Or as I sometimes hear it - shlepping to Passover. It's a path, with a lot of work involved!
Questions invited - the holiday starts Saturday night (coming up) and I have a lot to do. Might as well talk about it.
Prepping for Passover
Prepping for Passover
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
But why? Why is this night different from all others?
"All things are difficult before they are easy."(found in a fortune cookie)
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Forgetting isn't healing." Elie Wiesel
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Forgetting isn't healing." Elie Wiesel
Re: Prepping for Passover
- On all other nights we don't usually dip even once. Tonight we dip twice.
Om all other nights we eat bread or matzo. Tonight only matzo.
On all other nights we eat many kinds of vegetables. Tonight we eat bitter vegetables.
On all other nights we sit or recline. Tonight we all recline.
Why is this night different from all other nights?
In fact, the seder procedure DELIBERATELY performs many actions in the 'wrong' order or in ways different from 'usual'. The idea is to actually provoke the children to ask WHY is this night different?
The answer is the 'aggadah' - the 'telling' of the story of the escape from Egypt.
In a traditional haggadah (the book used to lead through the seder), that story is told four different times in different ways, because there are four different 'sons' (children): the one who wants to know and asks good questions (the wise son). the one who is too immature or ignorant to understand much (the simple son). the one who is hostile to the whole procedure (the wicked son) and the one who is too shy to even ask questions (the son who doesn't know how to ask).
The teacher (leader) needs to answer for every kind of learner/student.
Also there is a joke about Queen Elizabeth and the Jewish knight.
(Why is this knight different from all other knights? but it only works in English)
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
In a traditional haggadah (the book used to lead through the seder), that story is told four different times in different ways,
That's interesting. What a good idea.
What kinds of things do you need to do to prepare?
That's interesting. What a good idea.
What kinds of things do you need to do to prepare?
Re: Prepping for Passover
Preparing for Passover can be reasonable or crackers-insane. There are jokes about that, too (some of them are quite funny).
The Torah says to remove all chametz (fermented material) grains - wheat, barley, oats, spelt and rye. Rabbinic ordinances expand that to not just getting it out of your house, but getting it completely out of your possession - typically, we legally sell it to a non-Jew on a contract, which requires additional payments after the holiday - at which point, your buyer defaults and you regain ownership - OR you can physically remove it all - give it away, sell it absolutely, or throw it in the trash - AND anything containing extracts from those, AND (for Ashkenazic traditions) a whole range of totally ordinary vegetables that somewhere, sometime in Europe, LOOKED LIKE a grain -
things like corn, beans. rice.
Anything CONTAINING anything FROM corn, beans, rice (and a range of others) - which for corn, at least, covers an ENORMOUS amount of foods - ketchup. most soft drinks. anything with corn syrup. Rice vinegar. BEER. Any wheat, corn or barley based beverage (bourbons).
All the yeast, the baking powder (not the baking SODA that's non-organic), bread, cakes, crackers, cookies -
ALL of it. Even crumbs. Even pet food (you can purchase kosher for Passover pet foods).
Basically, combine a very thorough spring cleaning with a total turnout of the entire pantry and kitchen.
AND THEN -
The Torah says to remove all chametz (fermented material) grains - wheat, barley, oats, spelt and rye. Rabbinic ordinances expand that to not just getting it out of your house, but getting it completely out of your possession - typically, we legally sell it to a non-Jew on a contract, which requires additional payments after the holiday - at which point, your buyer defaults and you regain ownership - OR you can physically remove it all - give it away, sell it absolutely, or throw it in the trash - AND anything containing extracts from those, AND (for Ashkenazic traditions) a whole range of totally ordinary vegetables that somewhere, sometime in Europe, LOOKED LIKE a grain -
things like corn, beans. rice.
Anything CONTAINING anything FROM corn, beans, rice (and a range of others) - which for corn, at least, covers an ENORMOUS amount of foods - ketchup. most soft drinks. anything with corn syrup. Rice vinegar. BEER. Any wheat, corn or barley based beverage (bourbons).
