Community Magazine May 2003

Did You Eat your Matzah Tonight? It was the day before erev Pesah. “Ima,” my four year old twins cried out in unison “We brought home our Haggadot from school today. “Great,” I said as I quickly whisked them away from kitchen full of chametz. “Now put the Haggadot in your room,” I ordered. “I will read them to you when I get a chance.” But Pesah came and went, and I never did get around to it. Those two beautiful Haggadot sat so lonely, waiting to be read. One evening, a few weeks after Peasach, I finally decided to read the Haggadot with the twins. We read about cleaning and preparing for Pesah. We read about burning the chametz and sell- ing it. We sang Ma Nishtana and Dayeinu. We went through the 10 Plagues and pointed to the Kearah, Matzah and Maror. We went through every page and sang Kadesh Urhatz. We ended off, leav- ing the cup for Eliyahu Hanavi and singing Ehad Mi Yodeya. Ah! Finally they fell asleep with sweet dreams of grape juice and the taste of Afikoman on their lips. Before retiring for the evening, I phoned my cousin, as I do most nights, to exchange some Torah thoughts After a few minutes of chit chat she asked, “So did you eat your Matzah tonight?” “What Matzah?” I asked awestruck. “What are you talking about?” Could she have read my mind? I wondered to myself. Could she have known that we just finished the Haggadah and felt as if we all had just left Egypt? “What are you talking about?” I challenged. “Tonight is Pesah Sheni”* She explained. Sarah Sasson *Pesah Sheni occurs on the fifteenth day of Iyar. In the time of the Bait Hamikdash, people who were not able to bring the Korban Pesah at the right time would bring it then. Although there are no Korbanot today, we have a custom to eat matzah on Peasach Sheni as a remembrance. There is no prohibition against eating hametz on that day. Tale of a Fateful Trip It was the last day of the summer season and my family was moving back the Jersey shore to Brooklyn. Before leaving, my father and I decided to get in one last day of fishing. Together with some friends we set out from Sandy Hook in my father’s boat. We were all happily catching fish and having a grand time. Although it was still midday, we noticed the sky darkening and we supposed that a storm may be on its way. My father asked his friend if he wanted to stay out for a few more minutes?” After a moment of thought my father’s friend replied, “Let’s head back”. Just then we noticed another fishing boat, with five or six passen- gers, just coming out. Since we would not be fishing any- more that season, my father pulled over to the boat, and gave them his extra hooks. Then we headed back to the dock. When we arrived at the dock, I cleaned the boat and my father cleaned the fish. We packed up all the equipment and proceeded to the car. As we were loading the car, the winds picked up, and tree branches began to shake and fall. Then came the downpour accompanied by thunder and lightening. It was as dark as night. We could see that the ocean had become very rough, and boats were having difficulty making it into their slips. It was a disaster. We drove back to Brooklyn through the rain. At one point the rain became so heavy that we had to pull off the road. With great difficulty, we finally made it home. The next morning, while listening to the radio we heard that a boat in Sandy Hook holding six passengers had been caught in the storm and sunk. We were all shocked and although to this day we are not sure if the boat that sunk was the one that we had seen, we were very thankful to Hashem that we too did not get caught in the storm. Abraham Safdeye Inspired Perspectives Recognizing the significance of exceptional events in our lives Send your account of an exceptional event to Community Magazine email :cm@communitym.com • fax: 718-504-4246 mail: 1616 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11223