WhatsappThis Passover Song is a take-off on a famous song from the 80’s from Prince – “Purple Rain.” The topic is a Jewish custom to eat purple horseradish with fish at the Passover Seder.
Purple Horseradish (Chrein in Yiddish) goes very well with the famous Jewish food – Gefilte Fish. I vividly recall suffering from the smell as a child. I grew up and sat next to my father who always ate the horseradish with his fish. It was a dreadful smell – but I knew that my father’s father ate it too – and it was clearly part of the traditional smells of the Passover meal.
Passover Customs
There is no night that perhaps contains more Jewish customs than the night of Passover. First of all, there is a very strong custom for generations to gather for the Festival. Grandparents, Children and grandchildren bond through song, story, and food along with their families for the Passover meal.
One of the prevalent customs is to sit with a pillow and lean to the left like free men at the Passover meal. This symbolizes eating like a free person – as opposed to the bitter bondage that we had felt as a nation in Egypt for hundreds of years.
The main custom though of the evening is the custom that the older generation tells the younger generation the story of God delivering His Chosen People from Egypt. This story is related with much detail.
But, we also reenact some of the suffering and eat bitter herbs to literally feel the pain in our mouths. Following that, we eat the unleavened bread, the Matzah. This symbolizes the speed of the deliverance that God saved us from our enemies.
One of the crowning moments of the Passover Seder is when we sing the song of deliverance. The Jewish custom to sing this song is very strong. In it, we declare proudly that in each generation, no matter what the Jewish people endure, God will always be there to make sure that he watches over His Chosen People – even in the darkest times.
