Origins of a family Passover custom
Post- bitter herbs and pre- festive meal, our family eats a dish of hardboiled eggs and saltwater. Every once in a while, the question of why is raised. No one there really knows why. It is just something that we have always done. Well, maybe always is a bit strong. My Ma’s family ‘always’ did it. And ‘always’ only go back to her and her brother’s memory. My grandparents have passed on, as have the great grandparents. So all that is left of this custom is my folk’s memory of how things ought to be done.
So where did this tradition come from? The why is pretty easy to work out on our own (eggs and saltwater carry a bit of symbolic weight with them wherever they go). But where did the tradition originate? Is it a regional thing? That side of the family arrived here from Poland, Belgium and Germany in the early 1900s.
I know this is not a UL (a la the cut end of the roast) because we do this every year, and I have seen vague references to it on the net. Anyone have any insight to share? Thanks for you help.
Rhythmdvl
Salt water represents the tears of enslavement. Do the eggs have anything to do with baytza?
The Jewish Book of Why says : “In some Middle Eastern communities, eggs are very popular on Passover. Kurdish Jews and Libyan Jews, in particular, eat large quantities of eggs at the Seder.”
My family has that custom too.
The supposed reason for it is that “The Jewish nation is compared to an egg. Just as an egg becomed harder when boiled, the Jewish nation becomes stronger when subjected to suffering.” The specific connection to the slavery of Egypt is pretty obvious in this context.
I’ll try to find you a citation for when/where it originated, but I definitely remember this being given as the reason.
funny, i asked that question at my seder this past passover, one of my guests told me it’s been customary in east europe to eat the eggs when mourning. to symbolize new life. so perhaps it has to do with the new life that had begun for the Jews post Egypt? that was my take on it.
The custom of eating an egg while in mourning is actually to symbolize the way life is a complete circle…from heaven (before birth), to earth, and back to (one assumes…it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead) heaven. Because of the sort-of circular shape of the egg. Lentils are also eaten when in mourning for the same reason.
This seems to be unrelated to the Passover custom according to the (Orthodox) books on the subjects.
Chaim Mattis Keller
cm: why the circle to represent the rebirth when the egg itself is undoubtedly a symbol of new life itself? isn’t passover about the exodus from egypt, and the seder filled with ritual for helping us to remember the suffering the slaves had (ie. bitter herbs…) so couldn’t the eggs have been an added tradition later on to help in symbolizing the rebirth of the Jewish nation?
or did someone just decide there isn’t REALLY enough egg in all this passover food, lets have some actual eggs on top of it 
(jk)
I understand where your interpretation could come from; I’m just saying what I’ve read about the customs. As I said, I’ll try to return tomorrow with some concrete source for what I’ve stated here.
Chaim Mattis Keller
Here’s what the ArtScroll Passover Haggadah has to say about the subject:
It brings three rabbinic explanations for the origin of the Passover custom, one of which ties into the mourning custom. I’ll address that one last.
One of the three is the explanation I gave earlier: The egg, which gets harderthe longer it’s boiled, represents the Jewish people, who get stronger with suffering.
One of the three is the explanation you gave: just as an egg represents the beginning of life, Passover was the beginning of the Jewish nation’s life.
That, however, is unrelated to the mourning custom. It says the egg is eaten by a mourner because a) an egg has no opening the way a mourner finds himself speechless (i.e., figuratively unable to open his mouth) when receiving the sad news, and b) it’s round, representing not what I said earlier, but rather, our hopes that just as our happy times have turned sad with the news of the death, we will soon be happy once again. The third opinion of the Passover egg custom is that it represents our mourning for the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, without which we are unable to offer the Passover sacrifice, once the central part of the Passover seder.
Chaim Mattis Keller
thanx chaim.
that feels good.
i will tell my folks that, and perhaps next passover, the kids can get some straight answers