One day, on Passover, my mother said to me…I had gone to, I don’t know, to the neighbour, to my (neighbour), and I ate a chickpea. (Just) one. And I came and told her. She hit me with a hit (gave me a severe beating)…she killed me from the beating (beat me so badly it was like death). There is nothing in (wrong with) it (chickpeas on Passover). Yes. And she hit me with a hit of…(badly). (On) Passover…there were…there wasn’t matza like here. We used to bake at home. Yes. And we would bake…they (would) bring this…they (would) go and grind the…flour. They would grind the flour and bring it to the house and knead it. And one after the other, one after the other, and they would make jghadeq (matza). And my mother had…she had a cupboard, this was just…of…of Passover. (She would) take (the items) out of it (the cupboard), rinse them all, and put them back in again. And we (would) eat with them, and Passover would finish, and she would put them back inside again. And when she (would) take them out, they would put jghadeq. We would bake jghadeq at home. And we (would) go from house to house, and see them (other people)…and help them too. It was beautiful in Iraq. Beautiful, very beautiful. If (people) didn’t have all of these (substitute items for Passover), they (would) do haghala. They would do haghala, yes. Women, not (men), (just) women.
Oh, date syrup! The husband of my maternal aunt used to make it. My maternal aunt (and her husband) used to make date syrup. They (would) bring dates, and make date syrup. Silan. They would put it (dates) in water, for two days, steep it, and then they would take it out of the water, put it in a…pot, and put in more water, and put it on…a lamp. In Iraq we didn’t have ovens, like here. There were lamps. And they (would) put it on the lamp (to) boil, boil, boil…until they saw (that) it (looked) good. They would remove it (from the lamp), and they (would) start to squeeze it, and make date syrup. And (on) the night of the holiday, they (would) put in the date syrup…put in nuts. They (would) crush the nuts, and put them in the date syrup. I swear to G-d - in place of (may G-d bless) those days! They were beautiful.
On) the night of the holiday, we would sit…everyone…and (a child) would sit…and get up, and say “where have you come from?” (and the others would answer) “from Egypt”. (The child would then ask) “where are you going?” (and the others would answer) “to Jerusalem”. And then there (were) books (Haggadas), and in them was (text) in Arabic and in Hebrew. They (would) read it in Hebrew, and then translate it to Arabic. And we would put a chair, which we (would) say is for Eliyahu the Prophet. Nobody (would) sit on it (the chair). Eliyahu the Prophet (was) due to enter at any moment to sit on the chair. And they (would) say…how (did) they say it? Ṣfardaˁim and dam (frogs and blood, the first two plagues of Passover). And we would say, “(may this happen) to the Arabs. To the Arabs. So that…please G-d, (may this happen) to our Arabs!”
No. We (would) bring a small bowl, and they (would) bring a cup of water, and pour, and say them (the ten plagues) and pour (water into the bowl each time a plague was read). And what (did) we say? (May these plagues happen) to the Arabs…our enemy, our enemy…G-d willing, amen. And children would…when children were born, they would tie (the afikoman to) them…yes, correct. They (would) put the afikoman on them. And this aunt of mine would…mercy on her soul…when (the person running the seder) would put the kerchief (with the afikoman inside) on the children, she (my aunt) would want it (for herself). When the child was born, the young one, the youngest child…they would take him, and bring head wraps, a beautiful kerchief, very beautiful, and tie it to him. And who (would) take it? My aunt would take it. She (would) say “may it not…(be given) to anyone!”. We (would) say to her “no! We’re giving it to you!”. Mercy on my aunt’s soul. Believe (me), here in Israel they do Passover in a hurry. Quickly, quickly, and (then) they finish. Once, I went to…my cousin’s house, and her son came, my cousins on, he did it at…at my cousin’s house. We sat (awake) until four o’clock in the morning. They read it first in Hebrew, and then he read it again in Arabic.
