THE DEVILS ARITHMETIC

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THE DEVILS ARITHMETIC

• By Jane Yolen

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Chapters 1-4

• 1. What is Hannah's complaint to her mother?
• Shes tired of remembering and she doesn't want
  to go to the Seder dinner of Passover at her
  grandparents.
• 2. Where do Hannah and her family travel to get
  to her grandparents?
• They leave New Rochelle, New York and travel by
  car to the Bronx, New York City.
• 3. Why was Hannah's younger
• brother scared?
• He will have to read the Four Questions
• from the Haggadah at the Seder. He is afraid
  he will not do it correctly.

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• 4. For whom is Hannah named?
• She is named for a dead friend of her favorite
  Aunt Eva's.
• 5. What has Grandpa Will so upset?
• He is watching a television newscast showing
  footage from the Holocaust.
• 6. When Hannah was younger what did she do that
  she thought would please her Grandpa Will?
• She took a ballpoint pen and wrote numbers on
  her arm to resemble his concentration camp tattoo.

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• 7. Why does Aunt Eva light the candles in Grandma
  Belle's house every holiday?
• She had no house or family of her own and it
  is a privilege they extend to honor her.
• 8. Grandfather Will decides that Hannah is old
  enough to partake of what holiday tradition?
• She can now toast at the dinner table with
  wine.
• 9. What part of the ceremony does Hannah's
  younger brother. Aaron, enjoy the most?
• The snatching of and the hiding of the
  afikoman.
• Afikoman (Hebrew language ???????, based on
  Greek, epikomen or epikomion, meaning "that which
  comes after" or "dessert") is a piece of matzo.

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• 10. Why does the family open the door to admit
  the prophet Elijah?
• It is a tradition to remind themselves of the
  time Jews were forced to keep their doors open to
  show the Christians they were not practicing
  blood rituals.
• 11. What happens after Hannah says, "Ready or
  not, here I come?"
• Hannah is transformed into another time and
  place.
• 12. On what does Hannah blame this daydream-like
  scene?
• She blames it on the wine she drank.

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• 13. Where is Hannah and with whom?
• - She is in a Polish shtetl with a pleasant
  man named Shmuel and his sister Gitl.
• - Shmuel is to be married the next day. They
  call her Chaya (Hannah's Hebrew name), their
  niece, whom they have taken in after her parents'
  deaths. They speak in Yiddish, which Hannah is
  able to speak and understand perfectly.

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• The Talmud (Jewish Law) says, "cover the
  child's head so that he will have the fear of
  heaven." The Talmud also associates a covered
  head with humility.

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Passover Seder
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• What is an Afikoman?
• Literally - Dessert.
• At the beginning of the seder, the middle of
  three matzot (plural for matzah) is broken with
  the larger piece tucked away for later - this
  piece is called The Afikoman.
• Children over the years have been kept awake
  during the seder by playing a game of
  hide-and-go-seek with this "dessert." The person
  leading the seder will hide the Afikoman and at
  the appropriate time ask all the kids to go find
  it. Since the seder cannot come to a conclusion
  without eating this Afikoman, children will get
  toys or other gifts as a reward for finding it.

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