Pre-passover 'fast of the first-born' revels in thanks

NORFOLK

Before every Passover, Dr. Adam S. Foleck observes another Jewish rite: the "fast of the first-born" that recognizes that Jews like him were spared when God slayed Egypt's first sons three millennia ago.

Passover, which starts Saturday, celebrates the Hebrews' deliverance from Egyptian slavery after God punished the pharaoh with plagues.

As a first-born Jewish male, Foleck joined in the pre-Passover fast to show gratitude that the Hebrews' own first-born were not killed. The custom also shows compassion for the Egyptian innocents who died.

"Ever since my bar mitzvah, since age 13, that's what I'm obligated to do," said Foleck, a local dentist.

The fast, which less traditional Jews might not observe, usually is held the day before Passover.

But the fast was held on Thursday this year since Judaism doesn't allow fasts on the Sabbath, which starts today and runs into Saturday.

The fast "is a time where we say, 'I was saved for a reason - I need to acknowledge that and better myself because of the experience,' " said Rabbi Chaim Silver of B'nai Israel Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in Norfolk.

At the same time, Jewish custom recognizes the inconvenience of a fast during the bustling preparations for Passover, said Rabbi Joel Roth, a Talmudic scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

So on the first-born fast day, many synagogues hold sessions where study of a portion of Jewish sacred text is completed by worshippers, including first-born.

"When you complete the study, that's such a happy occasion that it is followed by a type of mitzvah meal - a happy meal - that would supersede this fast," Roth said. The celebration is known as a "siyum."

At Congregation Beth El in Norfolk, that came Thursday after the Conservative synagogue's regular morning worship service.

Jeremy Ruberg, a rabbinical student in jeans and a T-shirt, told the 50 worshippers he would lead them in studying a Talmudic chapter on marriage.

"In doing so, we can then party-down," he said in an aside.

Ruberg smoothly alternated between Hebrew and English as Foleck, in a prayer shawl and color-speckled kippah, or skullcap, followed the Hebrew text from a handout.

In fifteen minutes, the lesson was over, joyously, and fast became feast.

"Mazal tov!" said Rabbi Arthur Ruberg, Jeremy's father and Beth El's senior clergyman. "Who wants to come make a l'chaim with me?" he said, using the Hebrew expression for "to life!" Cake and kosher wine were served.

"I feel good; I feel I did the right thing," Foleck said before heading to his dental office.

"I'll be thinking about it the rest of the day: something I did in fulfilling one of the things I should do as a first-born male."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com