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Okay, it’s the day before Erev Pesach…the day before the day of the 1st Seder which means 2 days before the 2nd Seder – clearly the pressure is building.

I have prepared most things around the house except of course half the kitchen which has to wait until tonight because people are still eating – remember that tricky part where you can’t quite get rid of all the chametz but you can’t quite find where to put the Pesach food so you divide your kitchen or designate a counter or … clearly we have to get creative.

I’m very excited about things because my kids are all home and we’re busy cleaning and shopping and going out for coffee and catching up on life and perspectives and challenges and fun stuff.  When things get a little too tense one of us alerts the other by suggesting we get that look off our face. 

The prep this year has been fun and in conversations with my mom we both noticed that as years go by everything seems to get calmer.  I’m not sure if that’s because we’re getting better at it or because we’re getting older and mellowing…

I’ve decided to bring more spring elements into my house for Pesach since it is also the holiday of spring – the holiday of renewal.  Usually my Pesach table is white for Yomtev but I think this year I’d like to bring in colour.  I found a beautiful picture of Pesach that spoke to me of spring and warmth and holiness.  Have a look and see if you’re inspired: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/minkas_studio/2427211963/

Whatever you decide, try to remember this is about family, community and freedom so when things get stressful, take a moment, take a breath and begin again – renew your perspective.

Chag Sameach, have a great Pesach.

In contemplating my family’s upcoming seder that I insist on infusing with meaningful content and anecdotes, I decided to start my preparation this morning.   Coming from a traditional background where my mother transforms the entire house for Pesach, down to the baby Moshe in a basket centrepiece on the console table, I see it appropriate that I do my duty having not been available for the shopping, shlepping and set up.  The dinnerware, silverware, pantry and fridge in addition to the whole mood is different in the house. Maybe it’s the change in season or maybe it’s the fact that Pesach is one of those holidays that we don’t simply celebrate with a feast, that us Jews do oh-so-well, but it’s a feast heavy with meat and ritual.

How can I make it different this year? How can I overcome the rolling eyes and the proverbial “timeline” of when dinner is to be hot and ready to be served? Firstly, I’ll ensure to have an equal balance of jokes and Jewish content. After all, we are commanded that, “…it is our duty to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. And the more one expands and augments the telling of the Exodus from Egypt, this person is indeed to be praised.” (Otzar Geonim, 154-155) I tell you this not to get praise for fulfilling my duty, but so you too can feel constructive at your own Pesach Seder. This year, I’ll dedicate a cup of water to Miriam and explain to our guests that it was SHE who physically led the Jewish people out of slavery, and I’ll provide insight into why we used the primitive feather, wooden spoon and candle to conduct our Bedikat Chametz ritual when we could have simply used the vacuum cleaner. Midrashim on the items are available by clicking here. The Feather, the Wooden Spoon & The Candle

In researching (ie. googling) a bit further, I also discovered that Pesach 2009 is scientifically unique.  According to rabbinic calculations, once every 28 years, on the same day of the week and at the same hour of the day, the sun returns to the position where it was when it was first created.  We are encouraged to see the sun and recite a bracha. My basic source is found here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkat_HaHammah Wow, this year really will be different.  We’re covering the Biblical, Rabbinic AND scientific bases at the Seder.   Chag Sameach!

After 12 years of marriage, the jig was up. The time had finally come to host my own seder.

During most of my married years I had usually flown to my in-laws, which was the central hub for my husband’s family to gather, as they are all dispersed. In the off years, usually when too pregnant to fly, my mother and aunt always split the seder two nights. Due to various circumstances, Pesach would be in Toronto this year, and after 40 consecutive years of my mother and aunt making seders, I thought that it was finally time to have the torch passed on.  Although I was excited, which is why I volunteered, I was also completely overwhelmed at the sheer size and logistical complexity of what I had undertaken. Because I do not spend most Pesachs in town, and even when I have I wasn’t making seders, I simply I had not accumulated the vast arsenal of dishes, pots, pans, etc that would be required to pull this off. “Matzah brai” or scrambled eggs on paper plates has always been a Pesach staple for us, and has suited us just fine thank you very much. I have to confess, the idea of turning the kitchen over full out sent me spinning into a fantasy on more than one occasion of picking up, turning the key, and taking the family to Cancun or Florida on one of those ghastly expensive “Kosher for Passover” holiday packages.

