How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household

How wise the Rabbis were: law on restricted greeting is really the law against rejoicing. Instead of a global, “You shall not rejoice,” which would be incomprehensible, they said, “You shall not do this little thing or make that small gesture.” I never knew how much pleasure there is in greeting a friend until the Rabbis forbade it on Tisha B’Av.

This is why, in many well-organized households, Pesach cleaning begins right after Purim. As Lucy L., who works full time, says each year on her way out of shul after the Megillah reading, “Well, tomorrow I’ve got to get started on Pesach.”

That’s Judaism!—a little pedagogy, a little pageantry, a little fantasy, a little realism;

Memory is protest, memory is activism, memory is the incredible power to turn grief and destruction into hope. Not to remember, not to relive, not to retell, not to mourn, not to feel pain, is to be finally and ultimately defeated—and not the other way around.

Cleaning for Pesach is the most thorough spring cleaning imaginable. Every corner is vacuumed, every shelf is scrubbed, every drawer cleaned out. Furniture is moved, mattresses are overturned, pockets of garments are turned inside out and shaken clean. What we are looking for are any possible hiding places of chametz.

The office and the car also must be cleaned thoroughly.

Because fasting is a tangible symbol of grief, of mourning, of suffering. Fasting focuses the memory onto the event, it heightens empathy for the martyrs. It sharpens the feelings of identity, not only with the traumatized Jerusalemites of old, but with the loving, memory-rich community of the present. Fasting, then, and the feelings of grief it cr

chametz is the leavened product that results when any of these five grains come into contact with water for more than a minimum of eighteen minutes. Thus, all breads, pastas, cakes, cookies, and dry cereals are considered pure chametz.

the Talmud tells us that every Jew in every generation should feel as if he or she went out of Egypt with Moses. And in order that the matter not become a dull reflex, once each year the event is compressed, intensified, and reexperienced, so as to reenergize our Exodus batteries for the entire year.