All the yeast, the baking powder (not the baking SODA that's non-organic), bread, cakes, crackers, cookies -
ALL of it. Even crumbs. Even pet food (you can purchase kosher for Passover pet foods).
Basically, combine a very thorough spring cleaning with a total turnout of the entire pantry and kitchen.
AND THEN -
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
AND THEN - you can't use your regular pots pans dishes serving utensils and silverware, EITHER. Some materials (metals, glass) can be 'kashered' but it is a pain to do and takes a while - and some things just can't. Put away the toaster - it is impossible to properly kasher for Passover, and besides, what are you going to toast?
Appliances need to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned with boiling water. The stove is often heated to red hot with a literal blow torch (actually, the self cleaning function is hot enough).
The counters must be cleaned and THEN have boiling water poured over them - this is why many very observant Jews just clean them well and cover them with aluminum foil - this was done in a recent TV program, prompting many questions online!
These days, I do it 'easy'. I pack away the chametz in a cabinet or freezer and tape those closed. I clean the kitchen but I'm not fanatical about it. I have sets of different plates to use for Passover, and sometimes we buy paper goods instead.
The silverware and a pot or two - those I will kasher (boiling water) and simply put away the ones I don't want to deal with.
As you can imagine, this takes days.
Then there is prep for the holiday itself, because we will need a few things I don't usually keep on hand, and a few things that need to be bought unopened anyway - coffee, for instance.
Jews do various amounts of this work, depending on their level of observance. Some do all, many do some, and some do very little.
Appliances need to be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned with boiling water. The stove is often heated to red hot with a literal blow torch (actually, the self cleaning function is hot enough).
The counters must be cleaned and THEN have boiling water poured over them - this is why many very observant Jews just clean them well and cover them with aluminum foil - this was done in a recent TV program, prompting many questions online!
These days, I do it 'easy'. I pack away the chametz in a cabinet or freezer and tape those closed. I clean the kitchen but I'm not fanatical about it. I have sets of different plates to use for Passover, and sometimes we buy paper goods instead.
The silverware and a pot or two - those I will kasher (boiling water) and simply put away the ones I don't want to deal with.
As you can imagine, this takes days.
Then there is prep for the holiday itself, because we will need a few things I don't usually keep on hand, and a few things that need to be bought unopened anyway - coffee, for instance.
Jews do various amounts of this work, depending on their level of observance. Some do all, many do some, and some do very little.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
Probably the most famous part of the observance is the seder, which is the first night (and in countries outside Israel, also on the second night).
the Seder (meaning 'order') developed after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, because after that, the main event (sacrificing a lamb, one per family group, and returning it whole to the family to be roasted and eaten that night) could not take place. Today, in fact, we mostly AVOID lamb, and prepare beef, chicken or other dishes for the meal.
A lot of the modern Seder is symbolic of certain Temple events - we place a broiled or roasted egg on the table, in memory of the springtime sacrifices. We prepare a lot of the same specific food items, too - the entire seder is physical remembrance of the events of the escape from Egypt. Some Jewish cultures had the habit of dressing in travel clothing and eating standing up - ready to leave!
The meal itself, is about the thirteenth of fifteen steps of a typical seder - which will last two hours or more, so there is quite a wait before the meal!
Shorter versions exist - We will be having guests this year, and will go through a thirty minute version, which leaves out some steps and abbreviates others. So we will go through about a half hour of 'seder' followed by a meal, with nothing afterward - a traditional seder will resume with a couple more things to do - grace after meals, another cup of wine, some more songs.
The basic seder:
the Seder (meaning 'order') developed after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, because after that, the main event (sacrificing a lamb, one per family group, and returning it whole to the family to be roasted and eaten that night) could not take place. Today, in fact, we mostly AVOID lamb, and prepare beef, chicken or other dishes for the meal.
A lot of the modern Seder is symbolic of certain Temple events - we place a broiled or roasted egg on the table, in memory of the springtime sacrifices. We prepare a lot of the same specific food items, too - the entire seder is physical remembrance of the events of the escape from Egypt. Some Jewish cultures had the habit of dressing in travel clothing and eating standing up - ready to leave!
