Posts Tagged ‘Pesach’
Kol Dichpin – A Seder Without Guests
- This year around the world for the first time in living memory almost every seder this Pesach will have to take place without guests.
- I have set out my general thoughts on how our Judaism can best flourish at a time when the community cannot function – see my post What’s The Derech and Who’s off It – A Discussion of Core Jewish Values (below and at https://www.danielgreenberg.co.uk/shiurim-and-lectures/).
- But a specific issue arises for the seder: we will begin as always with a ritual announcement that all who are hungry should come and join us – and we will know that we do not mean it: that we have not been able to invite guests, and that there will be people sitting alone whom we would have loved to have invited.
- So, simply, what kavono can we have in saying “kol dichpin” this year? Perhaps we should leave it out?
- It seems to me that we need to start now: there are many people for whom existing financial difficulties have been exacerbated by coronavirus; or whom the lockdown will have precipitated into new financial difficulties.
- There are also many wonderful charitable organisations which are doing their best to help.
- So if we make efforts to give to those organisations now a little bit more than we might otherwise have done (perhaps particularly where we have money that we might have spent on a large seder that is now available for other things) then we can sit at our seder table and in saying “kol dichpin” we can reflect that we have done our best to ensure that as many people as possible are joining our seder remotely, in the sense that we have shared with them before Pesach so that they can enjoy their seder in peace and comfort.
- L’shonoh ha’bo’oh b’Yerushalayim to us all – hoping that we can celebrate next year’s Pesach in a world that has been spiritually enriched by our collective experiences of a closer connection with God and Jewish values as a result of our enforced isolations.
Skip the Skips: An Environmentally Responsible Approach to Passover
- Discussing the commandment of not leaving over any of the Passover sacrifice to the next day, the Sefer Hachinuch explains that in order to show our liberated status, coming out of slavery in Egypt and becoming a free people, we are copying monarchs and rulers who as an expression of their wealth simply destroy any food left over at the end of a meal and have no need or wish to preserve food from one day to the next.
- Social conditions and social consciences have changed, both for monarchs and for ordinary people in the intervening period since this was written.
- No responsible person today would think it appropriate at the end of a banquet simply to throw all the remaining food away: with hunger facing people even in the most developed countries of the world, this would be an act of gross insensitivity, and thought is routinely given by caterers at all levels in society as to how to use leftover food in an appropriate way.
- This thought about changing social conditions has no direct application to the Passover sacrifice today because we do not bring it: it does, however, have direct application to our preparations for Passover.
- Not so long ago it was common for local councils in areas with large Orthodox Jewish populations to provide an extra rubbish bin collection on the day before Passover, and to set up communal skips into which people were invited to throw their leftover chometz (non-Passover) food on the day before Passover itself.
- It is inconceivable that this would be thought appropriate by responsible people today: burning a slice or two of bread in the garden on the day before Passover as a symbolic rejection of the grosser forms of materialism is one thing: throwing into a skip significant quantities of good food for which the homeless and the hungry would be grateful is entirely another.
- The message for today’s age is simply this: the mitzvah of biur chometz (destroying leavened food) starts now, or even earlier, with a concerted effort to wind down the larder so as to ensure that on the day before Pesach we have very few open packages of non-Passover food still around, and we can move into the symbolism of a simpler lifestyle for the duration of Passover without committing acts of irresponsible and disreputable waste.
Kitniot – let the buyer beware
1. From what I see in the shops before Pesach these days, I fear that many people are unwittingly eating food on Pesach that is not kosher l’Pesach according to their own family and community traditions.
2. Kitniot – rice, beans and pulses – are not chametz. But the centuries-old ashkenazi minhag is not to eat them on Pesach, for any one of a number of possible reasons. The sepharadi minhag has always been to allow kitniot on Pesach, and for them they are fully kosher l’Pesach.
3. An increasing number of foods manufactured for Pesach in Israel contain kitniot, to accommodate the sepharadi majority. Even surprising things – ice-cream, mayonnaise, ketchup – routinely contain kitniot nowadays. But the fact is mentioned on the label only in very small Hebrew letters that can be difficult to find and decipher even for those who know what they are looking for.
4. The shops in London clearly have a duty to put up large notices warning the majority ashkenazi population in this country to watch out for kitniot; and they would do well to label each product on the shelves as kitniot-free or containing kitniot. I encourage everyone to bring gentle, polite and friendly pressure on the shop-keepers to do this for us.
5. Until they do, I am worried that many people who want to keep Pesach properly but are not well-versed in these issues and may not be able to read Hebrew are likely unwittingly to bring into their houses for Pesach use products which they would not want to use if they knew the full story.
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