Passover is the quintessential Jewish holiday.

Israel is actively fighting in Lebanon and aggressively bombing Iran. On the home front, we receive warnings generally on a daily basis and dart over to the parking lot/bomb shelter once or twice a day. I always found strange the stories of normalcy during the height of World War II: college graduations and people eating out in London. Life must go on, and the holiday of Passover starts this week, and with it a good deal of preparation.

Passover cleaning is to regular house cleaning what a root canal is to teeth brushing. Everything is eyed not only for its potential of holding some leavened component but its continued usefulness in one’s life. “We’ve had this thing for five years and never used it. Maybe, let’s give it away?” And so, a good deal is either thrown out or given away. As the kitchen moves into Passover mode, there are still a few more days before the holiday when it would be a good idea if one continued eating. Much of our food preparation moves to the gas grill outside, which includes one burner on the side for normal pots. It has its challenges, but Jews have been doing this for thousands of years, so there is always a way to do it. One can complain, but everyone else is doing the same things, so kvetching will fall on deaf ears.

Passover has an enormous amount of symbolism, and none of it is lost on the Jews during this period: an evil ruler bent on destroying the Jewish people, Divine intervention, the challenges of the “stiff-necked people” in the desert, endless complaining about the leadership of the Jewish people, and finally getting to our destination. The “seder” on the first night of Passover takes a good 3-4 hours (more for some people) from start to finish, with a lot of matzah and wine being consumed during the process. The story we read is in a “Haggadah,” with some of the earliest versions of such books being........

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