, after a feast and four brimming 
cups of wine. 
“Our family has a handicap in sing-
ing these songs,
” they said. “We learned 
them at the seder each year of child-
hood, from our aunts, lovely people 
who could not carry a tune. One year, 
we apologized for having no melody 
at all for a song. One of our guests, a 
musician, replied, ‘
Give me a minute. 
I’
ll compose a tune.
’
 Literally a minute 
later, he had a beautiful musical setting 
for the poem and proceeded to sing it 
in a lovely voice. How sad that we do 
not still remember the tune he invent-
ed that night.
” ■

2 for Seder is a concept launched by the 
daughter of one of the people murdered at Tree 
of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The idea is to 
encourage families to open their seders to two 
non-Jews to experience the holiday and to pro-
mote better understanding as a way to tackle 
anti-Semitism at the grassroots level. To learn 
more and receive a kit, go to 2forseder.org.

A Seat at the Table continued from page 42

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