Jewish World Review April 4, 2001 / 11 Nissan, 5761
A Jerusalemite burns the last of his chametz (leaven) |
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1. No alarm clock needed here--we have the clanging of the garbage trucks as
they roll through the neighborhood every morning during the 2 weeks before
Pesach (Passover) to accomodate all the refuse from the furious cleaning going on in
every household. The day before the seder they make their rounds at least
twice during the day.
2. Street scenes change every day according to what's halachically necessary:
For the week before the holiday, yeshiva students wielding blow torches and
tending huge vats of boiling water are stationed every few blocks and in the
courtyard of every mikveh. The lines to toyvel (dunk) cutlery, kiddush goblets
and the like, start to grow every day, and, at the last minute, blow torches
are at the ready to cleanse oven racks and stove tops of every last gram of
chametz, leaven.
3. The day before the seder, the yeshiva students are replaced by families
using empty lots to burn the remainders of their chametz gleaned from the
previous night's meticulous search. Street corner flower vendors do great
business too.
4. Most flower shops stay open all night for the two days before Pesach,
working feverishly to complete the orders for delivery to grace the seder
tables.
5. Meah Shearim and Geula merchants generally run out of heavy plastic early
in the week before Pesach. In a panic, I make an early morning run to the
Mahaneh Yehuda market to succesfully snap up a few meters of the handy
material.
6. No holiday here is complete without a strike or two. Last year, the
doctors came to agreement to end their month long walkout just hours before
the start of Pesach and gas suppliers at Ben Gurion airport decided to use
the opportunity to cause havoc to the plans of 200,000 Israelis who travel
abroad for the holiday. A wildcat strike caused delays in arrivals and
departures at the airport too.
7. Good luck if you haven't scheduled an appointment for a pre-Pesach/Omer
haircut. You can't get in the door at most barber and beauty shops.
8. Mailboxes are full of Pesach appeals from the myriad of organizations
helping the poor celebrate Pesach. Newspapers are replete with articles
about selfless Israelis who volunteer by the hundreds in the weeks before the
holiday to collect, package and distribute Pesach supplies to the needy.
9. The biggest food challenge to those of us ashkenazic, non-kitniyot
(legume) eaters is finding cookies etc. made without kitniyot. But most
years, many restaurants in the city stayed open offering special Pesach
menus--most without kitniyot, to accomodate the largely Ashkenazic tourist
population that used to be their bread and butter (matzo & butter?) This
year, with the dearth of tourists, we may end up spending most meals at home.
10. Since most of the country is on vacation for the entire week of Pesach,
all kinds of entertainment and trips are on offer, despite the jihad being
waged against us. Ads appear for everything from the annual Carlebach
festival to a "Tour de Pesach" bicycle extravaganza at the Bloomfield Science
Museum. There's Jewish Film Week at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Tel Aviv
weighs in with Drag Festival 2001.
11. Pesach with its theme of freedom and exodus always evokes news stories
about recent olim. Last year's focus was the Jewish community of Cuba.
Hundreds of Cuban Jews and their non-Jewish relatives arrived in Israel
during the year to fill up absorption centers in Ashkelon and Beersheva.
12. This just in: According to Israel's Brandman Research
Institute study, 43 million people hours will be spent nationwide in Israel's
cleaning
preparations for Passover this year. How does that break down? Of those
cleaning hours, 29 million are done by women and 11 million by men. Persons
paid to clean do the remaining 3 million hours at a cost of NIS 64 million
($15.6 million).
13. On erev (the eve of) Pesach, dozens of members of various movements intent on
preserving our connection to the Temple, re-enact the ritual Pesach sacrifice
on Jerusalem's Givat Hananya. The hill is located in the neighborhood of Abu
Tor and is named for the High Priest Hananya of the Second Temple period.
Participants emphasize that their slaughter and roasting of a young goat is a
preface to making the sacrifice, since they are wary of creating the
impression that they are renewing the sacrificial act outside the Temple
Mount.
14. Israel's two chief rabbis sell the nation's chametz to an Arab resident
of Abu Ghosh. Estimated worth: 150 million shekel.
15. In the Diaspora, Pesach is observed...in Israel it's
JWR contributor Judy L. Balint is a Jerusalem-based journalist. Comment by clicking here.
By Judy L. Balint