I swear….I am the world’s greatest procrastinator. With my lack of sleep and full morning of teaching ahead, I know the last thing I’ll feel like doing later on today is getting rid of all of the chametz in my house. Chametz is the leavened food that Jews are not permitted to eat during the holiday, Passover, and it is a commandment in the Torah to get rid of all of it before the holiday. I should have been working on this for weeks, but of course, I saved it to the last minute.
The truth is, I’m a pretty lenient Jew. I don’t follow all of the rules that I probably should. Before I had children, I never got rid of any chametz. I just refrained from eating any bread, noodles, rice or crackers during the holiday. Since having kids, however, I have begun bagging all of it up and putting it in a closed off room. I do this for two reasons. First, I feel it is important to teach my kiddos that Passover should feel different from the rest of the year, and second, I think keeping the tradition of Passover is easier when you don’t have all of the tempting forbidden goodies on the shelves.
So, in addition to a couple of recipes I need to cook for the holiday today, I will be de-chametzing all afternoon. Of course, this will all be happening while my kids are decorating Easter eggs. Amen to multi-culture, and those eggs are the best Passover snack! They don’t even have one ounce of chametz in them.
I need some motivational music today to get me going, so I figured that James Brown’s “Get Up Off That Thing” would possibly do the trick. Click HERE to hear the G-dfather of Soul, as I turn to him to “get up off of my thing” today. Hallelujah!