|
|
April 2, 2004
Jerusalem as Pesach arrives
There are 17 ways to know that Passover is coming to the Israeli
city.
JUDY LASH BALINT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
There are at least 17 things that occur in Jerusalem, as Passover
approaches. From them, you know that the holiday is close at hand.
1. No alarm clock is needed any more – the clanging
garbage trucks do the trick as they roll through the neighborhood
every morning during the two weeks before Pesach to accommodate
all the refuse from the furious cleaning going on in every household.
The day before the seder, they make their rounds at least twice
during the day.
2. Street scenes change every day according to what's halachically
necessary. For the week before the holiday, yeshivah students wielding
blow torches and tending huge vats of boiling water are stationed
every few blocks and in the courtyard of every mikvah. The lines
to toyvel (dunk) cutlery, kiddush cups and the like, start
to grow every day and, at the last minute, blow torches are at the
ready to cleanse oven racks and stove tops lugged through the streets,
of every last gram of chametz.
3. The day of the seder, the yeshivah students are replaced
by families using empty lots to burn the remainder of their chametz
gleaned from the previous night's meticulous search. Street corner
flower vendors do great business too.
4. Most flower shops stay open all night for the two days
before Pesach, working feverishly to complete the orders that will
grace the nation's seder tables.
5. Meah Shearim and Geula merchants generally run out of
heavy plastic early in the week before Pesach. In a panic, I make
an early morning run to the Machane Yehuda market to succesfully
snap up a few metres of the handy counter-covering material.
6. No holiday here is complete without a strike or two. Last
year, the Histadrut Labor federation threatened to launch a general
strike 10 days before Passover to protest the planned economic cuts.
Last minute negotiations postponed the dreaded event. So far this
year, nothing has been announced, but many people are anticipating
some kind of wildcat strike, so as not to break with tradition.
7. Good luck if you haven't scheduled an appointment for
a pre-Pesach/Omer haircut. You can't get in the door at most barber
and beauty shops. (Observant Jews mark the seven weeks between Passover
and Shavuot by carrying out some of the laws of mourning –
one of these is the prohibition against cutting hair.)
8. Mailboxes are full of Pesach appeals from the myriad organizations
helping the poor celebrate Pesach. Newspapers are replete with articles
about selfless Israelis who volunteer by the hundreds in the weeks
before the holiday to collect, package and distribute Pesach supplies
to the needy.
9. The biggest food challenge to those of us Ashkenazi, non-kitniyot
(legume) eaters is finding cookies, etc., made without kitniyot.
Most years, many restaurants in the city have stayed open, offering
special Pesach menus – most without kitniyot, to accommodate
the largely Ashkenazi tourist population that used to be their bread
(matzah?) and butter. For the past few years, restaurants have closed
for the week, as Pesach tourism was sparse, but projections are
for a banner year this holiday season, so we're hoping to eat a
few good meals out.
10. Since most of the country is on vacation for the entire
week of Passover, all kinds of entertainment and trips are on offer.
Ads appear for everything from the annual Boombamela Beach Festival,
a graffiti fest in Beersheva, kids activities at the Bloomfield
Science Museum and concerts in Hebron.
11. Pesach with its theme of freedom and exodus always evokes
news stories about recent olim. This year, emigration numbers are
significantly down, but Jews from France have arrived in Israel
in recent months to fill up absorption centres in Ashkelon and Beersheva.
12. According to Israel's Brandman Research Institute study,
43 million people hours will be spent nationwide in Israel's cleaning
preparations for Passover this year. How does that break down? Of
those cleaning hours, 29 million are done by women and 11 million
by men. Persons paid to clean do the remaining three million hours
at a cost of NIS 64 million ($15.6 million).
13. On erev Pesach, dozens of members of various movements
intent on preserving Jews' connection to the Temple re-enact the
ritual Pesach sacrifice on Jerusalem's Givat Hananya. The hill is
located in the neighborhood of Abu Tor and is named for the High
Priest Hananya of the Second Temple period. Participants emphasize
that their slaughter and roasting of a young goat is a preface to
making the sacrifice, since they are wary of creating the impression
that they are renewing the sacrificial act outside the Temple Mount.
14. Israel's chief rabbis sell the nation's chametz to an
Arab resident of Abu Ghosh. Estimated worth: 150 million shekels
(about $28 million).
15. The nation's cars have never looked so clean. Up until
everyone took their cars for their Pesach spruce-up, most vehicles
in the country looked the same color – a grungy, yellowish
brown. This because of a wet winter followed by tree-pollen shedding
season. Now, we can see that there really are white, silver and
pale blue cars in Israel.
16. Radio commercials for all sorts of products and services
are set to seder tunes. A favorite is "Echad Mi Yodeya?"
("Who Knows One?") that has become a jingle for one brand
of coffee. "Four mothers, three fathers, two sugars...."
17. A sign of our difficult economic times – supermarkets
entice shoppers with a promise to allow us to settle up the bill
in six equal monthly payments on the credit card. Yes, many of us
will still be paying for the seder come Rosh Hashanah!
Judy Lash Balint is the author of Jerusalem Diaries: In
Tense Times (Gefen), www.jerusalemdiaries.com.
^TOP
|
|
