POEM: Twas The Night Before Pessah

Hillel Update Editor in Chief Lee Matalon has written a lovely poem about Pessah and Hillel. He has chosen to share it with us here on the blog. This poem is not affiliated with the Hillel Update.



Twas The Night Before Pessah
By: Lee Matalon



Twas the night before Pessah, and all through Hillel,
The teachers they cleaned, they could not fail.
And though they do not get paid a lot,
Their contract includes yearly Bedikat.

All ten pieces hidden, wrapped up like a shirt,
So beautifully scattered by Mr. Hubert.
And as the faculty began to look,
In came Ovadia with a coffee cup from Rook

"Dear teachers and Rabbis, and Mr. Li too,
We cannot begin searching, as we should do,
Until we make sure the situation is well,
The hametz in the Box too, we must sell!"

And so came Susan, with cell phone in hand
And dropped the matzo, all crunchy and bland.
She called up the Rabbi, a certain Kassin,
As to make sure that Hillel does not sin.

Answered the Rav, "you must follow the Torah,
You can't just sell to Lupe or Cecilia!
A sale to chadameh is an interesting ploy
But you must be mahmeer when you sell to a Goy."

And then stepped forth a Mr. Puglisi,
"I am not Jewish, I can help, as you see"
So he bought the Hametz as he sat on a bench
And the rabbis exclaimed "this guy is a Mentch!"

Now began the awaited search for the bread,
And the rabbis struggled to get ahead.
Some looked left and right, some low and high,
Some searched the midrash, Ashkie and SY.

Until the first piece was found by Rav E,
Who clutched it and jumped, giddy with glee.
Down the hall to the office, the man did fly,
As he bust in and proudly exclaimed "REEBAY!"

One by one, the teachers found ten
Dropped them at the office and searched again.
In the morning they burned, to rid them of sin,
As nightfall approached, the seder did begin.

Then Rabbi Chait did sing, Kadesh Urchatz,
But after saying Karpas, he skipped Yahatz.
And he didn't break matzo for Misharotam,
As in Hillel, we only follow Rambam.

And next he announced that Maggid was to be,
Dr. Magid looked up and said "What, who, me?"
The story was told with the plate lifted up,
And after they finished, everyone drank a cup.

The matzo was hard, people chewed with pain,
But the "bitter" herb maror was only Romaine.
Rabbi Tawil made a sandwich with a crunchy slab
And called out "This is how it's done in Halab!"

The meal was great, with all of the best food,
But best of all, no children around to act rude.
Except Ovadia, who joined their pessah ball,
Turns out he's not so worthless, after all.

And finally the loudspeaker happened to chime,
As Rabbi Bald announced, "Its Afikoman Time!"
And he proclaimed, as they sang with, no end in sight,
"Happy Pessah to all, and to all a good night!"

Hag Sameah from the Hillel Update!