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View from the Pew
Mary Adamski
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Nourishing faith
The local Jewish community prepares matzoh for annual Passover observances
Young rabbis-in-training from Chabad of Hawaii began Thursday to deliver boxed matzohs as gifts to every Jewish person they knew of on Oahu as a reminder of the coming Passover holy day. The distribution continues this weekend on the neighbor islands.
The big, crisp disc of flatbread, baked in a special New York bakery, is so much more than an ethnic or cultural food. To eat matzoh is an act of religious faith and a celebration of a defining historical event for the Jewish people.
"That's the rule: For seven days we eat unleavened bread," said Eli Hecht, 20, of New York City, here to study with Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky. "We are not allowed to own anything made with the five grains -- no pasta, no pastry, no bread ... no beer."
"The rule" is in the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew scriptures. It's written as God's order to Moses as he prepared to lead the Israelites out of Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Bread dough would not have time to rise because the people must make haste to leave.
The Passover story will be told at communal meals, called Seder, next week sponsored by Jewish congregations. The holiday, called Pesach in Hebrew, celebrates the physical liberation of the Israelites from slavery and also their spiritual freedom as they pulled away from heathen influences.
The Bible requires that Jews assemble each year to celebrate Pesach and that matzoh, bitter herbs and roast meat be served. The original Passover meat came from lambs whose blood was smeared on Hebrew doorposts. Those houses God passed over on the night he inflicted the 10th and final plague on Egypt, killing the first-born child in every family.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Rabbi Eli Hecht, right, Mandy Krasnjansky and his brother Tzvi individually package matzoh bread to be distributed to the local Jewish community for the Passover season.
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At a 21st century Seder, the roast shank bone is most likely to be chicken, a practicality because that is the easiest kosher meat to find in Hawaii, said Pearl Krasnjansky, not to mention easiest to serve to a banquet crowd.
But first, the Bible also mandates housecleaning, to remove any trace of leavening or unfit foods, to render the cooking utensils kosher so the food will be kosher, fit for consumption.
To that end, the rabbi and Hecht and others will take a blowtorch to the ovens in Gov. Linda Lingle's mansion, where a Seder will be held Thursday, and to the kitchens at the Ala Moana Hotel and the Hale Koa Hotel. Yes, a blowtorch.
"To kosher an oven, we take a blowtorch to the racks, the trays," said Hecht. "We take boiling water to the countertops. We kosher everything in the kitchen, everything to be used for Passover." The concept of kosher preparation of food applies all year. "For Passover it is much more strict," he said.
"The more observant you can be about your religion, the better," said Hecht. "The more you show God that you do not the minimum, but the maximum."
The child of an Orthodox Jewish family, Hecht is facing culture shock in his first months in Hawaii. The native of Queens, N.Y., is missing the "vast variety of Jewish stores, the kosher products. In Hawaii, 99 percent of the food we use comes prepackaged from California and New York."
"My family rents time in a matzoh bakery where we know it's all clean and fresh. We bake thousands of matzoh, very strict, very good."
The folks at Chabad have hauled boxes out of storage marked "Pesach" containing plates, glasses, cooking pans and utensils used only for this seven-day holiday period. That reminds Hecht of home, where his family does the same.
"I think strict is good," said the rabbi-to-be. "We are complying with the rules God set up. He wants us to fulfill what it says in the Torah. He tells us he wants us to feel like kings. To fulfill ourselves as Jews, we need to do as much as we can what God wants us to do."
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Rabbi Eli Hecht, right, Moshe Krasnjansky and his brother Tzvi packed matzoh bread. To eat matzoh is an act of religious faith and a celebration of a defining historical event for the Jewish people.
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Churches add Christian spin to traditional Seder meals
About 200 people are expected at a Seder tomorrow on the University of Hawaii campus.
The Book of Exodus will be read, Hebrew songs sung and symbolic food will be eaten, but the biblical feast relived at the Newman Center will have a New Testament spin.
Community Seder Observances
Chabad of Hawaii, 735-8161. Tickets for both community Seders should be reserved by calling the office. Tickets are $90 for adults and $55 for children, with kamaaina discounts available.
» Wednesday, 7 p.m., Hibiscus Room, Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Drive.
» Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Garden Lanai, Ala Moana Hotel.
» Communal lunches and a Shabbat dinner next Friday will be offered in the hotel. Call for reservation information.
Temple Emanu-El, 2550 Pali Highway. Monday is the deadline for reservations for the Thursday community Seder at the Hale Koa Hotel Waikiki Ballroom, 2055 Kalia Road. Tickets for nonmembers are $65 for adults, $45 for children and $30 for students and military personnel. Call Alida at 537-3754 or write to alidarutchick@hawaii.rr.com.
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The Catholic campus center is one of several local Christian churches to hold Seder meals. Christians believe that Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover on the night before he died. Holy Thursday services next week will mark that event, one of the holy days leading up to Easter Sunday.
"We are not trying to recreate the Jewish Passover," said the Rev. Chris Cartwright, pastor of Newman Center/Holy Spirit Parish. "For us the connection is Jesus," and the Gospel story of his Last Supper describes rituals still used in the Mass.
"The breaking of the bread, the blessing over the wine -- it is so reminiscent for us, we don't need to connect the dots for people. We are so comfortable with the words," said Cartwright.
"We speak of our Eucharist as a Paschal feast," he said. "We believe the lamb in the ancient text was a prefigurement of Christ. We refer to him as the Paschal lamb. It is a faith statement."
That Christian imagery is a reason that a lamb dinner is served at the Newman Center Seder, said chairwoman Rose Anne Petro. A Maryknoll School religion teacher, she will lead another Seder for sixth graders on Tuesday at St. Pius X parish.
"The sixth-grade study in religion is Hebrew scripture, so we give them the experience of a Seder," said Petro. "In the days of Jesus, you would buy a lamb which would be slain in the temple, then bring it home where it would be roasted and completely consumed. Once the ritual killing was no longer part of the Jewish ritual, the most common Seder meal now is roast chicken or beef brisket."
There is no attempt at all to be kosher, Petro said. But she does teach that concept in the sixth-grade lesson. "I said we think of spring cleaning, that it is part of the Jewish family's tradition to prepare their house for Passover. We talk about how are we preparing ourselves spiritually, what are we doing?
"What's special about celebrating the Seder is that it allows us to enter the story. It reminds us that in salvation history, God has intervened so many times to save us ... whether in the Hebrew scripture or in the life of Jesus," Petro said.
Cartwright said when Catholics attend a Mass, it tends to be a passive involvement with the priest presiding at the liturgy, the music provided by a choir.
"The Seder meal is quite the opposite; it engages the participants. That's part of the appeal, its beauty," said the priest.
For the Christian Seder, the matzoh bread was bought at Safeway, and parishioners signed up to provide some elements of the ritual platter of Seder food. "Saturday night, we will be chopping apples and walnuts, which will sit overnight in Mogen David wine," she said.
The roast lamb and turkey dinners will be prepared at St. Francis Convent nearby; "in return we make a meal for the sisters."