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Friday March 30, 2007

Passover doesn’t end when the seder does

Pesach is here.

Another year has gone by, another 14th day of Nissan has arrived. This week Jews around the world will gather at the seder table to eat, drink and recount the central story of our saga on Earth.

We don’t need to sell our readers on Passover. Many say it is their favorite holiday on the Jewish calendar. Who can blame them: Wonderful food, family and friends, and one amazing tale to tell. What’s not to like?

But we want to offer this friendly reminder. Passover doesn’t end with the words “Next year in Jerusalem.” It’s a weeklong festival, throughout which we refrain from eating any chametz — that is, leavened bread or other foods not kosher for Passover.

That’s an eight-day tall order here in the diaspora.

Sure, anyone could force him or herself to skip leaven for a day. However, it takes real commitment to stick with matzah all week long.

Why should anyone bother? We can think of several excellent reasons to pass over that morning croissant or chocolate-chip cookie during the holiday.

Aside from the calories saved, it is a commandment, which should be reason enough. But for the skeptics among us, there’s another big benefit to the all-matzah diet. It forces us to remember in a concentrated manner what the holiday is all about.

Passover is about the miracle of the Exodus, that 40-year desert sojourn that turned a restive tribe of Israelite slaves into the most significant moral force the world has ever known.

The midrash tells us that in escaping Egypt, the Israelites had no time to allow their bread to rise. That means matzah is more than the bread of affliction. It is also the bread of a people’s mad flight from captivity.

Fleeing Egypt was only the first great escape for the Jews. Later we fled Roman invaders in the Holy Land. We fled from Inquisition-era Spain. We fled, in tragically few numbers, from Nazi-occupied Europe. We fled from Arab lands after the establishment of the modern state of Israel. We fled from the Soviet Union.

Whether chased out by Nazi thugs, Islamic brutes or Soviet bullies, our people never had enough time to prepare. We never had enough time to let the dough rise.

For us today, eating matzah for eight days straight is a gastronomic poem about our close calls and narrow escapes. And, ultimately, it’s about the taste of freedom.

So why not give it a try? Take a box of matzah to work. Just say no to that pasta and those Cheerios. Let yourself savor Pesach freedom all week long.

We wish our readers and the entire Jewish community a truly joyous Pesach.

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