Selling Chametz
Even if you don’t keep a kosher kitchen, and/or you don’t “convert” your kitchen for Pesach, there is still spiritual value in selling your chametz: You are engaging with myriad Jews worldwide in a practice that can be traced back to Torah and, if you include a donations to “ma’ot chitin,” you are enabling those in need to more fully celebrate Pesach.
A Few Things About Pesach (With lots of links)
There is a wealth of information about Pesach (and the challenges of this year) at Exploring Judaism.org.
Omer 5785
My recent posts...
Purim: What’s at Stake
Today is Ta’anit Ester, a half-day fast in solidarity with the biblical Esther who orchestrated a three-day hunger strike to boost her chance of success in approaching the king without having been summoned, potentially a capital offense.
Preparing for Shabbat
It took several tries this morning before we connected with Hannah in Tzfat. She’s been busy, she said, and has a meeting in a few minutes.
From our first-born’s first Shabbat at home, we have been blessing our children every Friday with the traditional formula of safe-keeping (bemidbar/Numbers 6:24-26). It got a bit more challenging when they left home, but we nearly always succeeded in reaching them by phone before candle-lighting.
When we spoke with Hannah, there was a lot of noise in the background. After blessing her, I asked what she was so busy doing. “Getting ready for Shabbat,” she said. The only details she shared in the short call were that some people were baking challah, and a rabbanit (Orthodox female counterpart to a rabbi) was coming soon for candle-lighting.
A war is raging. Hamas calls for an international day of rage to sow fear and chaos, and tells Gazans to stay in harm’s way (just another example of using civilians as pawns, human shields). The Lebanese border is far from placid.
We’re concerned about … so many things: the anticipated calumny of false moral equivalence, the excuse (as if one were needed) for more anti-Jew attacks everywhere, the short duration of world-wide empathy, the blindness of Arab countries, the unhelpful threatening pronouncements of some Israeli mouthpieces. So many things.
And our daughter’s combat search-and-rescue unit is preparing for Shabbat. We are so proud.
(below is the traditional parent blessing for children)
Shabbat shalom ! שַׁבַּת שָׁלוֹם
