Blog

Days of Preparation:

• Clean house. Get rid of all chametz. Chametz means "leavened bread" and refers to food prepared from five species of grain–wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye–that have been allowed to leaven. Still have chametz that you need to get rid of? Either take it to a food pantry or lock it up tight in a cabinet and then "sell it" through Mishkan Chicago using this form. After Passover ends, the chametz reverts to your ownership
• Purchase matzah and kosher wine. Switch out your utensils that you use all year for your special Passover dishes and silver. Get your ingredients for Seder and everything that you need for your Seder Plate

• Bedikat Chametz: for those who are really committed to clearing all chametz. Search for chametz with a beeswax candle, spoon, and a feather. Look in every corner and sweep those errant cheerios into a paper bag. There’s a blessing about the removal of chametz: Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivanu al biur hameitz. Monday

• Burn any chametz that you have left, including the paper bag from the Bedikat Chametz. In the evening, light the festival candles. Enjoy the Seder with family, friends, and those in need of table. Recite the Haggadah, but don't just recite - the magic of the Seder lies in conversation: it is for us to connect our tradition to our present historical and political moment. Enjoy the matzah, the wine, the bitter herb. Be sure to eat the afikoman by midnight.

• Attend synagogue for a special prayer service. If you are in Lawrence, join for the LJCC community-led Seder. On this night, the Serifat HaOmer (the counting of the omer) begins. We count the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, the time of redemption and that of revelation.