I had the privilege of attending a program after Shabbat services this afternoon where the four rabbis from Adas Israel spoke, and took questions, about Passover. I learned so much I had not known before. I wonder how I could have missed all of these things for so long. But, you know, you have to keep learning. Learning is so important.

What did I learn today?

Most interesting is how different seders are in different parts of the world. For example, in China, did you know that, instead of hiding the afikoman, there is an age old tradition of hiding an egg roll? It’s true. And, in Macedonia, you hide the afikoman every year, but there is no tradition in finding it, and that some Jewish families have hundreds of afikomans hidden in their houses that may never be found (until the house is sold to another family)? I had no idea.

I had long wondered about how Jews in Egypt celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, since they are still there. It turns out that there have been books and books written about this conundrum, and no one knows. This is because the Jews of Egypt have an age-old tradition. They do not start their seders by saying that all who are hungry can join them and eat. In fact, the Egyptian Jews have a practice of having their seders in secret with no guests at all. This explains why no one knows the answer to this age-old question.

Have you wondered why the holiday of Passover lasts 8 days? I always thought that it was because there was only supposed to be one day of oil, but in fact the oil lasted 8 days. I mentioned this to someone a year or so ago, and they laughed telling me that I was mixing up Hanukkah with Pesach. I felt so ashamed. But it turns out I was right. The long lasting oil is an important facet of both holidays. In fact, it appears that in the ancient Galilee they combined both holidays for several centuries, starting Hanukkach with two nights of seders, but lighting a hanukkia each night and giving kids presents of Hanukkach geld. I had absolutely no idea.

There was a lot more, but I will just give you one more example of these pearls of wisdom. Elijah’s glass of wine, which now sits somewhere on the table awaiting the arrival of the prophet Elijah towards the end, and which generally is still full at the end of the seder, has its own interesting history. It turns out that, for the first thousand of years of Judaism, Elijah did come to everyone’s seder and did drink the wine. But at some point, his doctor advised him to stop, he was getting too old and his liver was not in great shape. Elijah didn’t know what to do; he was not going to ignore his doctor’s advice. So, he asked his old friend Santa Claus what he thought. Santa suggested milk and cookies instead. But, for reasons unknown, no one ever substituted milk and cookies for wine at a seder. So the wine cup remains full. But don’t think that means that Elijah doesn’t come. He always does.

One further thing: APRIL FOOL’S