Pesach Looming

Of all the Jewish Holidays, indeed demarcation points on the annual calendar, Pesach stands out.  It has a preparation deadline with considerable challenge to meet it.  I never made a formal checklist, but I know the lower level of the house gets cleaned, things that really should be stored in the basement like my good fleishig salad bowl and blender that occupy space in the dining room need to be relocated.  The refrigeration requires some type of transformation, eating up the edible, discarding what should not be eaten so that the contents can be emptied and the interior washed the day before.  Shopping changes.  Purchase of Passover edibles and usables creates an impressive Shop-Rite tab.  The supermarket offers an inducement, spend $400 over the month and they throw in a Kosher chicken usually priced at about $16.  I've made the cut the last two years, never used the chickens, and this year plan to economize, or at least be more selective of what new food I bring home.  I use a lot of eggs, better purchased at Trader Joe's, and depend more on fresh produce where Sprouts often has an advantage over Shop-Rite.

I anticipate some elegance in the kitchen.  Two seders, shabbos Pesach where I try to have guests, and this year my birthday comes out on yontif.  Plan menus, then try to do focused shopping.  Sinks get scrubbed, oven self-cleaned, microwave adapted, floor washed.  Dishes get hauled upstairs from the basement, then washed before being used to make Seder.

I'm very indifferent to synagogue.  Each yontif day is a weekday.  I do not know if the newly appointed Rabbi will have moved in to officiate by then.  I should try to make it easy for him if he has, or at least use this as a chance to get to know him, having been mostly excluded from the hiring process which I found held too close to the vest by the Influencers.  Part of the demarcation if he is on site, perhaps a place to minimize my presence if he is not.

I feel more obligated than eager this year, but as the preparation moves along, I usually manage to get more emotionally engaged.  And once completed, I always feel accomplished.