Getting ready for passing over
Tonight is the first night of Pesach . Oddly enough, this is the one Jewish holiday that everyone seems to prefer calling by its English name instead: Passover. So, naturally, and in concert with all Jews everywhere, my thoughts were drawn this past weekend to that least charming of Jewish subjects: chametz . Or, more specifically, to the onerous task of removing every last speck of the stuff from my house and the similarly onerous chore of cleaning or (temporarily) replacing every chametz -contaminated food-related item we own. I should take a step back for my non-Jewish readers. Chametz is Hebrew for "leavening" or "leavened food", and it is strictly prohibited for Jews to consume even a speck of chametz at any time during the eight days of the Passover festival. This is why we have a special food label that shows up this time of year: "Kosher for Passover." The regular rules of kashrut are all about meat: only eat meat from certain animals, m...