The meal itself, is about the thirteenth of fifteen steps of a typical seder - which will last two hours or more, so there is quite a wait before the meal!
Shorter versions exist - We will be having guests this year, and will go through a thirty minute version, which leaves out some steps and abbreviates others. So we will go through about a half hour of 'seder' followed by a meal, with nothing afterward - a traditional seder will resume with a couple more things to do - grace after meals, another cup of wine, some more songs.
The basic seder:
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
Prepare the table:
Set out the ritual foods - usually on a specially designed platter:
roasted egg - symbol of spring, temple sacrifice
parsley.symbol of spring
horseradish.'bitter herbs'
romaine lettuce.another bitter herb
charoset, a mix of nuts and fruit made to resemble mortar - can be pastelike, can be chunky
a shank bone of a lamb (some use a chicken leg bone. Some use a roasted beet - it's a symbol of the Passover lamb, but we aren't picky.)[/list][/list][/
Also on the table: small bowls of salt water
a plate (or several, if you have a large number of people) with matzo (specially prepared for Passover, a kind of 'bread' make only of flour and water)
Wine. Also grape juice, for people who don't want wine.
Set out the ritual foods - usually on a specially designed platter:
roasted egg - symbol of spring, temple sacrifice
parsley.symbol of spring
horseradish.'bitter herbs'
romaine lettuce.another bitter herb
charoset, a mix of nuts and fruit made to resemble mortar - can be pastelike, can be chunky
a shank bone of a lamb (some use a chicken leg bone. Some use a roasted beet - it's a symbol of the Passover lamb, but we aren't picky.)[/list][/list][/
Also on the table: small bowls of salt water
a plate (or several, if you have a large number of people) with matzo (specially prepared for Passover, a kind of 'bread' make only of flour and water)
Wine. Also grape juice, for people who don't want wine.
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
As we go through the haggadah (and there are over 100 different editions to choose from), we will do several things 'differently' - for instance, it is customary at the table for a formal event like this, for people to say a blessing and wash their hands by pouring water over them. Tonight, we will pour and wash, but without the blessing. And clearly, the table looks different - there's no actual bread on it tonight (normally there would be challah). There is only matzoh.
So that leads to the Four Questions, which lead to the 'telling' (the traditional haggadah goes through the story four times, in four different approaches - our short version will stick to once).
We will drink four cups of wine. Eat a little horseradish, eat a little parsley dipped in salt water, eat a little horseradish mixed with charoset (which is very sweet). The leader will explain the meaning of everything on the table.
And THEN we clear up a bit, and bring in the actual MEAL, and relax, and over-eat, naturally.
Then we spend the next seven days on a totally different diet than usual, and fuss a bit about when the holiday is truly OFFICIALLY over. Our personal family practice was going out for pizza.
I really miss sandwiches. You can bake kosher for Passover substitutes for rolls and a kind of bread, but they aren't really very good. But you can make a lot of quite excellent flourless cakes!
So that leads to the Four Questions, which lead to the 'telling' (the traditional haggadah goes through the story four times, in four different approaches - our short version will stick to once).
We will drink four cups of wine. Eat a little horseradish, eat a little parsley dipped in salt water, eat a little horseradish mixed with charoset (which is very sweet). The leader will explain the meaning of everything on the table.
And THEN we clear up a bit, and bring in the actual MEAL, and relax, and over-eat, naturally.
Then we spend the next seven days on a totally different diet than usual, and fuss a bit about when the holiday is truly OFFICIALLY over. Our personal family practice was going out for pizza.
I really miss sandwiches. You can bake kosher for Passover substitutes for rolls and a kind of bread, but they aren't really very good. But you can make a lot of quite excellent flourless cakes!
History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices.
Re: Prepping for Passover
Oh my goodness. That is a lot of work. Why do you avoid lamb?
Wishing you a Happy Passover!
Wishing you a Happy Passover!