The Blessings of Pesach Preparation

I am watching a beautiful sight. The children, led by the two older daughters (C and E), are leading the last push to make over the kitchen from Hametz to Pesach. The caring, fun loving, and devoted way they're working brings tears of joy to my eyes.

I see that they've internalized the lesson that Shabbat requires Erev Shabbat, that Hag requires Erev Hag and that Pesach requires Erev Pesach (which for us begins after Purim when we stop eating Matzah).

They've learned that creating a sacred space, free of Hametz and all that it symbolizes, is the first step to personal and national redemption. In between Youtube videos and episodes from their favorite TV shows (played in the kitchen on the laptop, surrounded by Kitniyot) they are lovingly creating a place for Yom Tov to settle.

By kashering and cleaning the way they are, they are imitating the way that my parents and their mother's parents prepared for Pesach. In that way, they are joining generations of Jewish men and women who've prepared for Pesach all the way back to 1200 BCE.

Finally, judging from the conversation, they all feel the ongoing specialness of doing all of this in Eretz Yehudah in Eretz Yisrael, which was the end point of the Exodus in the first place.

People who only make reservations for Pesach will know neither the effort or the reward, the timeliness and the timelessness of the effort.

מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת.
ברוך שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה.

חג כשר ושמח.