Passover 2022

 Passover has several names, one of which is The Holiday of Spring. So, welcome to spring in Israel. We arrived in Israel on Tuesday, (April 12), leaving our very chilly and rainy city to arrive to sunny skies, 22C and no rain in the forecast. It definitely does you some good to be in the sunshine! We transited from the airport to Netanya (after a second PCR in 48 hours, both negative) to set up shop and organize for Passover. 

It's definitely nowhere near as complicated to clean and prepare our apartment in Netanya compared to a house. However, one thing about Passover shopping in Cote St Luc is that the products that are specially made for Passover (many gluten free products due to the prohibition of leven, special matzah products, and different Passover customs between Jews of Eastern European (Ashkenazi) and North Africa and Spanish origin (Sepharadi) are all organized and easily identified.  That is not necessarily the case here; our local supermarket has many products intermingled, with small signs signifying the special Passover products, but even then they may be mixed up with non-Passover foods. It’s not like keeping kosher is always easy, but this is a challenge that makes you stay on guard at all times and be thankful that your phone camera can magnify the small print on products that identify their status! It’s a bit comical once you are out of the store, but maybe not so funny as you navigate the shelves and rows of products just to find strawberry jam to mask the taste and texture of dry, brittle matzah!! 

To more fun things, we spent Wednesday PM after our shopping excursion visiting Ariel and Gila, Elisha, Ora and Adi in Petach Tikvah. They will be spending the beginning of Passover with Gila’s family in Neve Daniel, which is a community very close to Elan and Nomi’s home in Efrat. In fact, Nomi and Elan were neighbors with Gila’s parents, Geula and Rabbi Yitchak Twersky, when they lived in Neve Daniel after they left Toronto. We look forward to getting together again in the next couple of days.  

Yesterday we moved in to the Efrat Mazer’s home, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And what did we do, you ask? More Passover prep, more cleaning, cooking, and organizing for the Seder. The Seder is a wonderful time, where we recount the story of the Jewish People’s exodus from Egypt. The absolute key, of course, is in engaging the children. There is no future without our young people having strong established roots. Elan, who is an educator, is a master at developing activities that can really capture the kid’s attention; he has done dramatic portrayals, Passover-themed escape rooms, and other great ways to instill fun and relevance. No question we are all looking forward to this and I will be happy to report on the festivities next week. 

I would be amiss is I did not mention our pre-flight activity, which was to attend the beautiful wedding of Orly Fruchter to El-Nasser Amin Sunday April 10th. We were extremely happy to be able to celebrate with them and wish the newlyweds a life with limitless happiness, love and companionship. Mazel Tov to our dear friend Haim and to Rona, as well as siblings Yaacov and Bilha and their families!  

Passover is also known as the Holiday of Freedom. Perhaps, as we look at what is going on around us, we find it particularly difficult to feel free this year. We are entering the third year of the COVID pandemic, with variants that seem to learn new tricks to help them evade the protection afforded by vaccination. We are witnessing a savage, unexplainable and completely unjust war in the Ukraine, with civilians shot in the street, in schools and in hospitals in the most brutal manner not seen in Europe since the Second World War. We are experiencing out of control gas prices, increased consumer costs, and many of the commodity comforts we take for granted are less enticing. Yet, what Passover teaches us is that there is a cyclic nature to all things. The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, which means that those who descended to Egypt had no knowledge of the ultimate liberation that happened centuries later.  Yet liberation did come. We eat eggs at the seder; round to represent the constant renewal that we all undergo, and eggs are unique in that the more you cook them, the harder they get, a sign that resilience is an important trait. We taste bitter herbs at the Seder, but they are dipped in sweet Charoset (made of apples, wine and honey).  While the micro-view may be on of pessimism, the macro-view tells us that ultimately things will improve, evolve and balance will be restored. For example, despite the illness and distress caused by the pandemic, the international scientific collaboration has led to development of effective vaccines and new drugs in record time. These and other bright spots despite the dim outlook, are reminders that our annual Holiday of Freedom is there to keep us on track, have faith and work together to bring better times for all. 

We wish you a wonderful, Happy Passover, and Happy Easter, and peaceful Ramadan

Barbara and Bruce

Happy Birthday to Ora!

Happy Birthday to Elan!

Happy Birthday to David!

Happy Birthday to Joshua! 

We wish a speedy Refuah Shlema to Shmuel Zev ben Rochel Eta

We wish a speedy Refuah Shlema to all those affected by Omicron….you know who you are ;-)