Mimuna

6 May 2011

At the end of Passover, a wonderful and special holiday called Mimuna occurs.  Mimnua comes from Morocco with the Moroccan Jewish community.  The holiday and the name serve a few purposes.

The first is to commemorate the end of Passover.  During Passover Jews are forbidden to eat hametz, things with levaning, so this festival marks the end of that commandment and people join together to once again eat hametz.  Traditionally, a delicious fried oily dough is made called Mufflettas, and is served with butter and honey.  Trust me, these are worth the calories and in my opinion the best way to end Passover.   Part of the idea is for members of the community to open up their houses and allow people to come by.  This stems from the fact that many Jews who keep Kosher on Passover don’t eat out or at each other’s places for fear of the cleanliness or level of Kashrut.  By opening up one’s house after the holiday, it suggests a friendly relationship and maintains that ones eating habits during Passover are not personal and assures that close connection.

Secondly, many people believe that the source of the name comes from Maimon, as in the father of the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon.  This date is his Yartzit, the day of his death.  He played an incredibly important role to the continuation and establishment of the Moroccan Jewish community.   Jewish communities across Northern Africa wrote to him for advice and followed his teachings.   He was instrumental in the development of this vibrant Jewish community for the last 1000 years or so and really laid down the foundation to what would be one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.  Today, a large majority of Israeli Jews can trace their roots back to Morocco.

The last possible explanation for this holiday stems from the source, Mimon, the name of a Genie in Moroccan folklore.  The idea was that the Genie would come and steal the good things from people so the holiday would create a celebration to please the Genie where people could giving offerings to him and appease him for the year.

Either way you cut it, Mimuna is one of the funnest celebrations I have experienced.  I am fortunate enough to be able to check that off of my bucket list.  And after this years celebration, it has become clear to me, that some part of Yeruham and Moroccan Jewry has rubbed off on me and I may be a little Mizrahit in my heart.