Community Corner

Spring is Here; Pesach is Coming

The calendar says that spring is officially here.  While we have not gotten the full blast of our promised El Nino this winter, it's time to move forward.

We have changed our clocks, cleaned out closets and celebrated Purim with raucous joy and hamentashen.  Countless songs have been written in honor of springtime by our great American composers, many of them Jewish. 

If you are like me, this time of year is the start of the great countdown to Pesach.  It's always in full swing after Purim.  Initially, I try to ignore it when the market puts out their display of Kosher L'Pesach foods.  My first reaction is always “Oy not already! I can't think about it yet”.  But here we are, and there can be no more procrastination.  I take out my lists, and cookbooks, invite guests and plunge into cleaning and preparations.   I feel that stress starting already, right about now.  Each year, I buy a new Pesach cookbook, resolve to make some new things and see how to keep the family satisfied during the long week when I never seem to get out of the kitchen, except to go to the market to buy more eggs!  Why does every Pesach recipe seem to need 10 eggs? 

I also subscribe to a bi-monthly Kosher magazine, Joy of Kosher, which always has ideas for the Kosher cook.  They usually do a weekly email article with menu suggestion for Shabbat or Chagim, but this time of year, they do a daily Pesach countdown email.  They have great ideas for Sedar meals, casual entertaining and Chol HaMoed.  It's helpful to know that meals are already Pesach proof and you don't have to rethink ingredients.  Since I now know that there are only 25 days until Pesach, it should help me organize.  Instead, it just gives me shpilkes!  In spite of my best efforts, all the cleaning, sorting and organizing of dishes, pantry and food leaves me exhausted and unprepared for cooking the meal and leading the Sedar at home.

This year, in a concerted effort not to feel like a slave leaving Egypt, I am going to try something else.  While the work to prepare my home for Pesach remains, I decided to change my perspective of the process.  A few years ago, Rabbi Feinstein gave a sermon on Pesach where he noted that this is the half waypoint in our Jewish calendar, the midpoint of the year, and a mini High Holy Day period.  He suggested that we try to use this time to re-evaluate ourselves and consider what we have accomplished so far, and what we might do better in the balance of the year remaining.  I won't bore you with the changes I wish to make, but I am going to have a personal accounting during the next few weeks before Pesach arrives.  Like we are commanded to do during the month of Elul, its time to time to face the music!  I hope to use the metaphor of clearing the crumbs out of my pantry with cleaning the junk out of my soul that I promised at Rosh Hashanah and haven't yet accomplished.

If successful, then I will have followed the suggestion of Rabbi Feinstein, whom I greatly admire.  I will have also been able to prepare for the Pesach season with joy and the freedom that is detailed in the Hagaddah, “and you will tell your son on that day that it is because of what the Lord did for you when you went forth out of Egypt”.  Finally, as I set my table for the Sedar, I will be certain that the house is clean and prepared, and that my soul is as well.  I hope to be able to accomplish Pesach preparation this year with an open heart and joyful spirit.   I think it will make all the work lighter this year.  It's a lot to take on, but oh, so worth it!   Chag Samaech!

Cantor Toby Schwartz