Manya Auster Feldman - August 11, 1998
Celebrating Holidays
And there was Pesach?
And there was Pesach.
You celebrated the holiday?
Yeah, but we ate potatoes anyway, so--we didn't have any bread. 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--actually a 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 forsaken me?" 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 he was crossed...
Yeah...
...he said, La Makaziftani, which is like forsaken. He was also um, saying it to God, yeah.
Given what you said earlier about your disillusionment and um, your questioning, what does celebrating the Passover mean?
Oh, this, this is tradition for me. I was--it's embedded in me. I, I love it. I, I, I, I do celebrate. We always celebrated all our holidays.
So it wasn't an occasion for, for asking other questions about where was God in the whole mess?
No.
No. Just tradition is something separate...
That's right, exactly.
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