HAPPY PESACH

Posted by: ann on: 30 March 2007

• In: thoughts
• 37 Comments

I thought I would come out of hiding for a little and ramble a little.

I am sure you all recognise these… matzah! Yes that time of year is almost upon us which is why you’ve not heard hide nor hair from me. If you want to know more of what I’ve been busying myself with I found a great link which I’ve been dipping into and it tells all the whys and wherefores of Pesach, The Passover. In a nutshell we have to rid the home, oh and the car… erm… and the office, of chametz. Well that prohibits certain grains which means of course I just had to finish that second, or was it third, hiccup, bottle of Stella Artois at the back of the cupboard just now.

The funny thing is I have been making Pesach for over, well many many years, yet each year I learn something new. My daughter told me something her boyfriend’s family don’t do and she thought they didn’t do it right. Well forget the different streams of orthodoxy, essentially Jews are divided into two groups… Ashkenazi who originated from Eastern Europe, i.e. Russia, Poland, etc. and the Sephardi who come from the Middle East and Mediterranean areas. My father’s family were the former, although I have some Sephardi blood in my veins on my mother’s side. Rachel’s boyfriend is Sephardi, also my brother’s wife. It is interesting and fascinating as each has their own customs and different foods are permissible for Sephardi but not for Ashkenazi.
I won’t go into all the details of my personal Pesach cleaning, oy my poor back and you should see the state of my hands, but I recommended earlier that some of my darling internet friends find an orthodox Jewish woman in their neighbourhood and whisper the magic word “Pesach?” I should have told them to ask her:

1. Are you busy?
2. Are you tired?
3. How’s your back?

Once it is all done and the search and burning of chametz is complete, there is a great sense of satisfaction and believe it or not, a sense of spiritual cleansing as well. Then we start on the cookathon. I make two sedarim and there are always family and friends at the table, mine and the children’s, Jamie and Lucy intend eating every meal here over the whole of Pesach and… mother’s coming to stay.

In the meantime I thought I would show you a picture of where Jamie and Lucy’s wedding will take place overlooking the sea. Having said that, the pool area was being renovated, so we couldn’t see exactly where the chupah (wedding canopy) will be. Not long now, only 17 weeks… and no, I have not lost any weight or bought the dress or shoes or bag or hat… oh dear! Still, neither has Rachel as bridesmaid and Jamie refuses to wear a suit… oy gevalt, what do I do with him? I know, I know, it is Israel, it will be very very hot and it’s fairly informal, but a nice lightweight linen wouldn’t look amiss… hmmm!
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I was kinda designated to do the excel spreadsheet for the wedding invitations, but because of Pesach I simply haven’t had a chance to do it. Jamie will be home all next week. I have delegated… yes! Being a typical Aries, he likes to be in control, so I’m sure he won’t mind. By the way, Val, belated birthday greetings… another Aries. I lived with three male Aries, Jamie’s birthday on the 26 March, the ex on the 27th and Jon’s on 3 April… I didn’t stand a chance!



Couldn’t not post pics of my little sprogs. Bridgitte and Moriah on my last morning with them.

Boaz sans hair… makes him look all grown up.
Boaz playing with his new tractor… wonder who bought him that?

Finally a funny… seems to fit somehow. I have three enormous sacks of clothes ready for the charity shop sitting in my bedroom. If I haven’t worn it for a couple of years, out it goes. Only took half-an-hour to go, nah, nah, nah, nah… now I really can say I’ve got nothing to wear, except I still can’t possibly squeeze another outfit into my wardrobe if I wanted to. Or should that be, I can’t squeeze myself into another outfit if I wanted to?

… oh, and a couple of Jewish funnies…

A blind man is sitting on a park bench. A Rabbi sits down next to him. The Rabbi is chomping on a piece of matzah. Taking pity on the blind man, he breaks off a piece and gives it to the blind man. Several minutes later, the blind man turns, taps the Rabbi on the shoulder and asks, “Who wrote this?!!”

G-d: And remember Moses, in the laws of keeping Kosher, never cook a calf in its mother’s milk. It is cruel.

Moses: Ohhhhhh! So you are saying we should never eat milk and meat together.

G-d: No, what I’m saying is, never cook a calf in its mother’s milk.

Moses: Oh, Lord forgive my ignorance! What you are really saying is we should wait six hours after eating meat to eat milk so the two are not in our stomachs.

G-d: No, Moses, what I’m saying is, never cook a calf in it’s mother’s milk!!!

Moses: Oh, Lord! Please don’t strike me down for my stupidity! What you mean is we should have a separate set of dishes for milk and a separate set for meat and if we make a mistake we have to bury that dish outside…

G-d: Moses, do whatever you want….

The Harvard School of Medicine did a study of why Jewish women like Chinese food so much. The study revealed that it is due to the fact that Won Ton spelled backwards is Not Now.

Well guess I’ve prattled more than enough. I’m stilling plugging Yidoez… here’s the latest one of MoMo. Oh and another one featuring Boaz’s tractor. I wish I knew how to embed them straight onto here, but I don’t have a clue!

I shall probably be absent for a while again, see you here in about two weeks, but I will try and visit.

I wish you all a lovely lovely weekend, Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach S’meach.

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