The Plague of Flies, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902), gouache on board, 6 15/16 x 7 3/8 in. (17.6 x 18.7 cm), at the Jewish Museum, New York

• Four Daughters: the haggadah I use, A Different Night, The Family Participation Haggadah, has many pictures of variations on the Four Sons. It also has one cartoon of four daughters. I thought it might be fun to come up with some ideas for the four daughters.
• I could do a post with thumbnails of as many different artworks related to Yitziat Mizrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) as I can find in public domain (older than 50 years so no problem copying the image).
• Ten Plagues: we have a bag of ten plagues. You could buy one, or we could discuss ideas for putting together a bag in a creative manner.
• American Jewish history: my brother-in-law had the Maxwell House haggadah. It has some nice tidbits from American Jewish Passovers past, such as the time some Civil War soldiers didn’t have the ingredients to make charoset, so they put a brick in the middle of their seder table.
• Speaking of charoset, I ended up being the one to make it for our seder – I’ve never made it before. The mom who was making it got distracted by her baby, so my sister-in-law said, can you make it? I peeled two more apples (were there 6 all together?), poured in some grape juice, and mixed in cinnamon and a bag of finely chopped walnuts. My niece wanted to add dates, but they were nowhere to be found. Tasted delicious as is. Charoset is my favorite Passover food. I love the korach sandwich, with romaine lettuce and matza.
• Shfoch Hamatha – Pour Out Thy Wrath – this section of the seder was added around the time of the Crusades, as Jews experienced pogroms. How does one react to this paragraph today?
• Haggadot – do you have a favorite? My boys like The Animated Haggadah. Years ago at my cousin’s house I loved using a haggadah called the The Polychrome Historical Haggadah. It had sections of the haggadah colored by when the section was added. Uh, oh, I see on Amazon one priced at $2,500. Yikes.

Can you help elaborate on any of these ideas? Any in particular you would like to see as a post?

Some past Pesach posts:

• What is your favorite part of the seder?
• Pesach and the Environment

According to Rabbi Kanotopsky in Rejoice in Your Festivals, if one merely has freedom from slavery, one doesn’t achieve true freedom. One must be glad to achieve freedom from slavery to Pharoah and be happy to become subservient to God.

For a people to survive for an extended period of time, it must have a higher purpose…A people cannot exist on a philosophy that is essentially negative.

If we understood חרות (herut), freedom, to be merely the opposite of שעבוד (shebud), servitude, that is a very negative and shallow understanding. Freedom, if it is simply the breaking of bonds and the throwing off of shackles – that concept of freedom speaks of nothing positive…. The Torah formulated freedom in an entirely different manner. Our rabbis understood that real freedom must contain the elements of service…The difference between the slavery we detest and the freedom we crave lies merely in the of the master…If I am slave to material pursuits and animalistic passions, this is servitude! If I am slave to the Law of God, this is freedom.

Felisol wrote: “As long as I manage to find freedom of thoughts, I cannot become truly enslaved.”

Rayna Eliana wrote: “I would say that in the dictionary sense, they are opposites. But in the mental and emotional sense they could both mean freedom in the fact that one can choose to feel free within one’s religion, no matter how others try to quash or stifle it. One can choose to feel free within one’s emotions, and try to get through the days with their minds focused on other aspects in their lives, that might bring them consolation…such as loved ones. Often remembering loved ones can keep one’s spirits and illuminations alive, and let them focus on living, as best they can under their conditions.”

Risa wrote: “The ‘freedom’ which we will be celebrating on Passover is a special freedom which we were granted when we left Egypt. That is, the recognition that we can not be slaves to men (i.e. to Pharoh) because we must be slaves to the God of our fathers. As long as we are loyal to His will and laws we will always be free.

Now, that’s not a very Western view and certainly ‘freedom’ has other perhaps more practical meanings as in being able to make choices and express ones views. That’s important too, but in a different context.”
My note: Risa’s first paragraph is close to Rabbi Kanotopsky’s views.

Ilana-Davita wrote: “Freedom entails responsibility.”
My note: This quote reminds me of Rabbi Levi Meier’s suggestion of a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast to complement the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast.

This topic brings to mind the comments of a friend I once had who grew up in South America. He said he felt had more in common with those from Eastern Europe – they didn’t have a lot of choices in life. In the U.S., we have so many choices. Which kind of freedom shall we choose? Sometimes it’s easier to not have all these choices. I feel fortunate that I can choose to lead a Jewish life.

May all those celebrating Pesach have a happy, healthy, meaningful holiday.

More on this question later this week. Feel free to respond with whatever comes to mind.

The next post on this topic: Are freedom and slavery opposites?

I enjoyed Mrs. S’s list of links which she concluded with a film clip, so here’s a Pierre film clip with an Egyptian theme to conclude this post:

Blossoms on Trees in Highland Park, New Jersey

Any Pesach recuperators having a hard time looking at a potato?

