Passover Seder Trivia - 5785/2025 edition
At our synagogue's congregational seders for the last several years, we have played the following game: I have collected unusual Pesach stories, and shared three such stories with the community: two true stories, and one fictional story. Participants then have to guess which two stories are true and which one is false. (If you listen to Wait, wait, don't tell me, you get the idea, except that only one story is false.) You can see previous editions of this game here http://rabbischeinberg.blogspot.com/search?q=trivia. This is what was presented at our congregational seder in 2024. Two stories are true; one is fictional. Answers at the bottom! (Note: All photos inspired by the stories were created by AI. )
Story #1:
Why do we dip a green vegetable in salt water at the beginning of the seder?
The most popular answer is that the salt water recalls the tears of our ancestors in slavery in Egypt.
But there’s another answer: The Torah’s first reference to Matzah comes in the book of Genesis, chapter 19. When Abraham’s nephew Lot sees two angels visiting the city of Sodom, he makes a feast for them and gives them Matzah.
Rashi’s commentary to the Torah suggests, quite anachronistically, that this shows that this story about Lot and the angels took place during Passover. And the story about Lot is famously connected to salt -- the city of Sodom was right near the Dead Sea which is the saltiest sea in the world, and as the city was getting destroyed, the Torah says that Lot’s wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt. So, according to traditional Jewish sources, the salt water at the seder is in memory of the Torah’s oldest celebration of Passover, even before the Jews got to Egypt in the first place.
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| picture by openart.ai |
Each small bottle comes with an eyedropper; that’s because the Dead Sea water is so salty that it’s actually toxic except in the tiniest amounts. The label notes that just three drops of Dead Sea salt water is sufficient to salt one cup of fresh water, so one small bottle will probably last you for many years of Passover Seders.
Beware, though: the bottle also says: “Do not consume without diluting in water! Avoid contact with eyes or skin! Keep out of reach of children! Make your Passover Seder a night to remember -- but only for the right reasons!”
Story #2:
Why are you putting your Matzah in the refrigerator?!
Matzah is of course one of the most shelf-stable products in the world. Matzah from a year ago or more still tastes and feels much the same as it was right after it was baked.
But that’s something new in Jewish history. Food historians tell us that before the 1700s, matzah was not shelf-stable and it wasn’t even crunchy. Rather, it was soft and flexible, resembling pita bread.
The Matzah recipe changed in the 1700s. Well, the ingredients didn’t change -- the ingredients for Matzah have always been just flour and water -- but by the 1700s, rabbinic authorities were increasingly demanding that less water be used, for a dryer dough, and also that Matzah be rolled out much much thinner than before, out of concern that thicker matzah could inadvertently become hametz and forbidden for Passover.
A useful result of this recipe change is that matzah baking could be centralized in a smaller number of professional bakeries, and the baking process could begin months before Passover and the product would remain good throughout the holiday. (Or, rather, it would remain as “good” as matzah ever gets.)
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| picture by openart.ai |
Some contemporary matzah bakers, like Rabbi Barry Dolinger in Rhode Island, are trying to revive the practice of making thicker and softer matzah. Surprisingly enough, Matzah distributed by Rabbi Dollinger ships frozen, and has a label on it that says “please keep refrigerated.” Yes, there’s such a thing as moldy matzah, and you don’t want to see it for yourself.
Seder Trivia 2024
Story #3:
When EXACTLY did the Exodus from Egypt take place? One scholar claimed to have it all figured out - with the help of an eclipse.
More than 100 years ago, the German historian Eduard Mahler reviewed some ancient astronomical data and one particular solar eclipse caught his eye. This was an eclipse that took place on Thursday, March 13, in the year 1335 BCE, and according to his data, totality was visible in the Nile Delta and some other parts of Egypt.
Professor Mahler concluded that this eclipse must have been the explanation for the Plague of darkness described in the Book of Exodus. According to the Torah, there was complete darkness in the places where the Egyptians lived, while in the places where Jews lived, in the land of Goshen, “there was light in their dwellings.” As many of us are now aware, people who are in the zone of totality for a solar eclipse will experience darkness, while people just a few miles away will hardly experience darkness at all.
picture by openart.ai
(Yes, the Torah’s account of the Plague of Darkness says that it was dark for three days, and we are probably aware that the totality phase of an eclipse doesn’t last for 3 days. Professor Mahler conceded that this inconvenient detail threw a wrench into his theory, but said that maybe that verse really means that after a few minutes of mid-day darkness, the Egyptians were terrified for the next three days.)
Professor Mahler used the information about the eclipse to conclude that the Exodus from Egypt would have taken place exactly two weeks after the eclipse, on Thursday March 27, in the year 1335 BCE. And if he was correct, then during the actual Exodus from Egypt, Moses and Aaron and Miriam would have marveled that Passover was happening in March, and would certainly have turned to each other and said: “Passover sure is early this year.”
Answers:
Story #1 is false. Genesis 19 does mention Matzah, and Rashi’s commentary does make the connection with Passover, but no one suggests this as a reason why we use salt water at the Seder (and in fact, the salt water custom is relatively late; Maimonides (1100s) said the vegetable for Karpas should be dipped in Haroset, and the Shulhan Arukh (1500s) says the vegetable should be dipped in vinegar). No amount of Dead Sea water is considered safe to drink.
Story #2 is true -- see https://www.mitzvahmatzos.org/ for Rabbi Dolinger’s matzah web site, and see https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/story-behind-soft-matzah-passover/ for background on soft matzah.
Story #3 is true, in that Eduard Mahler really did connect a particular eclipse with the Plague of Darkness; see https://www.talmudology.com/jeremybrownmdgmailcom/2015/3/17/the-solar-eclipse?rq=eduard%20mahler. Unfortunately for him, NASA data suggests that that eclipse was actually not total in Egypt; see https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCSEmap/-1399--1300/-1334-03-13.gif.
Chag Sameach!
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