What I sent to my congregation yesterday….

Despite yesterday’s snow, Passover is a mere 20 days away. Many of you have been making plans and I delight in hearing what you will be doing. Did you know that Passover is the most celebrated of all the Jewish holidays in American Jewish families? Did you know that traditionally, the rabbi only gave a sermon twice a year? On the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to teach how to repent and on the Shabbat before Passover, to help with preparations. This is my version of that sermon. We at CKI are a diverse community with lots of levels of observance. However you choose to celebrate, I wanted to give you some guidelines and some resources. And from my family to yours I wish you a sweet Passover, a zissen Pesach.

Your CKI Family is ready to celebrate with you. We have Judaism Rocks, Turn Over the Kitchen Day, The Study Session in place of the Fast of the First Born, the Community Seder, the Women’s Seder, special services with Hallel and the reading of Song of Songs and Yizkor on the last day. Consult the bulletin or the website www.ckielgin.org for times and places. If you need a place for the first night please contact me personally.

If you are planning to sell your chamatz, please get your form to me by March 22. Our chamatz will be purchased by Pastor Keith Frye at Christ the Lord Lutheran. He is excited about the interfaith learning that this tradition teaches and he will be attending the Kleins’ first night seder. Money raised from this project will go towards feeding the hungry, since we are commanded, “To let all who are hungry come and eat.” Some will go to Mazon and some will go locally.

Starting with the most traditional, my favorite book on Passover preparations is Blu Greenberg’sHow to Run a Traditional Jewish Household. She has really practical advice, like when you go do your Passover shopping, have two slices of pizza and a coke first. Then you won’t be tempted by the wide array of processed foods that look appealing on the shelf but never taste as good as we hope. In the Klein family once we started making chocolate covered matzah (the recipe is in the bulletin) we stopped needed to buy all the junk food, cutting down our food budget. She also points out that none of us should feel guilty if we can’t buy everything that the Jewel has to offer. Some years we can, others we can’t and the holiday will still be festive.

The Orthodox Union, the OU people, have this set of guidelines: http://oukosher.org/passover/ It provides a good way to check individual products and I can envision it right at the grocery store and have downloaded it to my smart phone. If you need all the rules and regulations, the Chicago Rabbinical Council, the CRC people put out a comprehensive list accessible on their website at http://www.crcweb.org/Passover/passover%20guide%202012.pdf . This will give you the low down on specific heckshers, times, etc. Everything you need to know. The Rabbinical Assembly has a good overview of the halacha, http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/hameitz-laws-and-customs

The Reform Movement sent out a link to their Passover material. Great sounding recipes, social justice connections, crafts, activities for kids..plus lots of the history and plenty of additional links. Well worth the read. http://view.mail.rj.org/?j=fec11373736c0679&m=fe9315707361057572&ls=fe231776716c0474741277&l=fefd167574660c&s=fe5312717362077b721d&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe5c15767c600c787415&r=0

Many of you have asked me about the kitinyot article that appeared in the most recent Conservative Judaism magazine. Rabbi Golinkin’s responsa permitting Conservative Jews to eat kitinyot first appeared in 1989 and has been republished in several years. It is a fascinating discussion and one that sparks a heated debate in my own household every year. Intellectually I agree with those who argued as early as the 1300s that we can eat kitinyot, rice, beans, legumes. It is clearly a custom and does not have the weight of halacha, rather of minhag and tradition. The rabbis in the Talmud had rice at their seder! I can even justify it because some of my husband’s ancestors came from Italy and Spain making us Sephardic. I can even support it because it is the main practice in the State of Israel. But my daughter every year argues that as a rabbi, anyone needs to be able to eat in our home. Besides which I raised her to hunt for kosher for Passover ketchup, a good preparation for the Afikomen during the seder. At the synagogue we will continue to observe the Ashkanazi tradition, again so that anyone coming during Passover will feel comfortable. So you can make your own decisions in your own homes, here is the full responsa: http://www.responsafortoday.com/engsums/3_4.htm

If, however, you still have questions, I am of course available for consult. There were signs up in Jewel and the Hungarian “Consult your local rav.” That’s me! 978-590-8268. Other questions that have come up include Kosher for Passover oven cleaner. Kosher for Passover coffee. (I bought Starbucks blonde roast ground with an OU P designation in Evanston and then found it at Meijer on Randall!). How to kasher a keruig or a dishwasher? What to do with plastic? Can Jews eat lamb on Passover?

Passover celebrates our liberation from Egypt, out of the narrow spaces of Mitzrayim. For some they see it as a rebirth. As I said in my bulletin article, we should not therefore become enslaved to the Passover preparation and enter the seder so tired we cannot enjoy it. Passover cleaning can seem like New England spring cleaning on steroids. But the schmutz on your window which you were not going to eat anyway is really not commanded cleaning. Nor are the dust bunnies under the piano or that dried stuff under the refrigerator. While I am all for Passover cleaning and I like the idea that my house is really, really clean at least once a year, I am trying harder to not be narotic about it. And paper plates are OK for some of those many courses! Really, I learned that from another woman rabbi in Pennsylvania.

Part of what makes Passover fun for me is finding new ways to involve the next generation. Sing Dayenu–at least the chorus, only one Hebrew word! Write a new version of Dayenu, It Would Have Been Enough… Practice the Four Questions. In Hebrew or English. We have started in Hebrew School. The 3rd Graders are writing their own questions. They include:
Why does Elijah come?
What do we dip?
Why do we have four cups of wine or grape juice?
Why do we eat kosher food?
What is the story of Passover?
What is freedom?
Have them help you with the shopping or the cleaning or the silver polishing. We change our dishes, but when Sarah was very young, my mother, a avowed classical Reform Jew, sent Sarah her own set of play plastic dishes. We changed her Little Tykes kitchen over too. Write a skit based on the Four Children. Have special things for the plagues. There is a set of masks at the gift shop. I’ve seen finger puppets as well. Even the adults think that is fun. Sing silly seder songs. Some of our favorites are here: http://sederfun.com/images/Silly%20Songs.pdf Or write one of your own. Overall, I am suggesting, make the seder your own and you won’t get the fifth question-“When do we eat.” Oh, and at our table that question was always asked by a dear friend who is 70+ now. We solved that. After the karpas, the parsley, serve crudite with another dip. No one asks any more!

In every generation, we are to see ourselves as if we personally were brought forth from Egypt. In every generation new things are added to the seder, to make it more meaningful, more current. Last year, in addition to the usual egg, shankbone, parsley (home grown), bitter herbs and charoset (two kinds, with nuts and wine and without for our friends who are allergic to nuts or don’t drink wine), we had a beet (for our vegetarian friends in place of the shankbone), an orange for inclusivity of both women and the GLBT community, Israeli olives for peace, coffee beans to remind us that some people are still enslaved. We added an artichoke with its pickly thistles for diversity. That is good one for this congregation that says it embraces diversity but has discovered it isn’t always easy. This year we will add tomatoes.

Perhaps we should simplify, simplify, simplify. The original seder was merely lamb, bitterherbs and matzah. That’s it. Or maybe we could/should try one of the new Hagaddahs that are out. Or maybe we could try, as our students will, a chocolate seder or a Dr. Seuss seder or one set in a beudoin tent. What we ultimately want is some way that our children will ask, “Why?” “Why is this night different?” So then we can tell the story, “Tonight is different because of what the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt.”

A Kosher and Sweet Passover
Next year in Jerusalem,
Rabbi Margaret