Two More Days of Passover.........

Two more days left of Passover; two more days of eating Matzos (which are a lot of Weight Watcher points by the way), and other assorted matzo derived products.  Two more days of celebrating the freedom of my ancestors, a freedom from slavery that we relive through the telling of the story of the exodus from Egypt before we can eat dinner at our Seders - a freedom we then continue celebrating by eating unleavened bread and other assorted Passover approved, dry foods for eight days.

I keep Passover my own way.  Any religious person would laugh at the way I keep Passover – I don’t eat bread, cake, cookies, crackers, etc.  – In other words, I refrain from eating anything obviously made with flour (oh, except matzo).  Since I am the only one in my house who keeps it in any fashion, I have bread in the house, which automatically means I am not keeping it, according to any normal Jew.  I do not change my dishes; I do not scour the house.  I am odd and apparently not very clean!

I keep Passover, my way, out of respect for my heritage, I keep it in order to challenge my discipline, and myself and I keep it out of a love of tradition.  I keep Passover, my way, because it is part of who I am. However, the fact that I continue to keep it, logically, makes absolutely no sense in the larger picture, as I don’t believe the reasoning for it makes any sense at all.

To those who don’t know, the reason Jews refrain from eating leavened bread this week, it is to remember that when our forefathers were freed from slavery in Egypt, released from bondage, they had to flee quickly and did not have the TIME for the bread to rise.  So, they gathered what they could and exited stage left at lightening speed.  (Jews moving at lightening speed?)

Time, they didn’t have time.  They had the ingredients, just not the time.  So, how do we as Jews celebrate this lack of time?  We celebrate it by spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen.  There are Passover cakes and cookies that take tons of time to make, they rise, but they are okay to eat!  We eat matzo, which is flour and water, so we had the ingredients…now how does this make any sense to anyone? 

Twenty-five years ago, when I was just pregnant with my son and very aggravated that the matzo wasn’t sitting extremely well, I remember talking to a religious friend of mine who I respect immensely.  However, in the midst of our discussion of the holiday, which he deeply loved, I couldn’t contain myself any longer.  Maybe it was the hormones, but I just couldn’t keep from expressing how weird our celebration of this particular holiday seemed to me.  I told him that Christians have MUCH better holidays!!  Christmas, they decorate their homes with lights, yet Chanukah is the Festival of Lights so we light a candle!  On Easter, they get through Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified, and then they celebrate his coming back with chocolate, with bunnies, with colored eggs and fun!  They decorate baskets and give sweets and toys!  They don’t wallow in the horror of the crucifixion; they celebrate the joy of the resurrection!  If Jews celebrated the holiday of Easter and all it encompasses, we would have to suffer for a day, maybe fast, before we would set our alarms early and have to rise at dawn on Easter Sunday! 

But what do we Jews do to celebrate being freed from slavery? Are we free on this day to eat whatever we want?  After all, we are now free!!  Do we have a joyous celebration; maybe even serve something otherwise forbidden, like a bacon cheeseburger?  No, absolutely not, we, in our infinite wisdom of holiday celebrations, continue, for eight LOOOOONG days, to eat cardboard (otherwise known as matzo).  How do I prove Passover foods are not great? How many people do you know that eat Passover cakes and cookies AFTER the holiday, how many make them year round?  Also, how many Christians seek out matzo products compared to how many Jews look for a good Zitner Coconut egg?

Now, I have to say that when I was growing up, my family was not very religious and our Seders consisted of having Matzo on the table and serving gefilte fish as an appetizer.  We didn’t have a long retelling of the exodus from Egypt, my Dad would say, “We’re free!  Let’s eat!”  We had our own stories that were told, mostly about the significance of the foods, but those you can read in prior blogs.  To me, those stories, these family thought up life lessons and morals, were more relevant and more important.  The tales about why matzo balls are round and why brisket is cooked so long, these stories dreamed up by the women in my family and handed down to us, these are a personal legacy that I will always enjoy and honor.  It is those stories I would love to retell to my Grandchildren should I be lucky enough to have them one day.

Today, I had matzo with my breakfast.  This afternoon I will head to my brother and sister-in-law’s house for a beautiful Easter celebration as my sister-in-law is not Jewish.  Their house will be filled with love and laughter and I am thrilled to be a part of the happiness; however, I will test my discipline when dessert is rolled out.  I am bringing chocolate covered matzo so there will be symbol of our Jewish heritage, something sweet and tasty for dessert, but I will salivate when the cookies and cakes come out.  And so, I, as a Jew, will celebrate freedom and the lack of time my ancestors had to flee Egypt, by eating dry foods that take extra time to prepare??????

Happy Holidays everyone ~ no matter what you celebrate, I hope you celebrate with those you love.  THAT is the best of times ~ no matter what you eat!

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-haggadah-and-the-steps-of-a-seder.html