Making Pesach - Part 2:

Ma Nishtanah Ha'lilah Ha'zeh?

Dear community –

I hope everyone saw our first Pesach email which you can still find here .  This week, I want to focus on the immediate countdown to Pesach.

 

Hametz

Please don’t forget to sell your hametz to Shintee - don’t waste it, box it up securely, put it out of sight and fill in this form .  Please print it out, scan it and return it to the shul by email at shirchadash@shirchadash.org .   I will make the sale on the morning of April 8th. You can mail your check to the Synagogue if you wish - or simply make your donation online . 

 

Before Pesach we must also annul any hametz we still own. Please search for hametz after dark on Tuesday night, April 7th using the following formula:

Before the search, recite:

 

 

Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh haolam,

asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav

v’tzivanu al biur hameitz.

Praised are You Adonai our God, who rules the universe, instilling in us the holiness of mitzvot

by commanding us to remove all hametz .

 

After the search, recite:

 

כָּל חֲמִירָא וַחֲמִיעָא דְאִיכָּא בִרְשׁוּתִי , דְלָא חֲמִתֵּיהּ , וּדְלָא בִעַרְתֵּיהּ , וּדְלָא יְדַעְנָא לֵיהּ , לִבָּטֵל וְלֶהֱוֵי הֶפְקֵר כְּעַפְרָא דְאַרְעָא

 

Kol hamira v’hamia d’ika virshuti,

d’la hamiteih udla viarteih udla y’dana leih,

libateil v’lehevei hefkeir k’afra d’ara.

All hametz in my possession which I have not seen or removed, or of which I am unaware,

is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth.

Any hametz we find - there should be very little - should be burned before 10 am on Wednesday morning. Please burn your hametz safely! It is always ok to do it in a metal sink, for example.

Maot Hittin

 

Please find a way to make an extra donation for food this year. As food stores in New Orleans dwindle, this might be the most important thing you do this Pesach. Click the images below to help!

Cleaning and Food

 

I hope that we have been able to simplify both of these while still honoring the spirit of Pesach. 

 

You can find the Rabbinical Assembly’s kashrut guidelines here .

 

Cleaning guidelines (not updated for Covid-19) can be found in this document.

For Pesach goods, please order online/use delivery and STAY HOME whenever possible . We must not trek from shop to shop as we would usually do. If we cannot order online we need to limit ourselves to a single store. Please wash your hands before you go, sanitize your cart, space out in the store, touch only what you intend to buy and don’t linger. And then please wash your hands again when you come home.

 

Please support our local Kosher businesses – we need them to still be there after this is over.

Kosher Cajun supplies both food

and dry goods.

Andy Adelman of Casablanca

is catering for Pesach.

Dvash is not cooking for Pesach,

but hopes to be back afterwards.

Seder

 

Pre-Pesach get together!

 

I am hosting a virtual pre-Pesah open house between 5.00 and 6.00 pm on Wednesday, April 8th. This is a chance for us to meet and greet our Shir Chadash friends and wish them a chag sameah . Towards the end we will also sing one or two of the traditional Seder songs to get us in the mood! 

Materials for your own Seder  

You may wish to use your own traditional family haggadot, but if you want to branch out this year, www.haggadot.com is the place to go for inspiration.

 

It’s going to be easy to think about our own challenging situation this Pesach, but here are a few resources for keeping our perspectives open:

And for the planet, try the inter-generational English language haftarah for Shabbat Hagadol (audio version)

Ritual Items

 

The bare minimum for making a Seder is:

Our Pesach Playlists

 

We’re providing three playlists to accompany your Pesach this year. These should be up on our youtube channel by the Monday or Tuesday before Pesach:

 

The Cantors Assembly has also put together a composite playlist which you can find here.

...bringing us to the magic number 4!

Virtual Pesach Services

 

We will be holding a Minyan at 8:00 am (note the later time) on the morning of Wednesday April 8th.   This minyan will include a short ‘siyyum’ - the completion of a piece of study - so that firstborn can eat afterwards.

There are some special prayers for the first day of Pesach that are going to be lost this year because we cannot convene for services. The prayer for dew - Tal - that is recited on the first day of Pesach is on pages 374-376 of Siddur Lev Shalem. As we read it this year, let us hear it in the voice of Ashley Shocket z”l who for so many years made it his own.

 

We are holding a Minyan + Yizkor service beginning 9:15 am on the morning of Sunday April 12.   The Torah service will begin at approximately 9:45 am and Yizkor will be immediately after. Please join us on Zoom with a candle (can be any candle if you don’t have a Yahrzeit one at hand) and a photograph of your loved one. We will make time to share some memories with each other and then light Yahrzeit candles together - or if you prefer, just light your candle at the usual time.

Other

Pesach this year goes straight into Shabbat. I will be making an Eruv Tavshilin on behalf of the community to permit us to cook for Shabbat on Yomtov.

I will be writing/recording a Pesach sermon to post early next week.

 

Please be well, please be safe, please continue to isolate. Please let us know quickly if any of you are sick.

 

Next year at the Jazz Seder!!

 

Rabbi Silver