Marge Piercy's Personal 'Pesach'

At some point, Marge Piercy may be flogging her Seder guests with scallions on Monday night.

That's a gentle way to recall the pain of the Jews' slavery in ancient Egypt. The prolific poet likes to incorporate traditions -- Sephardic, in that instance -- and change the retelling of Passover stories every year, using a Haggada, or storybook, she has written and revised for more than two decades.

Piercy has gathered her poetry, recipes and spiritual research about the holiday she holds most dear in "Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own" (Schocken, 2007, $22.95). Her interpretations for Passover ("Pesach" in Hebrew) are personal, put forth in a simple and lovely way. She weaves a narrative thread from the mountain-man qualities of Elijah to the many meanings inherent in a Seder's egg course.

Last week, assistant editor Bonnie S. Benwick posed a different set of Four Questions to Piercy, who spoke from her home in Wellfleet, Mass.:

Why gefilte fish?

It's traditional in Ashkenazi [Jews with roots in Central and Eastern Europe] usage to do so. Gefilte fish, as the name suggests, was once a stuffed fish. Ashkenazi history is thick with fish, because the kinds we ate were cheaper than meat.

I always incorporate Sephardic and Mizrahi foods in the meal I serve, but I also make foods that are part of the history of my particular ancestors. It is the same reason I feel myself one in a long line of women stretching back in my imagining when I light candles.

Why horseradish?

What would you use for bitter herbs [as written in the Haggada]? We assume there were some herbs that grew in the Middle East that were used for Seders long ago. But as I say in the book, we eat sweet, salty, sour things regularly but we eat little that is bitter. Horseradish was a convenient plant, easily available as it is now, that could represent bitter herbs.

Normally, we spit out the bitter. But not on Pesach. On Pesach, we chew bitterness. Now the things around us that are common and bitter include aspirin and hops -- the reason some beers are called bitters. But I can't see a tablet of aspirin or a bottle of beer (fermented, anyhow!) on the Seder plate.

Why matzoh balls?

Ashkenazi Jews have eaten dumplings and kreplach and all kinds of additions to soup for centuries. Such items extend soup, enabling it to feed more people and fill them up. But you can't use regular flour during Pesach; hence matzoh balls, which perform the same function but are kosher l'Pesach [kosher for Passover].

My husband, Ira, likes to make them, and everybody loves his matzoh balls. It is one of his specialties and the part of the Pesach feast he always cooks.

Why Concord grape wine?

Around 1900, the Concord became the preferred grape for kosher wine in America. [Historian] Philip J. Pauly believes it was because the grape was not "tainted" by its Semitic origins.

For me, that taste is the taste of my grandmother's Seders. While I have no desire to replicate the immense work she put into kashering [making utensils and cookware kosher for Passover use], or the drone of my uncle's voice galloping through the Haggada, just as I make her gedempte fleysch [stewed brisket], I like the wine that she served.

We don't drink it with the meal; that for me would be too much to pay for nostalgia.