Think Again – Sir Moses Montefiore

Pesach is about tradition. As Tevya of Fiddler on the Roof fame proclaims It’s a Tradition. No festival is replete with tradition as is Passover. It stems from the injunction that you shall retell the story of the Passover Exodus to your children and grandchildren . The retelling of the story if necessary, can go on all night long. There are that many Passover traditions. There are Ashkenaz, Sephard, Hungarian, Polish traditions and even particular traditional Afrikaans songs from South Africa. The Gestetners, we have our own personal family tradition to read out an extract from the Diary of Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885). Sir Moses lived to 101 is buried in Ramsgate London. His mausoleum is a replica of Rachels tomb in Bethlehem. The extract from his diary is about Sir Moses and his wife Judith being saved from a wild tempest raging storm in the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Palestine. It is dated 26 November 1827. Sir Moses and his wife Judith were terrified that the ship would sink and all on board lost. Sir Moses threw a piece of Afikomen Matza that he always kept in his pocket into the wild raging waters and behold, the sea abated. Sir Moses never had children his wife was a Sebag. Judiths brother Paul Sebag married a Gestetner. Which is a story in itself. Ever since the Gestetners have been reading out loud the miracle of the Afikomen Cake as Sir Moses referred to it from his diary on Seder night. It has now become our family tradition. I thought I would share our family tradition with you.

From the Diary of Sir Moses Montefiore

Monday evening ½ past 6 o’clock 26 November 1827 – 7 Kislev

on board the Leonardis, Capt. John Anderson

about 60 miles S.E. from Malta

Since Friday last, we had encountered continual gales of wind with a heavy sea, our ship leaking, the pumps being kept constantly at work. The gale of yesterday was allowed by the oldest seamen on board to have been terrific...

At this awful pause a little before noon I threw into the sea a small piece of my last year’s Passover cake, laid by on the evening of the Agada, supplicating the Almighty to protect us and to avert the coming tempest, likewise to tranquillize the still troubled ocean.

Between 7 & 8 o’clock in the evening, I now with the warmest gratitude & humility acknowledge and bear witness to the Almighty’s kind interposition in our behalf...

May I for ever bear witness & for ever bear in remembrance this merciful interposition of God. I annually while I live repeat this fact to those I may have the happiness of being surrounded by on the evenings of the Agada.

Signature of Moses Montefiore

¼ before 8 - The sea is smooth, moon & stars smiling on us...

Signature of Judith

Wishing you all a Happy and Kosher Pesach. Enjoy the excitement of your own traditions. Don’t forget to share them with children, grandchildren and extended family and if they are as exciting as Sir Moses’s diary with me.