Passover means food for the soul

BY JONATHAN STARKEY

Newsday.com

April 19, 2008

By 3 p.m. Saturday, when guests began to arrive at her Farmingville house for a seder, Gail David had spent days preparing.

She had scrubbed her kitchen cabinets, vacuuming the ones she could reach to remove any trace of leavened products, or chametz, which are banned during Passover, the Jewish holiday that began Saturday night with the traditional feast.

For the table, she made sure to pull out the family tablecloth used each Passover and prepare traditional foods like charoset, a dish made of walnuts and apples that is meant to represent mortar used by slaves in Egypt.

Along with many other Jews across Long Island, David, who has hosted a seder for '18 or 19 years,' was again reminded how much work it takes to prepare for the holiday.

'There are five different dishes that I have to make and that's before I get to dinner,' said David, 42, a special education teacher. 'There is a lot of work involved. It can get crazy.'

Passover, an eight-day celebration, commemorates the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. Observant Jews refrain from eating leavened products throughout the holiday as a tribute to the Israelites who, without time to wait for bread to rise, ate unleavened bread during their exodus. Chametz refers to grain-based foods that rise, like most cereal and bread.

Snack cabinets can be particularly troubling during the cleaning process, David said.

'When kids are in and out of a snack cabinet, there's going to be crumbs,' she said. So you can't just remove the cookies. You have to wash them down. Now my cabinets are all stocked with kosher foods.'

Rabbi David Nesenoff, of the Temple Beth Sholom of Smithtown, said Saturday that the holiday's many rituals and foods are symbolically spiritual. Nesenoff cited eggs not only as a symbol of rebirth but of the toughness of the Jews who fled captivity.

'An egg is the only food that when you heat it, boil it, put pressure on it, it gets stronger, not weaker, which really symbolizes our people, all people,' Nesenoff said. 'This holiday is saturated in material food in order to bring us to the spiritual. And it works. Because if you want to get people's attention, use food, and symbolic food.'

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