The Eternal Jew’s Tale, #194, Crystal Haggadah, 5

In this episode we ride our cloud-chariots to the Caucasus and then to the Galilee.

The Eternal Jew’s Tale
A Pesakh Montage, The Crystal Haggadah
Mountain Jew and Kabbalistic seders

Mountain Jews Seder, Derbent, ~1300 CE

We, Juhuro, Mountain Jews, exiled by Sennacherib in times past, way past, found our way to the Caucasus. We, the ancient Israelites, are true to Pesakh’s ancient rites.

Purim brings the melting snow, the breaking floes, the river rush. Nissan.* See the new moon. We choose a lamb to sacrifice, every family its own lamb. But as a whole community we prepare our synagogue: wash the rugs that line the floors, repair the walls, re-thatch the roof, organize the festive meal.
* Jewish month of Passover

The week before Nissonu* night fragrances from every house are carried on the mountain breeze:
* Pessukh in Juhuri
Eshkenna*with lamb shank, onions, eggs, and mountain herbs; kharoset made of bitter thorn; cookies made of walnut meal, sunflower seed, and cherry jam; qoqol** baking all week long.
* a local stew; ** matzah

Come seder night, everyone gathers at the synagogue. The spitted lambs are set to roast throughout the hectic afternoon. Now the evening pleasures start with ritual purification for hands and hearts, for words and deeds, and then the first of many cups of the finest wine that we produce from vineyards terraced in our hills. And then the first of the holy texts from Torah and our history:

“*…Nothing leavened you may eat; rather, matzah for seven days, poor man’s bread made hurriedly, as you fled Egypt hurriedly…*”
*-* Deut/Devarim 16:3

We break the qoqol and pass it round, blessing first a plain piece. Then we dip it in olive oil and sprinkle coriander on it, remembering the taste of manna that the Lor provided all those years. And then the tales of bravery of all the heroes of our folk, from Abraham to Daniel; and then our own heroic tales, our wars against Sennacherib skirmishing him as he fled east; and then our conquest of this land, these mountains north of Babylon. Each of our clans, our separate tales, and all of us as a single tribe, a single tale of freedom won in this, our own, our Jewish land, awaiting the great and holy day when Israel will be restored and we might lead the battle charge.

Celebrating for two nights and eating qoqol for seven days. Then we end the festive week with a joyous banquet in the fields, with music, song, dance, and prayer, and many marriages arranged.

Lurianic Seder, Tsfat, 1570 CE

“The Lor is like a potter who set a delicate sculpture into Hem kiln. The Hebrew folk were the God-shaped art that were set in the kiln, Egypt. The fiery sparks were the holy soul God ignited to transform us clay. But the sparks were so forceful, bright, and hot they shattered the clay, the human will. The fragments descended into the world as Kohen, Levi, and Israelite. Now our seder must project such will that the holy vessel will be repaired and all Israel will be united in a single force as Prophets of God.”

So teaches the Ari* on Shabbat ha-Gadol** but no one agrees how to interpret it.
* aka Isaac Luria; ** the Sabbath preceding Pesakh, literally, the Great Sabbath

Come seder eve everyone meets at the Eliyahu haNavi,* the sun still a hand above the horizon so we can chant the Shir haShirim,** each of us working the holiday trope with our own trills and embellishments.
* the synagogue named Elijah the Prophet; ** The Song of Songs

At *ha lakhma anya* the Ari asks,
*-* Aramaic: bread of affliction/poverty, read early on in the seder

“Who is the one singing this song:
‘Give me the kisses of your mouth.’?
“And yet in the same breath boldly declares,
‘Up! Depart! Go! And be gone, and may you bring blessings upon me too!'”

And then each sage at the table presents a shrewd reveal of that hidden voice, with many reasons and arguments:

‘Solomon;’ ‘Moshe;’ ‘Lilith;’ ‘the Lor;’ ‘the Angel of Death;’ ‘the ten Sefirot.’

Come ‘round to our master, he simply says,

‘It’s the inner pharaoh ruling over you, who, yet desperately wants to be subdued.’

While the holy fires spark and flare and light up the room to the Atzilut,* there’s *washing, matzah, kharoset-maror, and matzah-maror* at the same time.
* in Kabbala, the highest state of human consciousness;
*-* steps 6-9 in the order of the seder

And then the Ari quenches the flames and declares,

“The time for questions is come.”

Some cherub whose hair is still uncut and hardly out of his swaddling pants proudly chirps his ‘ma nishtana.’*
*-* opening phrase of the 4 questions, ‘what is different…’

And then the Ari ignites it again, asking,

“Is this night really different at all? Tomorrow, will anyone here be changed?”

The rest of the evening til late at night midrash flames, then slowly dies out, replaced by blessings and by chanting Hallel,* and then by meditations on poems and songs that each of the sages improvise.
* psalms 113-118

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In the next episode we move on to Kotsk and then a Kibbutz.