Passover prep

I have a lot of friends who don’t keep the Passover & the Days of Unleavened Bread. But it’s one of the most wonderful times of year for me, and I feel very compelled to share some of what we have going on. Summed up, these days are about self-examination, cleaning, and cooking. This post is a background on why and how we prepare for the Passover season. Throughout this week, I hope to share some of my cooking adventures, since that is such a theme of my blog, a part of the season, and since I LOVE FOOD!

Today is March 25, 2013. Tonight many of the Jewish faith will keep the Passover. What the Passover has come to mean for the Jewish community is very different than what the Passover, and further the Days of Unleavened Bread, means to Christians. For example, I actually took the Passover (as Christ instructed in Luke 22 and John 13) last night. I am not completely sure why the Jews keep it on the 15^th of Nisan instead of the 14^th, which is the day they were instructed to keep it in Exodus 12. I have heard it tied to the reinstitution of the Passover during the time of King Josiah in ancient Judah.

There is a lot of work involved in preparing for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Ultimately, we are to look inward (I love the way Paul sums it up in 1Corinthians 11:23-31), but the command to do the physical, to get all the leavening out of the house and, too, to prepare and consume unleavened bread, is still very clearly a precedent in scripture (Exodus 12, Acts 12 & 20, and 1Corinthians 5).

To deleaven means all the leavening has to be OUT. Obviously, we trash any food that has leavening agents, as well as the leavening agents themselves (yeast, baking powder, baking soda). Also, I use this season to “spring clean.” I typically go through our clothes and books and linens, and toss or donate things we haven’t used or are in disrepair. When we clean, we pull all the furniture and appliances out from the walls to vacuum along the baseboards, pull out the cushions from the sofas and chairs to vacuum them. I clean and reorganize the kitchen cabinets and drawers, the fridge and pantry, linen, coat & broom closets. Too, we clean out the inside of the cars and our personal workspaces. It’s a massive undertaking. If it weren’t for the instruction, I am not sure I’d be willing to do it! But we do it once a year, and, in general, my house is a healthier place for it. For that reason alone, I am tremendously thankful for these days.  

Because deleavening is such a massive undertaking, I’ll use weeks to get it all done. We had so much going on this time of year, so I started just about a month ago. I began with the bedrooms and bathrooms, where leavening doesn’t typically get. I mean, who eats cake in bed (ahem!). As I make my way into the spaces where we do typically eat (where stray bread crumbs, cookie crumbs, etc. live), I will try to be conscious that we don’t eat leavened foods – or foods at all – in those areas afterward. The kitchen is always last, and it’s a doozy. This year I relined most of my cabinets and drawers with tacky paper. I was pleasantly surprised at how much cleaner it felt. After all, isn’t that what these days are all about? (See all of Isaiah 52 & 53!)

Finally, I’d like to share a scripture that resonates during these days. It’s one about the Messiah, spoken by the prophet Isaiah, fulfilled by Christ, and demonstrated by Christians.

How beautiful upon those mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7