Did you ever wonder why, if we aren’t allowed to eat products made with wheat on Passover, that matzoh is totally kosher (so to speak?) I must admit that this question puzzled me until my mid-20′s, when I spent a year in yeshiva learning the laws of Passover.
For those of you who don’t have a year or two to dedicate to Torah study, here’s a fantastic and very entertaining (in a corny kind of way) explanation. You will need to download a power point (click on Chapter One) but it’s well worth the small effort and the time spent watching it.
I found the site after visiting their facebook page, Great Seder Ideas for Kids.
If you are wondering when I’m going to post about getting ready for Passover, the answer is, when I’m not so busy getting ready for Passover. In the meantime, here’s a link to a few posts from last year.
I have heard the insight that flour on Pesach is like everything else in this world: there is a permitted way to use it and a forbidden way to use it.
Like they say about Esav and David HaMelech: they were both born with red hair and fiery tempers. Esav turned this middah to evil and became a murderer; David HaMelech used it for good to fight battles for Hashem.
So, too, flour itself is not innately chametz. I love that. You can use it for bad: puffery, cupcakery, whatnot… or you can guard it, mix it properly, bake it l’shem mitzvah, and turn it into something unbelievably sacred.
Chag sameach!!!
Drat – forgot my best example, and now you’re going to think I’m spamming your blog. But this is so beautiful, I have to share it. WINE. Wine can ruin lives, tear apart families, degrade a person so utterly they cannot come back. Or it can elevate us, make us holy.
So there you go. As my kids say when somebody says something pompous and then stops: “l’chaim!”
I love that – thank you for posting (once, twice, whatever…)
Now I’m going to have to go read those earlier posts.
I was up until 11:00 last night sewing the golden/beige fabric cover for a play “pyramid” I’m making. I’ll put up some pictures when it’s more done, but I’m having lots of fun.
And no, I haven’t started really cleaning yet. That’s why it’s still fun.
I love Jennifer’s midrashim — thanks for sharing.
And I love how we are all putting off the inevitable — but using the time to make Pesach meaningful!!!
A zisn Pesach to you guys!