Today for the first time in my life I received a Passover e-card. In fact I have never received any kind of a Passover card before. It was from a Christian friend who presumably doesn’t know any better. I sent her back greetings for a happy Easter.
This is a quick file for Monday before we head Boston-ward for Passover (Pesach). We’re taking a bus. Tonight’s Seder is in Cambridge at the home of our daughter-in-law’s parents, both Harvard Med School profs. If I get more information from Andrew the Webmaster about what ails him, I will have medical consultants at hand. (Andrew is currently hospitalized in St. John’s, Newfoundland, a nearby Internet offshoring site halfway to Europe. He assures me that he is not suffering from heartbleed virus.)
The 2nd Seder will be at the home of our son and his family with some of the same guests and some different ones.
Escaping to the Catskills or Florida or the Caribbean for Passover is an old tradition among American Jews, mainly to avoid the intense spring cleaning required to surely remove all prohibited leaven or grain which may be in the house. But now Israelis are also escaping, to spend the holiday in Turkey or in a hotel in Eilat, also to make less work for mother.
So here is a Jewish joke. Chayim Yankel and his wife Rifky, Brooklyn Orthodox Jews, decide to convert to Christianity. For a few years, all goes well, and they live as Christians. He shaves his beard and she gets rid of her sheitel (wig). Their kids at a regular school have time to play.
A couple of weeks ago, Chayim Yankel surprised Rifky by telling her he missed being Jewish, and wanted them to go back to their old religion. To which Rivky responded: “Are you mashuggah? Not before Pesach!”
Reform Jews like this working woman don’t get as intense about cleaning their homes to remove every crumb. More follows from Norway, Britain, Ireland, India, Canada, Ukraine, Russia, Colombia, and China. Now to the Boston Limoliner we go.
