Experiencing Passover

Passover has long been ended, but I am still slowly catching up on blogging!  It was an interesting experience to be living in the Jewish neighborhoods during Passover.  I had mentioned in a previous post the flurry of activity that occurs to remove all leavened products from homes, grocery shops and restaurants.  We survived quite well during the week, despite the lack of bread and more limited choices when grocery shopping! 

We did try out the special Passover burger at McDonald’s.  Even though our local McD’s is not kosher, they are “sensitive” to folks who like to eat kosher-style but aren’t strict about eating at kosher certified restaurants.  This means McDonald’s did not serve bread, even though they are willing to put cheese on your burger if you request it.  Instead, the hamburgers were served with a special Passover “bread”.  It was barely edible, in my opinion.  It was dense, very solid, and had an odd flavor.  Bread products need yeast!!     

I also wanted to share this picture I quickly snapped while I was in our local grocery store during Passover week.  I felt a bit paparazzi as I tried to discretely take this photo!  Everything behind the plastic is food that cannot be eaten, and therefore not sold, during the Passover.  Probably about 1/3 or more of the store was behind plastic for the duration of the week. 

I find that following the Jewish law lends itself to making life feel very complicated!  I suppose that if you grow up with the traditions, all the rules feel normal and make perfect sense.  But for a non-Jew, it seems cumbersome and sometimes nonsensical!  For example, during Passover, religious Jews are not allowed to own any leavened products.  This means that every household needs to dispose of these products, while the very religious will even go to lengths to ceremonially burn these products.  For others, this means selling these products to non-Jewish parties, all of which is facilitated by the rabbis.  So religious Jewish shopkeepers will need to "sell” all the products behind that plastic.  Yes…it is sold, but it still sits in their stores!  At the end of Passover, shopkeepers repurchase the items.  And…they are back in business!  In addition, Jewish homes are scrubbed and scrubbed again, in preparation of Passover.  This cleaning is to be sure to remove every trace of yeast products from the home.  What I don’t understand is why it is OK to buy food during Passover in a store where these forbidden foods are just tucked away behind plastic?  It simply just does not make sense to me!!