Friday, April 10, 2020

Table for Two, Passover, 2020, Pesach 5780 מה נשתנה הלילה הזה?

?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה


Here are two views of our Passover Seder Table, which for the very first time in history was set and ready before I lit the holiday candles. I'm not sure exactly how many of the forty-nine, yes 49 s'darim we've had as a married couple we hosted. It's most probably just over half or two-thirds.



But one thing for sure; I never had the table fully set before lighting candles before. So we have no old photos of the table all set up.

In addition, from the time our daughters were old enough, they took charge of setting the table, so I probably haven't done it alone for well over forty years.

I had too many matzah covers to choose from. I gave my husband his traditional one, which had been given to us by my parents. And I used mine, which I had embroidered from a kit over forty years ago. Others we must have inherited from my parents' stock of Judaica.

On the table there are lots of memories plus the mosaic hotplate I made in our local senior citizen group. The Seder Plate and other hotplate were gifts from friends. The two-handled washing cup was from (one of) our children. I'm pretty sure that the glass wine goblets date back to a rather large seder we hosted in our small Jerusalem apartment over forty years ago.

Another first time in well over forty years, my husband did the entire seder on his own. All I contributed was the ?מה נשתנה הלילה הזה Mah nishtanah...? Why is this night...? aka the Four Questions. And of course I planned and cooked, while he followed his tradition of preparing the charoset (chopped apples and nuts) and chrain, horseradish paste.


Now I must prepare for Shabbat. No time to rest/goof off.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Kasher V'Sameach

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No.. your table was for three cause a place is set Elijah, nu .

YMedad said...

No. Eliyahu just had a goblet, eventually.
And besides, who is allowed guests to be present who have not been in the house already in this Corona time?
The chair my wife set for those who cannot come to Israel because of the circumstances place on them, a minhaf from the Soviet Jewry days.

Batya said...

Actually, this year the place with the heart was more for family and friends.