Hiding the Passover Wine

Burning the chometz (bread and "kitniyot") near my parents' building

You're probably thinking - he's absentmindedly confusing the wine with the afikomen.  For my non-Jewish friends, the afikomen is the piece of matzah that is hidden during the seder and later found by a child.  Rabbis have commented that this practice reflects on a time when we had little to eat, and so saved a portion for later.  The practice can connect us and move us to help those who have little to eat.

But no, I didn't confuse the two.  The story began not with the Passover wine, but with a bottle of Vodka.  For years, Dad has been sipping, not guzzling, wine or Vodka.  That may not seem so bad until you consider it often happened throughout the day.  The less than desirable habit came to an abrupt end when Mom was in the hospital and my sister Rimona came to help.  She hid the bottle of Vodka on the floor behind the stove and refused to buy more alcohol for Dad.

Well, that worked for a time.  Then Dad aspired to the resourcefulness of the child searching for the afikomen.  Voila!

The child on Passover receives a reward for finding the afikomen.  It didn't seem right to deny some reward to Dad.  He sweetly requested a little Vodka to make a srewdriver and I obliged.  We then found a new location to hide the treasure.  Well, we briefly considered giving it away, but then wisely realized we may need it ourselves.

Pandora's Box was opened somewhat, and in the following days Dad asked about the whereabouts of the Bottle.  He also asked repeatedly to go the "store".

So, I was a bit concerned when Mom asked me to buy a nice bottle of red wine for Passover.  At first I objected, but quickly realized rules are meant to be broken on occasion.  I bought the best wine the store offered - Gamla - from Ramat HaGolan.  We hid the bottle.

Yesterday Mom took some of the wine for the charoset.  Charoset is a paste of apples, walnuts, wine, resembling the mortor used for bricks to remind us of our enslavement in Egypt 3,000 years ago.  The bottle was observed later to have less liquid and was moved.  We believe we identified the culprit.

I took upon myself the role of again diligently hiding the "afikomen", this time transfering the precious liquid to a another container, wrapping it in a paper bag, and hiding it behind tall items in the back of the fridge.  Before our festive seder tonight, I intend to again transfer the treasure to a beautiful decanter of glass and silver, decorated with grapes, that was our present to our parents for their 25th anniversay - 40 years ago.

This will be a fitting tribute to our Dad, who, after all, retired from the wine business, and who in his 80's published a little book titled "The Romance of Wine and the Bible".  It was published here in Jerusalem by "Gefen", which happens to translate as "grapevine".  Maybe we'll even read a verse or two at the seder.
We have the story of the four children in our Hagaddah, which can represent four aspects of our personality as adults.  May we learn to have patience for the child within ourselves and others, including within our aging parents.

Full Moon of Passover - 14th of Nissan

Chag Sameach - Happy Passover!
Barak