One week and four days

This week is the week before the week before Pesach (passover) here in the Holy land (I meant to write that twice). Passover is a time when families come together over a seder dinner, and remember and celebrate God's deliverance of them out of Egypt. It is also more specifically a time to remember when the angel of death "passed over" the door posts of the Jews in Egypt and spared the lives of their first born sons. These doors were passed over because there was blood of a lamb brushed over the doorposts which signaled to the angel that God had set these people apart. This is one of the most sacred of Jewish holidays, and also has incredible significance for believers in the messiah Jesus if you look into it. I will not be looking at its significance in this post however.

I would like to note a few observations of the holiday that are slightly less spiritual. There is now one week and four days to Pesach and counting. The Jews have been commanded to get rid of all leaven from their homes to remember the night they were freed from bondage in Egypt. There was no time to allow the bread to rise, so they ate unleavened bread that morning. In order to follow this command, Jews today do a "spring cleaning" of their home to get rid of all leaven. They clean every square inch of the house, some using q-tips, some repainting their walls just to be sure. All bread products and products with leaven are thrown out, as well as products made in factories where there has been leaven. This can include bread, pita (this makes me sad), cereal, peanut butter, beer (this makes Ryan sad), certain toothpaste, and even hummos. They cannot use dishes or pots and pans during Pesach that have touched leaven. They must eat only matza and matza flour (in place of breads) during the week of Pesach. Apparently a well known burger chain here replaces its "McKabob" with a "Matza burger" where matza is used in place of a bun (I will be getting one don't worry).

I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the grocery store but the breads and cereals are already on the "clearance aisle" and the quantities are dwindling, while the store workers get everything reorganized for the holiday. Huge displays of cleaning products and sets of silverware, dishes, and serving platters are set up at the entrance to the mall and to the supermarket. The store fronts are all filled with the special Pesach/seder plates and dishes, candlesticks and kiddush (blessing) cups. Many people here get two full weeks off for Passover - one week to prepare and one week to celebrate. One friend from school told Ryan that Pesach is too crazy and too busy but at least the night of the Seder dinner is nice.

Many Jews find ways to make the holiday less hectic. One way is to "sell" their leaven to their pagan friends (like us) so they can keep it in their kitchen. I think they also sell their kitchen... This way they dont technically have any leaven in their kitchen. They just have to buy it back when the week is up. Another technique is to leave home and go on vacation which is why we have heard the Ben Gurion airport is insane the week of Pesach and the airlines hike up prices to benefit from the Jewish families attempt to get out of a deep house-cleaning. Also the hotels in this area can charge up to 3000 dollars for a small family to participate in their hotel-hosted seder dinner. Suddenly a new set of dishes seems like a bargain.

The point of this posting is in part to journal something that is fascinating to watch here. Also in part it is to note a parallel that I see to a holiday we like to call "Christmas" at home. The people here are so frantic and although they get a lot of time off, they spend most of it in preparation and much less of it in remembrance and celebration with family. The country is engulfed in the holiday "trappings" and yet as an outsider, I see very little of the "true meaning" of the day. My hope is that next year this will be brought to mind, and that perhaps our "biggest" holidays can be reduced down to something of more meaning and much less of everything else.

(By the way, our own family is leaving town this Friday - but will be back in time to stock up on some last minute leavened products and to perhaps buy a couple kitchens...).