Perhaps no Passover dish is more iconic than matzah ball soup. With recipes going back hundreds of years to the old country or pulled more recently from a box of Manischewitz mix, the combination of matzah meal, egg, water, oil and maybe a drop of schmaltz embodies the taste of Passover itself. Strange thing then that a significant portion of the Jewish community wouldn’t dare cook kneidlach until the end of the festival. The same is true for matzah pizza, matzah lasagna or even the beloved matzah brei.
The stringency is known by the mellifluously guttural name ‘Gebrokhts’. It boils down to a fear that, like the rabbi who spent his Last Supper at a Passover seder, matzah meal has an Easter-like ability to rise. Gebrokhts made its debut in the 18th century Hasidic community, specifically in the first Chabad Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s Code of Jewish Law.
In visiting Belarussian bakeries prior to Passover, the Rebbe noticed that workers were exceedingly circumspect in ensuring that 18 minutes did not pass from the time they made the dough until the matzah was removed from the oven. ‘In the Night Kitchen’ haste, the bakers may have inadvertently left clumps of dough unkneaded. Thus, the first Chabad Rebbe prohibited any derivative of matzah from touching water on Passover lest the leftover flour and water turn into chametz/leaven. Recently, plastic pouches solely for matzah started appearing on Passover tables to further prevent liquid inadvertently spilled on the table (a Jewish tradition all its own) coming into contact with the thin crackers.
In a boon for the gluten-free community, gebrokhts has gone mainstream with matzah meal disappearing from many Passover recipes in favor of potato and tapioca starch. Driven more by capitalists than kabbalists, the great replacement theory posits that packaged Passover cookies and cakes will one day no longer be baked with matzah meal at all. Perish the thought.
Should you have a hankering for something more than neon yellow tapioca croutons in your chicken soup this Passover then our matzah balls surely won’t let you down. Will they be sinkers or floaters? Dense or fluffy? It’s not too late to sign up below for the only communal seder in Japan serving kneidlach and find out. First seder sold out but second night still wide open.
Services
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, April 19th
Services: 6:00pm
Shabbat HaGadol – Parshat Metzora
Moroccan-French Torah Reading Round 2
Kiddush of Make-Your-Own Poké Bowls sponsored by the Lavie-Bloch Family in celebration of their honeymoon
Saturday, April 20th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Passover Day 1
Tuesday, April 23rd
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush Seder Leftovers: 12:00pm
Kabbalat Shabbat
Friday, April 26th
Services: 6:00pm
Dinner by reservation: 7:00pm
Shabbat Chol HaMoed Passover
Saturday, April 27th
Kiddush open for sponsorship
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Passover Day 7 – Shōwa Day
Monday, April 29th
Services: 10:00am
Kiddush: 12:00pm
Friday Night Dinner Reservations can made on our website: https://jccjapan.jp/shabbat-meals-sign-up/
Events
Fast of the Firstborns Siyum/Completion
Monday, April 22nd at 7:00am
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85938469213?pwd=e7xd3BwbRZLi45FGWSERLFw8MsR572.1
Passover Seder – First Night – SOLD OUT
Monday, April 22nd at 6:00pm
Passover Seder 2
Tuesday, April 23rd at 6:00pm
Seder Reservations: https://jccjapan.jp/passover/
Yom HaShoah Commemoration at the JCC
Sunday, May 5th at 6:30pm
Registration Details: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
Film Screening: The Wolf of Baghdad
A graphic memoir by Carol Isaacs (The Surreal McCoy cartoonist), comes to life panel by panel as a motion comic (animated slideshow) with its own soundtrack of Judeo-Arabic and Iraqi music. A unique audio-visual journey through a Jewish family’s memories of their lost Iraqi homeland.
Followed by Q&A with the creator of the film Carol Isaacs moderated by the JCC’s Rachel Walzer.
Tuesday, May 7th at 7:00pm
Registration Details: https://jccjapan.jp/event-registration/
If you have an idea for an event or a topic you would like to share with others, please visit our website: https://jccjapan.jp/event-committee-inquiry/
Announcements
Thank you to the Staiman Family for generously donating our Afikomen Grand Prize this year…Robux! Don’t know what that is? Neither does anyone old enough to drink wine at the seder. Even googling Robux doesn’t really clarify what they are used for but when the aforementioned Robux Afikomen announcement was made at Hebrew School this past Sunday, the students erupted in joy.
Condolences to the family of Ken Holtzman, the winningest Jewish pitcher in Major League Baseball history. Ken Holtzman famously faced Sandy Koufax on the day after Yom Kippur 1966 after both sat out their usual rotation spots to observe the High Holidays. He would refrain from taking mound again on Yom Kippur 1973 when Holtzman’s Oakland Athletics faced the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. Orioles owner Jerry Hoffberger showed that some things are bigger than baseball when he sent a limousine to bring Holtzman to Baltimore Hebrew Congregation where the two sat together throughout services. No word on whether Holtzman was invited to Hoffberger’s break-fast meal.
Missed the beautiful Moroccan Torah reading two weeks ago? No worries! You get another chance to witness something truly spectacular when Natan and Aviva return THIS Saturday so that we can again enjoy such melodious Torah reading that sounds like it’s being belted out by Moses on Mount Sinai. Stay for the make-your-own poké bowls Kiddush!
The JCC will host morning services three times over Passover. While making the minyan on Saturday is never easy, weekdays are even tougher. Please consider joining us for the celebratory prayers we only get to do a few times a year led by our own in-house Chazzan who knows all the tunes.
The first night seder is officially SOLD OUT. We have plenty of space on the second night and hope to see you there if you haven’t already reserved. The JCC’s seders go back at least until 1961 when Ralph Kestenbaum ran the show. Come join an unbroken chain of ma nishtana and dayenu that hearkens back to the Shōwa Era.
Prince Mikasa was known as a regular at the JCC’s Passover seders. If anyone has connections to members of the Chrysanthemum Throne and think they might feel like slumming it in Hiroo early next week, please let us know. We promise not to compare the institution of Emperor to Pharaoh.
Happy 122nd Birthday to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Born on the 11th of Nissan in 5662, the day is celebrated with marathon farbrengens. Wishing the Rebbe many more simchas in future.
Yiddish Club with Jack Halpern: Please contact Jack at jack@cjki.org if you are interested to join. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Much more than just language, the club’s monthly meetings explore Yiddish culture as well.
Shabbat Metzora
Candle Lighting: 5:59pm
Havdala: 6:59pm