Well that didn’t happen – and I’m so happy it didn’t. These past days and weeks of list making, organizing, shopping, and then more list making, organizing, and shopping have been some of the most exciting, touching, and meaningful moments that I have shared with my children. We have pulled together as a family and been working as a real team. Everyone is delegated responsibility, even if that means my four year old schlepping all over the city to ‘keep mummy company’, help choose the brand new seder plate, or picking out his favorite Pesach treats at the grocery store.

While it’s wonderful to be a guest at someone else’s seder, there is something incredibly empowering about having the opportunity to run the seder in a way that reflects one’s own vision regarding both the style and content of the service; more specifically, in a way that reflects the values and lessons that one wants to pass on to their children. And so, while the seder will be neither at my mother’s nor my mother-in-law’s this year, but instead in my home, the passing on of the torch is so much more than being the one to make the chicken soup and matzah balls. Rather, the passing on of the seder torch is precisely what one of the central themes of Pesach is all about – the commandment to teach our children, to pass on memory from generation to generation, and to do so in ways that elaborate, add, and enrich. In conducting the seder at our house this year, my husband and I feel privileged, and humbled at the same time, to be adding another chain in the long link of Jewish history.

The countdown to Pesach is well on its way.  

Today is March 25th and it is 2 weeks and counting to the beginning of Passover.  ‘Seder Madness’, as I termed it a few years ago, is well underway. Only 2 seders possible and yet, so many relatives and friends to organize and lock into who is going where on which night.  

As my older children gain more independence in their lives, they return home for Pesach barely in time to help with the overall cleaning and prep but are certainly invaluable for the last minute kitchen marathon that has become an inter-generational tradition (I remember the kitchen marathons of my mother’s kitchen as we were obligated to open the one cupboard that was so deep, no light could reach its back wall – not for the faint of heart…)  

This year I have recruited my younger children to be responsible for their closets, under their beds, their bookshelves and their clothing shelves.  I am controlling my Jewish panic at realizing the major areas that will not be as thoroughly cleaned as in the past.  How have I accomplished this, you might ask.  I have discovered the secret to delegation and guilt free Pesach prep.  It is a two-step process.

The first step is to calculate the likelihood that any of my children were actually eating cookies or cake in their closets, under their beds or sitting in a bookshelf.  The second step is the crucial bit of information every woman should share with every other woman she meets.  The Jewish knowledge that will change every Pesach prep household for a woman is the realization that DUST IS NOT CHAMETZ!

Passover preparation and spring cleaning should not be combined into a singular event.  There is spirituality to preparing for Passover while spring cleaning involves drudgery and an emergence from hibernation that should never be confused with freedom and liberation.

One of the most liberating things a woman can do is to delegate some of the preparation and share the spiritual journey of Passover approaching.  Once we realize we must liberate ourselves from the slavery of the prep, we no longer dread the countdown – on the contrary – the weeks before Pesach can become a time of family bonding in the home as the house is converted to a new and collaborative state of Pesach readiness.  

And yet, with all this new-found delegation and guilt-free empowerment, I still have to admit that come what may…I clean the kitchen.

One of the ways I keep myself grounded and from losing my mind entirely is by scheduling events into my calendar that I can look forward to. Parties, pedicures and vacations are a few of my favourites.  This past week, I looked at my calendar and I realized that Pesach is exactly three weeks away.   Not so overwhelming for me because I am fortunate enough to head home on the morning of erev Pesach to a house filled with family, love and homecooked goodness. My mother (along with the help of my siblings) will have shlepped boxes and bins filled with dishes, cutlery and serving pieces upstairs for the holiday. We aren’t a particularly religious family, but on Pesach, we transform the house entirely. I get excited when I think about the lengthy seders we are known for. I wonder, which innappropriate jokes will my uncle tell after the fourth cup of wine this year? I look a little further on my calendar and I realize that part of Pesach this year will include a very good friend’s stagette.  During Pesach.  Being a bridesmaid and one of the coordinators of the party, I wouldn’t dare miss it, nor would I want to.  How will I ensure that while I paint pottery, enjoy some beverages and nosh among friends that I won’t stray from my chametz-free diet? The answer is simple. Carmel brand molasses vodka and those oh-so-delicious macaroons that I treat myself to only on Pesach.