Rabbi Charles P. Sherman
Shabbat Ha-gadol
April 22, 2005
The Most Important Preparations for Pesach
Traditionally, Jews assembled on this Sabbath preceding Passover to hear a detailed discourse on regulations concerning the Festival. Perhaps maliciously, some claimed that the length of this discourse accounts for the name Shabbat Ha-gadol – the Great Sabbath. I want to talk to you this evening about a phenomenon of which I think many liberal Jews are relatively unaware, yet which has implications for us as well.
Several weeks ago the Cantor introduced us to a delightful song. The background for this song read: "For the Jewish women of the village, the excitement of Purim ended with a great sigh as they contemplated the work of preparing for Passover: turning out all the furniture, whitewashing. Grandmother leading her troops against every crumb, every drop of dust, readying the house for inspection."
While in certain ways it is easier to observe Passover today than perhaps ever before, there are people who still look upon Pesach as a hardship; you have to give up some favorite foods. Other people don’t like matzah – or matzah doesn’t like them. But today we even have matzah pizza and chocolate matzah. We have more products than ever before which are labeled "Kosher l’Pesach" – literally "fit for use during Pesach." In fact, that is part of the problem.
Because I don’t cook much, I am sometimes hard-pressed to answer Pesach questions about ingredients. Jews know they are not supposed to eat chametz, fermented products made of five different kinds of grain – wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt – so I am often asked: if we are not supposed to eat those products, how come we are allowed to eat matzah, which is usually made from wheat flour?
The issue is fermentation. Flour which comes in contact with water and is allowed to sit for 18 minutes or longer, causing it to rise and become leaven, turns into chametz. "Unleavened bread," matza, is made with flour that has been kept absolutely dry until mixed with water and baked before this 18-minute point of fermentation or leavening. The hurried nature of baking matzah (it has to be in under 18 minutes) is what reminds us of the hurried flight of the Israelites from Egypt during the Exodus.
Let me tell you about a phenomenon in contemporary life which is truly strange. One of the products which has made it into common American lore is the bagel – it is almost a universal. You don’t have to be Jewish to eat bagels, obviously. I don’t know if you realize that the matzah ball is quickly reaching bagel status. A matzah ball is also known as a kneidel, plural kneidlach. Now a matzah ball is the Jewish People’s version to a delayed time bomb. You eat one or two, and then a little later it explodes in your stomach. Matzah balls, I am told, cost very little to make – you need some eggs, matzah meal, a little salt and pepper, and if you are fancy and don’t care about your arteries, some schmaltz.
The matzah ball has entered the American mainstream. How do I know? Because in January, 2003, a matzah ball eating contest was held in New York City. The contestants had five minutes, 25 seconds, to go for the maximum matzah ball count. I don’t know why that particular time, but the first champ was Oleg "The Russian" Zhornitsky who won by consuming 16-1/4 matzah balls. But in 2004 that record was broken. The winner ate 21 matzah balls. His name was Eric Booker, a subway conductor for the Transit Authority, and he happens to be an African-American. Forgive me, friends, but I could not find the results of the 2005 matzah ball eating contest in either the dining out or sports pages.
While it might surprise some of you to know that African-Americans are now eating matzah balls all year round, here is what is even more surprising. There are Jews who, on religious grounds, will not be eating any matzah balls tomorrow night at their seder, or for the following seven days.
I regularly read The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles; it is an excellent communal Jewish paper. Last December they started running ads for Passover vacations spots – spas, golf resorts, cruises – places where you could go and have a wonderful seder – everything would be Kosher l’Pesach, and the cost could be up to $6,000 for the eight days. One of the words in some of the ads is gebroktz. Its literal translation means "broken," but let me tell you what it refers to. Again, flour that comes in contact with water and is allowed to sit for 18 minutes or more, causing it to rise and become leaven, turns into chametz. Therefore, all of our matzah products are made of flour and water baked for less than 18 minutes.
But there are obsessive Jews who fear that perhaps some of the flour didn’t actually get baked. So if they put this matzah, or matzah meal, into water, it is going to become leavened. Therefore, on Pesach these Jews do not eat any matzah product that comes in contact with water, just in case. Do you realize what that means? It means no matzah brie, no matzah latkes, even no matzah balls. And I must tell you, friends, more Jews follow this tradition than you might imagine. This rule is followed today by almost every Chassid and by many non-Chassidim as well.
