Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Passover rising
Age-old traditions live on among Jews
Jews around the world will begin celebrating Passover on Friday evening, commemorating their ancestors’ exodus from Egypt.
Before that can happen, however, they’ve got to do a little spring cleaning — or fall cleaning, if they live in the southern hemisphere.
During the weeklong observance, chametz — food with leavening agents — should not be seen in a Jewish household, let alone consumed.
In Exodus 12, the Passover — or Pesach — celebration is described as “a memorial” and “a feast to the Lord” that must be observed “throughout your generations … for ever.”
Since the Israelites, in their haste, baked their bread without waiting for it to rise, future generations must also eschew leavened products during the holiday.
In fact, they’re supposed to remove any leavened items from their homes before Passover’s arrival.
It’s not just bread that is problematic. Certain distilled spirits — bourbon, whiskey and Scotch, for example — are also chametz, as are many other products.
The biblical penalty for consuming leaven during Passover is severe: “Whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel,” Exodus 12:15 states.
Traditionally, Jews try to remove every last bit of leavened products from their home, cars and other possessions. Frequently, unopened chametz is donated to charity.
As a child, Marianne Tettlebaum remembers her father saying a prayer and then symbolically burning a small bit of bread as the Passover approached.
“It just highlighted the fact that you’re really trying to get rid of every single crumb,” said Tettlebaum, a former director of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.
Through the millennia, Jews have scrupulously avoided consuming leavened foods during Passover, opting instead for matzah, a flat, unleavened bread.
“Our ancestors didn’t have time to let the bread rise when they were slaves. So matzah is called the poor bread and the bread of affliction,” said Rabbi Barry Block of Temple B’nai Israel in Little Rock. “The eating of matzah and refraining from leaven throughout Passover really is a an act of solidarity with both our ancestors who were enslaved and with all people, everywhere, who lack privilege, and lack, either literally or figuratively, time for the bread to rise.”
The preparations help usher in a time of remembrance and thanksgiving.
“Passover begins what’s called the season of freedom, liberation,” said Rabbi Pinchus Ciment, director of Lubavitch of Arkansas.
Observance of the holiday is widespread within the community, regardless of one’s level of religiosity.
“In the American Jewish community, there’s a spectrum of observance, from very minor to people who are very careful about the the laws of keeping Passover,” said Rabbi Sam Radwine of Congregation Itz Chaim in Bentonville. “What’s interesting for us is that Passover observance ranks very high, even among marginally observant Jews.”
Silvana Berlinski, interim director of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas, says Passover was a falltime ritual for her when she was growing up in Argentina. The practices were nonetheless similar.
“The climate is different, the weather is different, but the leaven part is exactly the same,” she said.
During Passover, many Jews avoid using utensils that have come into contact with leavened products throughout the year.
In those families, “you have different dishes, you have different silverware, you have different pots and pans,” said Annabelle Imber Tuck, a former state supreme court justice and a member of Congregation B’nai Israel.
By the end, things have gotten a thorough cleaning.
“It’s more than just getting the leaven out of the house. … It really is going around and really doing a good cleaning of the entire abode,” Tuck said.
Some Jews will even sell, temporarily, their leaven or leaven-tainted items to a non-Jewish person, she noted. Under the terms of the contract, the items revert to their owner once Passover is complete.
Lubavitch of Arkansas has posted an online form to make these transactions easier. https://www.arjewishcenter.com/holidays/passover/ A rabbi can help facilitate the arrangement; the organization offers the service free of charge.
“According to the letter of the law, as long as you don’t own it, it’s OK,” Ciment said.
Things that have come in contact with chametz can be cleaned in many instances in a way that satisfies Jewish law.
In other instances, it is simply not practical.
“Toaster ovens are very hard to clean out properly,” Ciment said. “You just have to put it away and sell it with the chametz.”
While covid-19 hampered Passover observances in 2020 and 2021, Berlinski believes things will be better this year.
“Families can be together again, and we’ll sit and we’ll feel safe,” she said. “I think that is going to be the biggest difference.”