Hamas War

Monday, March 23, 2009

Home For Pesach (Passover)

Yes, we'll be home for Pesach, Baruch Hashem, Thank G-d! We're not joining the exodus from our homes. We don't pack up our belongings, like Bnai Yisrael. We don't spend the most family-oriented Holiday of the Jewish Calendar in a hotel.

Preparing for the Passover Holiday isn't always easy and pleasant, but it's a spiritual and kinesthetic process. The air swarms with dust, rather than the Biblical plague of locusts. And after breathing in too many cleaning chemicals, bleach and detergent, there's the delicious smell of food cooking. Every family has its traditional favorites, for which we eagerly await.

Going away to a hotel just doesn't compare.

Jewish and Israeli publications are full of ads from all sorts of hotels, all over the world, tempting families to pay for someone else to do the cooking and cleaning. Yes, even if the family home is cleaned and checked for chametz before leaving, it's not the same as cleaning to be there for the Holiday. Jewish organizations invite, for a price, its members to spend the Holiday together.

Some families have been doing it for so long that the parents have never prepared the food for a seder and don't know what to buy nor how to cook it.

I admit to never have enjoyed the required pre-Pesach cleaning, but it all becomes worth it when we sit together and eat our home-made food, all Kosher For Passover.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: cleaning and chemicals - that's why there are non-toxic (including some home-made) cleaners now. It's nice to scrub and still be able to breathe - and they smell nice, too.

Batya said...

t', I haven't found any here, but one thing is that I don't spray. I use a scrub brush and rags and rubber gloves.

Anonymous said...

I'll try to find the links I have to recipes for home made cleaners...

I know that as long as you don't require disinfectant, vinegar and water mixed together in equal parts gives you a good general spray cleaner. Baking soda made into a paste with a bit of water is good for getting rid of tough dirt.

Batya said...

Thanks t' important stuff. If you're not posting it, maybe I should in your name.

Anonymous said...

I was listening once to Breslev radio when it is was on the airwaves, and there was this cool song titled or with the chorus something like 'This year we're not going to the Hotel in California' with the same music.

All I could find was this. It's not the same thing, but still cute:
http://www.jr.co.il/humor/pass32.txt

Batya said...

Cute song, thanks, Josh. I didn't know there was a Breslev radio station.