"Ah Pashisha, Ah Pashisha"

Ten days before Passover a unique tradition is practiced by North African Jews from Tunisia and other bordering countries. Pashisha is a family tradition that my Dad's Tunisian family joyfully participates in once a year. Pashisha means “mixture” in Aramaic which is a Semitic language originally spoken by ancient Middle Eastern people. We gather all members of our family to the table where a bowl is placed in the center. The bowl is filled with a dry mixture composed of toasted and ground wheat, barley, semolina, and chickpeas. Along with the dry mixture are dates and almonds. This year my dad brought the best dates I have ever eaten from Qatar. These dates had to be refrigerated until eaten and they tasted like heaven. This dry substance looks like sand. The first time I tried it, I was a little disgusted by it because I thought it tasted like sand! Now I have started to enjoy eating this tasty grainy mixture every year.

When it is time to do Shisha, members of the family bring their meaningful metals like wedding rings and house keys. My Aunt Leah says that the keys symbolize a way to open the gates of the Heavens to hear the family’s wishes and to receive good blessings. Everyone puts these items into the sandy mixture. Fresh dates and almonds are added on top. Then our whole family sings a prayer while the mother of the family pours olive oil over everything in the bowl. As she pours the olive oil, we all take our pointer fingers and mix everything together. Everyone is chanting “Ah Pashisha, Ah Pashisha” as the jewelry gets lost in this big bowl and in what begins to look like mud. This goes on for two to three minutes until we are all smiling, laughing and singing and our hands are all brown and sticky and clumpy. Then, guess what? We eat it!!

I was lucky enough to experience this tradition with my grandmother in Israel who had been pouring the olive oil for almost one hundred years before she died. In my family this tradition was passed down from generation to generation. Tunisian Jews had to flee the country in the 1950s when it was no longer safe to stay. My grandmother, Agu, had to escape in the night because Jews were being persecuted. As a result of this, she packed up all eight of her kids, and alongside my grandfather, she made the long journey to Israel with only the clothes on her back and what they could carry. What they did not leave behind were the traditions that they had learned and practiced in Tunis. Through our family, the tradition of Pashisha has traveled through five countries and four continents including Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. This Passover tradition is one that my family will keep on doing regardless of where the current generations are standing. Traditions are like glue; they are one of many things that holds families together.