Seventh day of Passover 2025

Welcome to Passover, the holiday of Freedom! We have had the pleasure of spending the last 9 days in Israel, crisscrossing the country, spending time with our children and grandchildren, planning activities, meals, special events….Yes, we celebrate Freedom, but by now we are a bit exhausted! Well, exhausted but happy. Ok, here is the rundown!

This Passover blog would not be complete without the backstory of our trip here. So, in January we made our plans to visit Israel, and found an amazing price on a direct flight from Montreal to Athens return. Once we were to get to Athens, it’s a short 2-hour trip via El Al or other airlines to Israel. Recall that in January the cease fire with Hamas had just started and most airlines did not have a reliable spring schedule yet, so we took what we thought was a safe way to get here. Now, we hit April and two days before departure, I get an email saying there may be a work stoppage at one of our destinations that could interrupt travel but nothing had changed as yet. OK, no big deal, right? Then, Monday night, one day before departure, a rumor that all the major unions in Greece were going on strike at midnight Tuesday. Now that’s more concerning. Finally, 7:30 AM of departure day, we get a text that our flight was cancelled and we were being re-booked 48 hours later, which would likely not get us to Israel in time for Passover. OK, time to panic! Fortunately, we took a team approach, thanks to Elan who does a lot of travelling. We were re-routed via Vienna (for a fee we will contest after the trip) and then booked another flight from Vienna on Arkia that got us to Netanya hours before our original itinerary. 

Now, what do you do when you arrive in your apartment 36 hours before Passover? You clean up, shop, and cook! Fortunately, the apartment was in great shape thanks to Barbara’s careful planning, with not much to clean, and kashering and set up was not too bad. Shopping for Passover is chaotic at best, as everyone and their grandmother are out in the stores. We were to be spending the first days in Efrat, so Nomi and Elan were taking care of most of the major preparations, but we were going to be spending time with all the kids in Netanya at various times, so we hustled around and stocked the kitchen judiciously so we could host a few meals and keep everyone entertained!

This year was an unusual one in that Passover started on Saturday night which meant going directly from Shabbat to the Seder; basically, everything needs to be prepared in advance on Friday. The other wrinkle was that although our homes are not allowed any products with leaven in them on Passover (e.g. bread, cake, cereals, etc.) that restriction only came into effect mid-morning on Shabbat, whereas many people try to keep the custom of having special bread on Friday night and Shabbat lunch without destroying all the rest of the Passover cleaning. Perhaps I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say there are many approaches to pulling this trick off and it engenders much discussion in the days leading up to Passover. In our case at Elan’s home, we pulled this off seamlessly, and after an wonderful shabbat we were ready for an amazing Seder. 

The Seder experience is focused on children; the key is to elaborate on the Jew’s Exodus from Egypt 3500 years ago, which is the birth of the Jewish people as a nation. The Seder is manifested through a book called the Haggadah, a compendium of stories and commentaries that frame the seder. Questions are not only encouraged but seem to be the order of the day! Elan has mastered the art of keeping everyone engaged and getting questions from everyone, be it by tossing out marshmallows and candies to creating (with help from Nomi and the kids) games like Passover Jeopardy! Plus, lots of songs, plays, and children sharing what they learned in school, and it makes for a lively and riveting evening. Since we were engaging kids from age 3-16+, this took a lot of finesse and was really successful. Both sets of grandparents were present, Barbara and I (plus Jenna!) and Karen and Robert Goldberger were there and completely enjoyed sharing this with our kids and grandchildren. 

After the Seder, Passover becomes more routine, with time in synagogue and meals, of course, with lots of food and variations on non-chametz (no leaven) dishes, meaning a lot of potatoes for Jews of Eastern European origin! Then on to the rest of the holiday, called Chol Hamoed, the intervening days of Passover, leading up to tonight which will be seventh and last day of Passover in Israel. 

This time of year is like spring break for Israelis. The entire country is out motoring around. A typical 40-minute drive will take 2 hours. The one-hour drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem takes 3. All the venues are super busy. Last year, we tried to arrange things at the last minute, but that did not work at all, so this year we reserved our big family outing from Montreal 2 weeks in advance. And thus, we ended up with Nomi, Elan, Shoshana, Shlomo, Nadav, Aryeh and Eitan as well as Gila, Ariel, Elisha, Ora and Adi at the Stalactite Cave outside of Beit Shemesh. This is really one of the wonders of the world. Found by accident, the cave is a living stalactite cave with ongoing evolution of the rock formations! The lighting is dim, and we wandered through the 20-30 minute self-guided tour really amazed by the incredible diversity of limestone formations. Definitely a must see (check out the pictures!)

After the cave we spent an hour or so in a great park in Beit Shemesh (Apple Park) with a lot of place to wander and climb. Between the two activities everyone worked up an appetite and so where do you take 14 hungry people and still have money for the rest of your trip? Ikea! Kosher for Passover Ikea is the ideal place for a big group (as we found out, a lot of people had the same idea!). No Swedish meatballs, but plenty for everyone!

We left Ikea with Ariel’s family plus Nadav and Aryeh from Elan’s family who slept over Monday night. The rest of Elan’s gang joined on Tuesday mid-afternoon and we went to OneIce, the huge, state-of-the art Olympic size Ice Skating Rink in Kfar Yonah, a few km from Netanya. With a bunch of Canadians, our grandchildren (and their parents) skated rings around most everyone else!

This intense activity also led to big appetites (a common theme) and so dinner was at Ha-Yekev, a superb dairy restaurant overlooking the beach in Netanya. A little more elegant than Ikea, and a good time was had by all. 

We exchanged families on Wednesday, with Elan and Nomi and Co leaving to visit friends in northern Israel (they visited two hiking ranges that looked amazing) and we went to Petach Tikvah for a terrific dinner by Ariel and Gila in celebration of Ora’s birthday! We then took Elisha, Ora and Adi back with us for a sleepover party. The next day, after a prolonged breakfast, we hit the beach, which is always a great way to entertain the gang. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a windstorm which cut the outing short by a bit, but that allowed us to have special movie time for the birthday girl before a fun dinner and bedtime.

So, we now have hit Friday, heading into Shabbat. Since we had not really sufficiently entertained the kids (LOL) we took them to a trampoline emporium called Gravity Park, a chain of play centers across Israel. Then a late lunch and off to Petach Tikvah, where we will be spending Shabbat and the end of Passover with Gila and Ariel. The trip ends Monday evening when we fly to Greece to pick up the return flight on Tuesday (if there is no strike!)

There is a lot to write about the situation in Israel (surprisingly calm despite what is going on) and the state of the world in general (Trump, Canadian election, etc) so perhaps I will post again next Friday from the comfort of our home in Cote St Luc.

We wish you a sunny and (hopefully) warm Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.

Happy Easter Weekend! 

Barbara and Bruce

Go Habs Go!

Happy Birthday to Ora!

Happy Birthday to Elan!

Happy Birthday to David!

Happy Birthday to Joshua!