Blog/April 2008/April 25th
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April 25th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!
Last week was just crazy; I didn't have time to put together my blog, so you'll get a double dose this week!
You know (well, you do now) that preparing for Pesach is a lot of work. Getting rid of chamets, cleaning the house, getting the supplies needed for the holiday, preparing the meals, etc. etc... Normally, Esther and I have specific tasks, and a sort of timeline we follow, to make sure everything is 100% ready. This year, however, was different! First, because I was working like a dog -- putting in very long days (22 hours, one day) to finish a project before the yom-tov. So I was out of commission simply by not being available very much (and being comatose when I was available). Then, Esther's doulee (that would be a doula's client...) chose to give birth, so Esther was out of commission for a full day and more. Fortunately, we had put in our orders for special food supplies beforehand; and only had to go pick up what we needed. But we didn't have time to pick up what we needed! Very stressful. In the end, we were successful getting rid of all our chamets, and getting the food we needed, and cleaning the house -- and we were very happy to enter shabbat and yom-tov!
Among other things, we went to the "alef" supermarket, which is an interesting experience. The store is basically only frequented by religious people; and it is quite a bit cheaper than our local Maale Adummim supermarket. In any case, as we were checking-out, the people in front of us had a huge bag of rice. When I admired the bag, the man who was buying it said, "you can't buy this" (he assumed I don't eat rice on Pesach -- an unwise assumption). So I told him, "don't judge me by the color of my skin", which elicited a chuckle from him. I didn't bother explaining to him that the entire "ban" on kitniyot during Pesach is a minhag which I assiduously avoid.
Of course, no Pesach would be complete without the Bread of Affliction. For several years, I've been intent on getting "soft matsah" for the seder. This year I finally did! But it was quite disappointing. For one thing, is was very chewy. Flexible, yes. Soft, no - not really. For another, it was very bland. Why don't the manufacturers add salt to the dough for matsah? Also I bought a 2.5 kg (a bit more than 5lbs) of machine matsah for the week; forgetting that there are only three of us, and I don't like matsah anyway. So, Mom: we have four boxes of machine matsah ready for you when you get here next week, B"H!
At the seder itself (only one! yeah, only one seder this year!!) we had one of our neighbors and friends -- they made aliyah on the same plane we did, and ended up living just down the street from us. So that was pleasant and the food was excellent (as you knew it would be).
While trying to clean, I noticed the following oddity. The toilet bowl cleaning liquid -- an Israeli brand -- has a notice in English on the bottle: "Usage instructions: Please refer to the Hebrew instructions, and have them explained to you before you use this product". What chutspah!
And speaking of chutspah, our downstairs neighbors (of whom we have spoken in these pages with a mixture of loathing and abhorrence) refused to let prospective new tenants view their apartment (which is required by their rental contract), and further told the new people that "you don't want to have anything to do with these landlords". I think they think stupidity is a virtue; if it were, they'd be well on the way to becoming tsaddikim.
- Heat wave
- bbq
- offices closed
- Herodion
- Teqoa
- J"M night life
- Mayanot that weren't
Shabbat shalom!
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