pre Pesach

Ahhh, Pesach. So much to say... where to begin? well, I was going to entitle this entry "Rena's revision of the 4 questions" but alas, I could only think of one. My burning question is the following: (to be read to the tune of Mah Nishtanah) "On all other days of the year, Israel is the home of Kosher food, but on Pesach, a Fridman like me can't find anything Kosher." Here is my answer: Avadim Hayinu: to remind us that we were HUNGRY HUNGRY slaves in Egypt. That doesn't explain why the Sephardim don't have to be hungry, but that's the best I came up with.

I've been warned by many many people that there is nothing for Fridmanim (see previous post) to eat on Pesach, everything has kitniyot. I was a bit skeptical and took it to be an exaggeration, how could there really be nothing for us Ashkenazim? Wasn't it enough that Herzl was one of us? But I didn't lose sleep over it, the issue was out of my hands. Deep down though I was a little nervous. That may have been why I procrastinated and refused to go Pesach shopping until this morning. Well, I went. I saw. And seeing is believing. There really is very very little to buy. But what makes the experience all the more frustrating is that its not like at the American grocery stores they have that one token aisle for Pesach stuff, and you don't even bother going down the other aisles. Here, they have that one Pesach aisle also, but all it has is matza and matza meal. You then have to comb through the entire store, pick up every single product that you are interested in buying, squint your eyes very intently, till you find a Kosher for Pesach marking. But these markings are not so simple to read-- which all makes the trip to the grocery store take double the amount of time it normally does. I have found 4 different types of Pesach related markings thus far. The first is your standard Kosher for Pesach. (When you see that one, you breathe a sigh of relief and shout "Yipee!") The second is Kosher for Pesach for eaters of kitniyot. The third is Kosher for Pesach for eaters of Liftit (canola), the fourth is roshei tevot (abbreviation) כ"לפ which also means Kosher for Pesach, but it takes an extra second, or a day in my case, to figure that out. I found it interesting how most items with kitniyot don't just say "with kitniyot", but it actually says "for eaters of kitniyot". The latter is a much more exclusive language. As if us Fridmanim aren't hurting enough, the hashagacha people have to be down-right mean about it! Anyway, I did the best I could, and we'll see how hungry we are come Wednesday!