t seems fashionable these days to bring something new to the Passover Seder table and Seder plate. Well, I would like to weigh in on this with the suggestion for the newest addition to the Seder plate, the Bay Leaf.” This would be a non-edible spice that would represent freedom from ridicule, especially rabbinic ridicule.
Let me explain, this was a story told to me by a friend who has been a very active participant in his synagogue (these days that seems so very hard to find). He attends the weekday minyanim and has been a volunteer cook for all the events throughout the year with those occasions being breakfasts for the Sunday and Friday minyanim, for Tu B’shevat Sedarim, monthly Shabbat dinners and the annual Chanukah gathering.
This past December as this gentleman was preparing for the Chanukah event, he brought in from his home a food processor, which he kept at home, using only for synagogue events, respecting the kashrut of the synagogue’s kitchen.
Upon bringing it home, the rabbi, seeing this transpire, questioned the man and proceeded to ball him out for having brought in a piece of cooking equipment from home. My friend apologized profusely and promised that he would not do so again. The rabbi then told him, “You haven’t heard the last of this!”
A few days later the synagogue celebrated Chanukah with a special dinner, in which my friend had been helping to prepare.
The firs course was a warm soup. As those who were in attendance were enjoying this soup, that rabbi stands up and loudly announces while glaring down my friend, “There is a bay leaf in my soup!”
Someone else in the crowd not knowing of the rabbi’s wrath, also called out in a joking way, that there a bay leaf in his soup. Others in a humorous way also called out that there was a bay leaf in their soup. For those who may not know, a bay leaf in put into a soup as a spice, not to be served with the soup, not to be eaten.
However, the rabbi persisted wanting to further embarrass my friend. Those people in attendance did not understand what the rabbi was proving.
My friend was embarrassed and wanted to quit the synagogue, I told him that the rabbi was there for a short time, not to give his power away. I told him that he was more valuable to the members, who think the world of him and his delicious meals, than the rabbi was. Why should the congregation be deprived because of the crudeness and rudeness of the rabbi?
Besides, I remember reading a quote from Pirkei Avot about embarrassing someone publically which is tantamount to murder. -Alan Lefkowitz
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