Tomorrow is a cooking day…..and tomorrow night marks the first night of Passover – the first Seder. We’re all busy preparing our homes, shopping, and preparing for the holiday.  I thank you for allowing me to share one last message before we begin the Festival.
This is a time for gathering together. We read the Haggadah and tell the story of our delivery as a people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the land of Israel. It is a cornerstone of our being a people. So central is the journey from slavery to freedom, from oppression to self-reliance, that we retell this story each year. We can only appreciate our freedom if we remember our enslavement. We can only appreciate our wholeness of we remember our brokenness. We can only appreciate our own land of Israel, a home for all the Jewish people, if we recall our desperation and desolation when we had nowhere else to turn.
So – we tell the story, year after year, from generation to generation. And with the telling, we serve our favorite foods. Again, passing from one generation to the next our savory dishes, favorite recipes, each with a special name, with special textures and flavors and all with their own memories. These are the stories – and the foods, that bind us together as a people and keep us connected as a family. How very strong is the bond that stories – and food – provides!
Our family Passover seder this year will bring together a big group – mashala!- all somehow connected to my grandparents, of blessed memory, Isaac (Hacco) Hasson and Sarota Benveniste Hasson. Both were born on the Island of Rhodes (at the time part of the Ottoman empire, Turkey), at the end of the 19th century. Could they ever had imagined that over a hundred years later, their children, grandchildren, down to their great great great grandchildren would still be connected, gathering together (in person and via Facebook) to remember their names, remember their stories, and together carry on the traditions that they, too, brought forth from the generations before them! How wonderful that is!
Our Seder will include readings, stories and songs in English, Hebrew and Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish of our Sephardic family. The foods will be leaven free with flavors and names related to our Turkish, Spanish, Mediterranean roots.
We hope the recipes, stories and links we’ve shared with each other help to entice, and enrich our experiences and strengthen our bonds.

May you enjoy your time together with family and friends; may you tell the story of our people and the lessons of our journey. May you tell stories and remember those of our families who are no longer with us physically, so their memories stay alive in our hearts and those of our children and their lives continue to bless us. May we keep the traditions of our ancestors and create new ones with our children. May our gatherings bring blessings – and may our hands, the hands that prepare these foods that nourish our souls and keep our traditions alive, always be blessed.
Pesah Alegre!
~ Bendichas Manos

Marcia Weingarten
http://BendichasManos.com
On Facebook: Bendichas Manos!