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Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998

And there was Pesach?

And there was Pesach.

You celebrated the holiday?

Yeah, but we ate potatoes anyway, so—we didn't have anybread. We celebrated the holiday.

So what did celebrate the holiday mean?

Whoever knew how to—whoever remembered some prayers by heart.And by the way, we had two old. . . older men who—one, one was a—actuallya cantor in a little town. So he, he used to pray and the ch. . . you know,he used to sing. And whenever I, whenever I hear this song, I start crying.It's uh, Eli, Eli, La Maziftani, it's oh my God, why have you forsakenme? Uh, it's a beautiful song. But that's what we were sitting and singing.

Can you sing it?

No, I can't remember now.

It's a famous saying.

It's a famous what?

Saying.

Saying?

Yeah.

The Eli, Eli, La—you know why, because uh, Jesus when hewas crossed. . .

Yeah. . .

he said, La Makaziftani, which is almost like forsaken. He wasalso um, saying it to God, yeah.

Given what you said earlier about your disillusionment andum, your questioning, what does celebrating the Passover mean?

Oh, this, this is tradition for me. I was—it's embeddedin me. I, I love it. I, I, I, I do celebrate. We always celebrated all ourholidays.

So it wasn't an occasion for, for asking other questions aboutwhere was God in the whole mess?

No.

No. Just tradition is something separate. . .

That's right, exactly.