Now I would call people who go to such an extreme, who are concerned about a remote possibility that even the Code of Jewish law makes no reference to, I would call them zealots. Or worse. But the Chofetz Chaim, one of the great 20th century Orthodox codifiers of Jewish law, much kinder and less judgmental than I am, refers to them as anshe maaseh – people who are judicious and meticulous. He puts it in a positive light, but he goes on to say that there really isn’t a basis in our day for their concern. He says the concern was only in days gone by when matzahs were made very thick, then there was a possibility of some unbaked flour in it. But now that our matzah is so thin, there is really no cause for concern and no need for this prohibition. And he goes on to add these important words: "Let’s not create prohibitions that are not there."
Does that mean that those who are so meticulous are doing the wrong thing? No. As another halachic authority says, both those who eat gebroktz and those who don’t, have their intentions kavanin l’shamayim – for the sake of heaven. Those who don’t eat gebroktz are being meticulous in their concern for the matzah turning into chametz, and those who do eat gebroktz are being meticulous about the importance of enjoying the holiday.
Frankly, friends, I don’t really care if you eat gebroktz or don’t. I relate this background because I find the words of the Chofetz Chaim that we not make prohibitions that are not there, and the advice of the second halachic authority about the importance of enjoying the festival relevant in our day to many other Pesach issues.
Every year I read of new books and new rabbinic proclamations that only make Pesach more difficult for observant Jews to observe. They heap prohibitions on the Jewish People which needn’t be there. In recent years, I have seen booklets listing medicines that do or do not have chametz. Last year the Baltimore Vaad Hakashrus issued a booklet entitled "Passover Medicines and Cosmetics." In New York, the Orthodox Union sent out a flyer announcing a series of four lectures on the kashrus of medications. Last Wednesday’s Tulsa World touted the Orthodox Union’s Guide which, under items which "must have Passover certification", includes detergents and polishes.
Now I am not an expert on kashrut. It is not my area of great interest, to be honest. But I do know this – if someone is dangerously ill, he can eat outright chametz – even right at the Pesach seder. That is Jewish law. And if one is just ill, then most every medicine is okay if it is in capsule form. Yes, there are some authorities who are stricter on this, but many others are not. Of course, if you can get your medicine without chametz, that is even better. But I must tell you, as a great halachic authority put it: "If your choices are medicine made by Pfizer or Rokeach’s . . . I think you have a better chance of surviving Pfizer’s quality control."
Today you can get kosher l’Pesach toothpaste. Why? Do you intend to purposely swallow it? Let’s get past these lists that tell us which deodorants and shampoos we can use on Pesach – you can use them all. And you can use any soap – even one that might have some chametz in it. It is not considered food. Just don’t eat your soap! Today you can find "kosher for Pesach" rabbinic certification for everything from fabric softeners to paper towels and napkins, to room air fresheners and babywipes – and it is all unnecessary!
You can even get kosher l’Pesach aluminum foil. Well, a seminary teacher once described the process of how aluminum foil is made. He pointed out that the raw product is poured through flaming hot rollers. He went on to say that the rollers are so hot that if you put a pig through them, it would come out kosher l’Pesach.
Then there are these lists about which cosmetics are acceptable on Pesach. You don’t need a list. If you don’t eat it, you can use it. As for those lists which tell you which perfumes are acceptable and which aren’t because they have alcohol in them, and there were some Polish and Ukranian soldiers who used to drink the perfume for its alcohol, let me tell you something. There were Polish and Ukrainian soldiers who used to kill Jews for laughs. We do not build Jewish law around them; we build halacha around what normal human beings do. Perfumes, all perfumes as far as this authority is concerned, are okay on Pesach – just don’t drink them.
So what is your Rabbi so exercised about? The trend is ever more lists, books, and rabbinic pronouncements which make it more difficult for American Jewish consumers to celebrate Pesach. Every year the standards get raised to higher, more stringent and expensive levels. Your wine cup isn’t big enough to fulfill the mitzvah of the four cups. To fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah you have to eat enough matzah to possibly require an emergency call to Roto-Rooter.
