PASSOVER MANIA: The Photos

It's not possible to put in words the range and depth of the Passover Mania that is sweeping Jerusalem so I'll try to capture the mood in photos. Keep in mind the comment made in the paper today that "modern archaeologists can not find any evidence of the exodus from Egypt as describe in the Bible." You would think that would put a damper on things, but it hasn't.


Probably one of the best photos I've ever taken. The guy in the picture is one of many who has set himself up on a corner with a boiling pot of water to sterilize the hametzy (non-passover) dishes that people bring him. What makes this guy so unusual is the CAL Berkeley hat he is wearing. When I told him what it represented, he had no idea and said his sister gave it to him. I assume he also didn't know about the lack of evidence of the exodus.

There are long lines of people everywhere sterilizing their dishes. What I find curious is that the process of sterilizing is designed to kill germs, but the religious doctrine of "hametz" is designed to cleanse the spirit. According to the boiling water theory, it is the people who should be dunked in the pot, not the dishes. I didn't share this with the Cal guy, just gave him a thumbs up and a GO BEARS!!

I got my hair cut today and I picked a pretty busy day to do so. This man is both de-hametzing and cutting/styling an orthodox wig. Ultra married women must wear wigs (more on that another time) and obviously you can't wear a hametzy wig on Passover, (dah) so they have to be cleaned and dolled up for the Seder.

Many people do a massive cleaning of their houses, but rather than live in them during the Passover and get them dirty, they check into hotels for the holidays. Unfortunately, the hotels are staffed by less religious people (both Jews and Arabs) who must be fed, but they don't want to eat matzohs all day so the hotel caters sandwiches on real pita bread. But (are you still following me) the workers can't eat bread in the anti-hametzy hotels so the staff eats their meals in the underground garage. When they saw me taking the picture, they offered me a sandwich, but, not wanting to anger God, I declined.

Cars have to be de-hametzied too. So there are long lines at all the car washes. BTW: dog and cat food must be kosher for Passover so all old hametzy pet food must be pitched and replaced with special for Passover pet diets.

In the Ultra neighborhoods there are rows and rows of signs which lay out the latest rules of religious conduct. There are obvious ones like, "women must dress modestly in this neighborhood", but sometimes they get very complex. Vardit says these signs refer to the problem of the "smeta" year. For those of you who aren't up on that problem, every 7 years the fields must be left farrow (unplanted) That was last year, this is now year 8. But, (still following) some seeds that ended up in the ground in year 7, are germinating in year 8 and you guess it, that is a huge problem. These signs warn people about buying food from vendors who might be including 7 year seeds in 8 year products. Let this be sufficient warning to all of you!!

While the average religious person boils their dishes clean, the real Orthodox throw their old dishes away and buy new ones. Thus the stores are packed with people buying full sets of dishes, also sheets, table clothes, even kitchen appliances.

The seamy underbelly of the holidays! Piles and piles of hametzy "garbage" are everywhere, garbage pickup has been doubled, scavengers are out and about. I'm told there are some real bargains in these piles, but haven't seem many.

Finally, keep in mind that not much of what you've seen and read above is found in the Bible. If you recall the story, the Jews where told to get the hell out of "Dodge" and they left so quickly they barely had time to bake matzoh, which is for me one of the really nice parts of the holiday. I'm not sure where all these other traditions came from, but one of the most recent additions is that Passover is a gift giving holiday. Even the newspaper didn't know where that came from, but observed that gift giving on Passover is almost as big as Hanuka, so once again the malls are packed with people buying their friends gifts and of course, lots and lots of presents for the children. Thus, a holiday whose message used to be, "travel light with just the shirt on your back because you never know when Pharaoh will change his mind," has morphed in the modern Israeli slogan to "shop till you drop."