By Cantor Jason Green
Have you ever heard mentioned the names Chuna bar Pappa, Yanin bar Pappa, Nechemyah bar Pappa, Yana bar Pappa, Rafa bar Pappa, and the 5 other bar Pappas, just before Passover? If so, then you’re probably a first-born (or the parent of one) having attended a Siyyum B’chorim, the completion of a tractate of Talmud. They’re not actual sons of Rav Pappa; the list is a mnemonic or a s’gulah (spiritual merit) for retaining Torah learning. In fact, the very name “Pappa” is just an acronym for “Panim El Panim”, describing Moshe, the hero of Passover, as he stood “face to face” with God during the Exodus narrative.
When I was five, my Chazzan taught me about the commandment for first-born Jews to fast on the day before Passover in recognition of the 10th plague and the survival of Jewish children while the Egyptian parents lost their heirs to the Angel of Death. To obviate the fast, he said, I must come to morning minyan for a Siyyum B’chorim and celebratory breakfast (a s’udat mitzvah), which creates an atmosphere of rejoicing that overrides the requirement to continue fasting. Just as he had used my participation in the choir to “rope in” my father, Cantor Meller instructed me to insist my father bring me to the Siyyum so that I wouldn’t be required to fast.
That became one of Dad’s and my most cherished shared Jewish observances, and we didn’t miss a year before I moved out and to another city. And it became an annual tradition for Zev and me too.
Now I invite you to make it a special moment for all the first-borns (of any gender) in your family – and your other family members are more than welcome to our Siyyum as well.
This year, because Erev Pesach is a Saturday (when we don’t fast except on Yom Kippur), we move the Siyyum up to the Thursday prior, this year on April 10th, with services starting at 7:30am. We will be privileged to study with Kivi Shapiro and David Roytenberg the completion of Masechet Beitzah (lit. the Tractate of Egg), which teaches about the laws of the Jewish Festivals and how they differ from those of Shabbat. The tractate gets its name from the first Mishnah, which discusses whether an egg laid on Yom Tov may be eaten (spoiler: Hillel says no, Shammai says yes). The breakfast following our Talmud study will be generously sponsored by our Daf Sh’vu’i study group, which warmly invites new members. After breakfast, we will hold our annual Bi’ur Chameitz (burning of chameitz) in the parking lot, so bring a small paper bag with some non-Passover food bits in it from your home so we can symbolically and communally rid our lives of some “spiritual schmutz” before Pesach.
To this day, nothing says to me “Pesach is here” more than hearing the list of “bar Pappas” at the Siyyum. Come join us for this special mitzvah.
Jodi, our sons, and I wish everyone a Chag Kasher v’Sameiach – a happy and kosher Passover.