In the Shulchan Aruch, the traditional Code of Jewish Law, we are told: a person is obligated to be happy and feel good on the festival. That is the law! And the Mishna says: it is a positive commandment from the Torah, even for women. Talk about equality – even women are obligated to be happy and to enjoy the festival of Pesach.
My friends, Pesach was never meant to be a drudgery. It was never meant to be a holiday that was to be dreaded. But that is what it has become for all too many. Listen to these words from a prominent, ultra-Orthodox rabbi. "The pressure of pre-Pesach cleaning has reached unnecessary and overwhelming levels. The housewife often becomes totally nervous, unable to enjoy this simcha of yontif . . . Pesach, like every other yontif, must be enjoyed by every member of the family, including women. . . Pesach is to be looked forward to and anticipated with joy. Every woman should be well-rested, relaxed and alert at the seder table so that she can . . . follow the Haggadah with the rest of the family." And this rabbi goes on to list some of the things women are doing which are unnecessary, such as cleaning out clothes closets, dressers, chests, and even basements where there is little – if any – possibility that chametz was used there during the year.
Another rabbi, a Rosh Yeshiva in Israel, writes in his new book: "The Shulchan Aruch instructs that every person should sweep his room before bedikat chametz – the search for chametz." And the Mishnah adds: "It is a custom to sweep the whole house on the 13th of Nisan, so that it will be ready for bedikat chametz immediately after nightfall on the 14th. Anything more than that is a chumra – that is a stringency – and should not come at the cost of health and happiness, and at the expense of one’s husband and children."
He continues. "It shouldn’t take more than a day to clean the entire house, including the kitchen. Anything more than that is a stringency. If we take on an extra work load which we are not capable of dealing with, we deplete our energy and take out our exhaustion on our families. Not only is there increased tension between husband and wife as a result, but we set our children a very negative example."
The fact of the matter is, friends, Pesach is referred to as "z’man cherutanu – the time of our freedom," not our slavery. Down through the ages the attempt was always made to make Pesach observance easier, not harder. The idea of selling our chametz is so that we needn’t throw away our left-over chametz, or even have to clean the cabinets in which they are kept. The concept of machine-made matzah made unlimited amounts of matzah available to the masses. Countless dairy products have been introduced which were not available until the middle of the 20th century. Indeed, it is not even necessary to grate the horseradish anymore. All of these innovations were meant to make Pesach observance easier. But suddenly, in our day and age, there seems to be an attempt on the part of some rabbis to make it even more difficult, under the mistaken notion that stricter makes one more religious. That is not necessarily so. In fact, the Talmud teaches that the power of leniency is better.
So, if you are a Jew who does not eat gebroktz on Pesach – fine, don’t eat it. But don’t mess with my matzah balls. You can be strict about gebroktz, and I’m going to be strict about enjoying the festival. So, first lesson tonight is (and that is why we printed a Guide for Reform Jewish Pesach Observance in our Temple bulletin again this year): you decide what you want to refrain from eating, and then be consistent about it. Explain it to your children: "We want to make these seven days different than the rest of the year. We want to celebrate our People’s freedom from slavery, so we are going to eat matzah and we are going to refrain from this level of leaven products." That means that some of us are not going to read the label on everything we buy. We are going to avoid bread, bagels, donuts, crackers, cookies, pasta and other blatant leaven. But we are not going to become chametz detectives.
Secondly. What unites us as Jews, I hope, is how strict we are in how we conduct our business affairs. How meticulously honest we are in our concern for other people’s money. How careful we are in our speech. How charitable we are. How neighborly. How civic minded. These are areas where the stricter is the better.
This is Shabbat Ha-gadol, the Sabbath that comes to tell us that Pesach is right around the corner. Let us all – men and women – prepare properly for Pesach. Let’s learn to enjoy it, to feel good about it, instead of worrying about new prohibitions and unnecessary product labels which usually increase the cost. Let this Pesach bring with it a new attitude – a commitment – to women and men joining together to prepare for Pesach, of women and men and children joining together to conduct a joyous Pesach seder. Then we can look forward to the fulfillment of our festival prayer: Bestow upon us, O Eternal, our God, the blessings of your festivals; for light and for peace; for gladness and for joy. And let us say together, Amen.
Much of this message is based on the writings of Rabbis Jeremiah and Mitchell Wohlberg, Orthodox rabbis who understand the spirit of Pesach.
