On Passover Eve, everyone in the village came to the synagogue dressed in white.
By MICHAL AVERA SAMUELMEMBERS OF the Falash Mura Jewish Ethiopian community prepare food for the Passover Seder at the synagogue in Gonder, in 2016.(photo credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)
This year we are celebrating Passover in Columbus and it feels spiritually as if it is my third Exodus.How is that possible? My first Exodus is the story of Passover, our people leaving Egypt with Moses and spending 40 years in the desert. My second Exodus came when my family journeyed with our entire tribe from Ethiopia to Sudan and ultimately to Jerusalem. Now I feel as if I have experienced a third symbolic Exodus by leaving Israel and coming to Columbus, Ohio in the middle of a pandemic (much like one of the Ten Plagues).This holiday always brings back childhood memories of how we celebrated Passover in a small village in Ethiopia.Preparations for Passover had to begin many months before the actual holiday. My father was a farmer and grew the wheat from which the matzah was made. When they harvested the wheat, they examined it carefully and chose to use only the best wheat grains.Special precautions were taken to ensure the wheat remained kosher for Passover. If the grains got wet, it could potentially rise a little. We stored it in large bags and set aside in a dry place until it was time to make the matzah.Making one matzah was a job for three women. The first woman took the wheat flour, quickly added the water and the second woman kneaded the dough and shaped the matzah. The third woman baked it in the oven, carefully timing it so that there was no hametz. They made all the matzah for the 40 to 50 families who lived in the village.My mother also began to prepare months before the holiday. She took new clay and made new sets of dishes that would never have been touched by hametz. We kids were given the job of breaking all the old dishes. It was very exciting and lots of fun for us children. When we came to the synagogue to all celebrate Passover communally, we each brought our own new dishes.On Passover Eve, everyone in the village came to the synagogue dressed in white.The kes – the Ethiopian rabbi – would read to us from the Torah and then explain in Amaharic how we should celebrate the holiday. We would sacrifice a gadi lavan (white lamb) as directed in the Torah. The whole village sang the brachot and zimirot (blessings and hymns) and ate together with great joy and of course, we ended the Seder with L’shana habah b’yerushaliyim because we were always dreaming of being able to live in Eretz Yisrael – Yerusalem (Jerusalem in Amharic) with other Jews.For 2,500 years, Ethiopian Jews kept Passover mi dor l’dor (from generation to generation).
It is now many years since we lived in Ethiopia but the exodus of my family is still very vivid for me as it must be for the many other Ethiopian Jews who made aliya to Israel. For my first Passover in Columbus, I wanted to share my childhood story with this wonderful Jewish community.My family and I are honored to be here with you for the holiday this year. We wish everyone a chag sameach and that you continue to tell your family story – because everyone should experience as if they came out of Egypt.As the story of the Exodus passes from generation to generation, it shapes our families, our identity and our beliefs as Jews. I hope that in my third Exodus, my family will be shaped from our experiences here in the Jewish community in Columbus, joining the special fabric of our lives as Jewish people.The author is a senior community shlicha at JewishColumbus.
