Yesterday, I had two conversations that seemed separate at first, but the more I thought about them, the more I realized how connected they really are.

The first was about the kosher supermarket. We were discussing how quiet the kosher store had been earlier this week.

Before Passover, the stores are packed and the lines are long. People’s carts are overflowing with matzah, wine, meat, potatoes, cleaning supplies, foil pans, and enough food to feed a small village.

But this week, before Shavuos, it’s much calmer. Yes, people buy cheesecake, and yes, the dairy section gets a little more attention. But it’s not the same. Not even close.

The man I was talking to tried explaining to me, “Many secular Jews simply don’t connect to Shavuos the way they connect to Passover.”

And on a superficial level, of course, he is right. But why is that?

Because from a Biblical perspective, Shavuos is one of the greatest days in all of Jewish history. It is the day we stood at Mount Sinai and G-d gave us the Torah. It is the day the Jewish people became not just a family, not just a nation, but a people with a Divine mission.

Without Shavuos, there is no Judaism as we know it.

So why is Passover so much more celebrated? Why does Passover fill homes, memories, kitchens, calendars, and hearts in a way that Shavuos often does not?

There is a simple, yet deeply counterintuitive truth that explains this discrepancy between holidays quite powerfully.

We remember what we work for.

Passover asks a lot from us. It asks us to clean, shop, prepare, rearrange our homes, kosher our kitchens, cook, cook some more, and then sit down at a Seder that often begins late and ends even later.

It is without a doubt the hardest holiday to observe.

And that may be exactly why it is so deeply rooted in the hearts of many Jews who might not observe every other holiday.

A child will always remember the smell of that kitchen. The special dishes. The boxes of matzah. The family coming together. The songs. The questions. The feeling that something big is happening.

Long before the child can explain the difference between chametz and matzah, the child........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)