Paul Goldfinger photograph. Bunche Beach. Ft. Myers, Florida. Spring. Click once to enlarge. Blogfinger.net
“One who has found a wife has found goodness and has brought forth favor from God” – Proverbs 18:22
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net, Ocean Grove, NJ. USA. (“The Golden Land” as my immigrant grandparents used to say.)
Passover seder. It is a happy holiday. Despite the war in the Middle East, Jews travel back jot Israel ust to celebrate Passover with family and friends. USA Today
At the Passover seder, the ceremonial and traditional meal, “Solomon’s Song of Songs” (from the Bible) is read. Much of it is about romantic love, but it also has something to say about spring. And the main purpose of the seder is recall the story of the Jewish people as they were rescued from slavery over 3,000 years ago.
A Haggadah is a guide book which is read at seders. There are many versions of Haggadahs, and one could search Blogfinger’s archives by typing in “Passover” into the search box at the upper right. Two were written by an Ocean Grover.
As those attending a seder know, everyone gets a chance to read. The father says, “Like all people, our people in ancient, pastoral times celebrated the liberation of the earth itself from wintry darkness, and rejoiced in the yearly rebirth of nature.”
This is beautifully described in Solomon’s ” Song of Songs” read by the mother: It is from Meyer Levin’s Israel Haggadah for Passover.
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
And the vines in blossom give forth their fragrance.
And here is a Passover poem for 2023 by our friend Igor Timkovsky, immigrant, American patriot, and lover of Ocean Grove. He will return this summer.
Dear Paul and Eileen,
Paul Goldfinger photo. Neptune Township April 16, 2019. Spring is emerging.
I met a young man in the Miami Airport. He was waiting for the same Newark connection that we sought. He is an Orthodox Jew who was reading from a large book of the Talmud. We talked, and he is a full time student at a rabbinical college in Lakewood, New Jersey.
His college with 6,500 students, all men, is the largest yeshiva in America and is called BMG. (Beth Medrash Govoha.) It is an elite school and it is competitive to get in. Everyone studies the Jewish guidebook “The Talmud” from morning till night. Only a minority become pulpit rabbis. Some stay for graduate degrees. The rest go on to other careers including law and medicine.
Typical huge class in Lakewood college BMG. Web information. There can be 1,000 men in one study class.
This student married one year ago, and his wife is “in real estate.” Now he is returning home for Passover.
The Hebrew name for this holiday is Pesach, and that is also my Hebrew name. All my uncles called me “Pesach” when I was a kid. I asked this student why he thought my Mom would have chosen this name for me. He said that it is because Passover is a holiday that represents wonderful events for the Jewish people.
GRAHAM BICKLEY with THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA From South Pacific