Pesach is difficult enough as it is, not eating any chametz for eight days but not being able to eat chametz while on a five day hike from the Kinneret to the Mediterranean Sea is even worse. You are forced to get as creative as possible when making your meals. Every lunch we would have to make our own food which included corn, salami, rice, tuna, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. It was nearly impossible to enjoy a meal until we figured out that we can cook things together and make some decent meals. I was still always left hungry at the end of lunch but proud that our group of high schoolers could make something that didn't taste disgusting. It was truly a struggle to not eat any bread.
The whole idea of keeping Pesach while on a difficult hike got me thinking, this is what Israelis do every year. They take time off after the army or from work or whatever and hike from sea to sea without eating any chametz. At home I will see people eating matzah during lunch at school with PB&J on it or a matzah pizza and I will see people that don't even know what matzah is or why its the tradition, but in Israel, just about everyone will be eating matzah at every meal. Its not only a tradition among the Jews but its part of the culture here. Restaurants change their menus, stores cover up anything chametz, every Jewish household and synagogue burns their chametz in a big fire. Its practically impossible to find bread during Pesach. You'd have to search in the Arab quarter or in the Christian quarter. And I'm pretty sure even there it's difficult as well. The culture in Israel is so Jewish that you'd have to put in a LOT of effort to not keep kosher or observe the holidays. It's the kind of place that a person who grew up in a fairly Jewish community filled with "Jews" (people that call themselves Jewish without observing any holiday or high holiday) can fall in love with and potentially see Israel as their future home.
I can see myself living here in the near future. Deerfield is Jewish, yes I will admit it, we have three synagogues in our small little town, but the culture there is not Jewish. We celebrate Halloween and other Pagan holidays and I don't find them appealing or necessary. Yes Halloween is fun but it has no meaning for me as opposed to Pesach where we are celebrating yitziat Mitzrayim or the exit from Egypt while remembering the hard times our people went through to finally be free in Israel, the very place I am in right now. That is what a holiday should feel like. You should feel a connection to it and to your ancestors that you are remembering while celebrating or mourning.
That's what's truly important.
Let me start by saying I just love your enthusiasm for the Jewishness here. I can tell that living in Israel will be perfect for you.
ReplyDeleteI think the point you make about other religions' holidays is a very interesting one. I've always participated in them (aside from Christmas), because it was more of an American holiday than anything else, and that was just how the culture was. When I was little, I never really thought about it, but now I'm kind of weirded out. I treat Pagan holidays the same way I treat my own religion's. Yes, I have some close friends who are Pagan, but I'm not. Thanks for giving me things to think about.