Some great links:

• SuperRaizy hosted Haveil Havalim. I so connected with her post on childhood Pesach preparations – sometimes holidays bring out difficult times for families.
• My heart goes out to Baila, who has flown to New York to visit her dad who is not well. So difficult to see a parent suffer.
  Update: according to A Mother in Israel, Baila’s father has died.
• Ilana-Davita recommends The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and other books.
• Jew Wishes reviews Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes by Tamar Yellin. Having read Tamar Yellin’s book The Genizah at the House of Shepher, I’m sure this one is a worthwhile read, too.

I’m reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I finished Harriet Reisen’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. It left me with great admiration for Louisa May Alcott – she worked hard to support her family (never married – she supported parents and sisters), volunteered as a nurse in the Civil War, and in an era when women had few choices of livelihood, became rich and famous. She unfortunately became ill in her middle years and died at age 55 probably of complications from lupus.

Feel free to talk about whatever you like, as long as it’s not rude. (the people who comment on this blog make the world seem like remarkably polite folks – what a group of mensches, that is, good, polite folks).

Mushroom Paté with onions and walnuts

• 1/2 lb. mushrooms
• 1 large onion
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• Sea salt
• Spices or dried herbs (I used dried thyme)

Suitable for Passover or any time of the year one wants a tasty, easy to make spread, this mushroom paté can be made in a short time. Chop then sauté the onion in olive oil. Add the mushroooms, chopped into pieces. Put the onions and mushrooms in the food processor, then add the salt and dried herbs. Turn on the food processor until the mixture is smooth. Add the walnuts – you can chop the nuts finely or in bigger chucks, as you prefer. Klara Levine, who gave me this recipe, suggested it should be the consistency of haroset.

Radishes in Beet Juice with Oranges and Parsley

Avdus L’Herus (Slavery to Freedom) Salad Revisited

Passover is a challenge even for vegetable salads – sometimes one cannot get a certain condiment with a Pesach hashgacha (approval) that adds flavor, so one gets creative. Last year I blogged about the Slavery to Freedom Salad. This year I became enamored of a macrobiotic dish of pickled radishes with umeboshi paste. Since I cannot get the umeboshi paste for Passover, I came up with this combination of the two salads:

Ingredients:

• 3 fresh beets – boiled and beet juice preserved
• 1 bag of red radishes, sliced
• 1 bunch chopped mint (or substitute parsley or cilantro)
• 3 navel oranges, cut into pieces
• 1 half chopped red onion

Cut the radishes into circles and cook them until slightly soft in the beet juice. Mix with oranges, chopped parsley and red onion. Serve at room temperature.

•    •    •

Beet Salad

Don’t know what to do with the cooked beets? Here is what I put together:

Peel the beets after boiling. Discard skins. Chop into circular pieces (and then cut in half again, if desired). Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Garnish with scallion and parsley. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.

Sponge Cake 2008, watercolor by Leora Wenger

Esther G. Robfogel (1904-1997) was my mother. I ate her excellent sponge cakes on Pesach and throughout the year for many decades. I hope that my granddaughter, Esther F. Robfogel, will carry on the tradition.
- Nathan J. Robfogel

I’m Esther Robfogel’s daughter. Although I used to bake with my mom, baking was never my forte. As it happens, I was thinking about making mom’s cake this year. After reading your blog, I know I will. Thanks.
- Hanna

For more recipes, be sure to visit Phyllis’ aka Imabima’s latest posting of the Kosher Cooking Carnival, Rosh Chodesh Nisan edition.

Also see:

• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Dishes – Meat and Fish
• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Desserts
• Ilana-Davita: Kosher for Pesach Quick and Light
• Cooking Manager: Passover Recipes and Cooking Techniques
• Mrs. S: Cooking for Pesach in the J-Blogosphere
• On my blog: Recipes for Pesach

On a sad note, two men in Teaneck, New Jersey died walking home from shul at the end of Shabbat when a tree fell on them. I can’t imagine what Pesach is going to be like for those two mourning families.

Leaving Egypt, drawing by my son won Honorable Mention 2006 Passover Art Contest

What is your favorite part of the seder?

Here are some choices (or tell your own):

• Many of my family members love a good discussion. They like to bring up new ideas, relate it to what is going on in current events, tell a story of a great rabbi’s seder or a word of Torah they heard from their rabbi.
• On Mimi’s post interviewing three women about Pesach, two said the songs are their favorite part.
• Acting out parts of the seder story. My personal favorites are walking around the table with my daughter, pretending we are the Jews coming out of Egypt (Avadim Hayeenu – we were slaves). We also like tossing plastic frogs and cattle on the table as we recite the ten plagues.
• The food. Either eating matza, which you may have not eaten for a month, or eating the bitter herbs or the parsley and potato dipped in salt water or the korach sandwich (my favorite food ritual) or the ritual egg. Or whatever is served for dinner.

If you are not Jewish and/or you have never been to a seder, I wonder what you think of all this. What would be your favorite part? Feel free to comment.