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You are here: Home / Blog / Being a Jew in C-U / Being a Jew in C-U: Lotsa Matzah Guilt

Being a Jew in C-U: Lotsa Matzah Guilt

March 24, 2010 By Laura Weisskopf Bleill

I have done the bare minimum for Passover and purchased a couple of boxes of matzah. (Photo by idovemani on flickr)
I have done the bare minimum for Passover and purchased a couple of boxes of matzah. (Photo by idovemani on flickr)

by Laura Weisskopf Bleill

All around me there is talk about getting ready for Passover. Let’s see what I have done in that arena: oh yeah, I bought a couple of boxes of whole wheat kosher-for-Passover matzah. Two boxes. Oh, and some delicious Israeli chocolate spread.

Most of you are probably wondering what the big deal is. That’s what you do for Passover, right? You buy matzah? Wrong.

You’re also supposed to clean your house – like scrub the floor with a toothbrush clean your house. Turn it upside down. Spring cleaning on crack.

You’re also supposed to remove all the chametz (leaven) from your home – and sell it to a non-Jew.

You’re also supposed to buy — more or less — all new food for Passover. They even sell Passover coke (made with real sugar). And potato chips. I really like Passover potato chips.

You’re also supposed to cook Passover food, so your family has something to eat for the eight days when we can’t consume any bread products, pasta, corn, corn products, etc.

So I’ve done none of the above. And being the good Jewish girl that I am, I feel guilty. The reality is this: Passover exposes a lot of my deficiencies as a housekeeper; a cook; a mom; a Jew.

While we try to uphold the spirit of Passover, we don’t come close to following the ritual standard that it involves.

I tell myself that while I love the Passover seder, I’m grateful that it’s my mom’s domain. All we have to do — for the most part — is show up.

I tell myself that theres’s no need to buy a lot of other Kosher-for-Passover food, the stuff that filled up an entire aisle at the Champaign Schnuck’s this year. My strategy is — avoid, avoid avoid. We’ve got more than a few pancake pancake mix boxes from previous years. Wrong holiday, anyway?

I’m trying to tell myself that it’s OK. I’ve got all the excuses pat – my kids, the Web site, my consulting business, March Madness.

I tell myself that I’ll do it — all of it — next year.

That’s when being a Cubs fan comes in handy.

Laura Weisskopf Bleill, a co-founder of chambanamoms.com, makes some mean matzah brei (more on that next week). She writes “Being a Jew in C-U,” a column about being a Jewish suburban girl in a cornfield, on Thursdays. You can reach her at laura@chambanamoms.com.

Filed Under: Being a Jew in C-U Tagged With: Being a Jew in C-U, champaign, cooking, guilt, housekeeping, humor, Jewish, matzah, moms, passover, seder, urbana

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