I love this time of year \u2013 in particular, the month leading up to Pesach.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t get stressed over preparations for the approaching holiday, because I do. I even get stressed over the articles that pop up telling us how not to be stressed. \u201cDon\u2019t worry; you don\u2019t have to scrub your ceilings!\u201d It actually never occurred to me to clean my ceilings for Pesach, and yet I still seem to have a lot to do\u2026 Maybe you could convince me I don\u2019t have to clean my fridge or scrub oven racks? (Ok, to be honest, I don\u2019t scrub oven racks; we have extras for Pesach. Shh.)<\/p>\n
But even in the midst of all the stress, trying to remember what needs to be done and in which order and how long before Pesach\u2026and uh oh, don\u2019t forget to clean the car\u2026 Even with all that, there\u2019s one part of it all that I really and truly love: Getting Rid of Stuff.<\/p>\n
My husband and I share an aversion to throwing things away. We have a drawer dedicated to broken cameras and such, because we can\u2019t handle the thought of putting them in the garbage. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfectly good camera\u2026except that it doesn\u2019t work!\u201d That\u2019s been a longstanding refrain of ours, despite our being perfectly aware of how ridiculous it is. \u201cThey\u2019re perfectly good chairs\u2026well, perfectly good broken chairs\u2026 just don\u2019t risk sitting on them!\u201d (We did, eventually, throw away the very old, very broken chairs. But it was rough.) I get viscerally upset when my kids throw away the end of a banana, and remind them they should have offered it to me first. Our fridge and freezer are peppered with an assortment of small containers \u2013 leftover tomato sauce, soy milk, whatever (hopefully labeled and dated, because yuck) \u2013 because we couldn\u2019t bring ourselves to either use more than strictly necessary for a dish, or throw away the excess. Because it\u2019s perfectly good food, and maybe we\u2019ll still use it. One day.<\/p>\n
I could go on, but I\u2019m probably causing readers with the opposite inclination to break out in hives or something. Here, you\u2019ll like this part better:<\/p>\n
The one time of year when I can handle it is in the weeks leading up to Pesach, when we focus on using what we can and then, finally, throw away what we can\u2019t. Not the broken cameras, you understand, but all the pantry items I stocked up on when they were on sale, and then forgot about, and the similarly abandoned odds and ends in my fridge and freezer. I get great satisfaction out of planning meals between Purim and Pesach so that we use up the chametz gamur<\/em> and all those little containers, and unlike any other time of year, I also get satisfaction from throwing away what can\u2019t be used.<\/p>\n The bread crumbs get dumped on chicken every Shabbos. The thing in my freezer I can no longer identify, that was in my way for months as I wondered vaguely what it used to be and what I could turn it into, simply gets thrown in the garbage \u2013 where it perhaps should have gone long ago, had I not been holding onto false hopes of figuring out how to repurpose it into something edible.<\/p>\n As Nissan approaches, my mantra is \u201ctashbitu<\/em>,\u201d get rid of it (Shemot 12:15). I yell it loud and clear, as I empty a box of pasta into a pot or drop expired yogurts in the garbage. Or, you know, eat a package of Oreos.<\/p>\n I\u2019m well aware that it\u2019s a luxury to be able to forget food because I have so much; I am thankful for that luxury, and I do still hate waste. I bag up the (somewhat) reasonable items containing kitniyos <\/em>or chametz <\/em>cooties (I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s a technical halachic term), for potential use after Pesach. But everything else must be eaten or gone. My fridge is clean; my pantry is clear. This one time of year, I make a point of assessing what I have, using what\u2019s useful, and allowing myself to toss what\u2019s not useful. I\u2019m not holding onto the past, indulging fantasies for the future; instead, I\u2019m starting over. My kitchen becomes a blank slate.<\/p>\n There are plenty of divrei <\/em>Torah out there about chametz <\/em>as a metaphor for this or that, and what lessons we can internalize (no pun intended) by replacing it with matzah over Pesach. But even before we get to the question of what we\u2019re eating, I think the process of getting rid of all that chametz<\/em> is a metaphor in itself. It\u2019s a metaphor for freedom, for new beginnings.<\/p>\n People like to remind those they think are going overboard with Pesach preparations that \u201cdirt is not chametz<\/em>\u201d and \u201cPesach cleaning is not spring cleaning.\u201d To which I say, true, but it is <\/em>dirt \u2013 don\u2019t want that either \u2013 and what better time to do a little spring cleaning, if I can find the time, than in the spring? What\u2019s the idea behind \u201cspring cleaning\u201d anyway? I would imagine it has something to do with a sense that springtime, when the snow starts to clear and things start to bloom, is a time for fresh starts. The dust and clutter has been accumulating through the winter, but now we\u2019re ready to purge, to make our homes and ourselves fresh and clean, ready for something crisp and new.<\/p>\n And that, of course, is a perfect metaphor for what we\u2019re celebrating on Pesach.<\/p>\n We tend to forget, in all the hype about Rosh Hashana, that we actually count our months from Nissan. The first of Tishrei is a new year, a time for introspection and renewal \u2013 but so is the first of Nissan. \u201cThis month shall be for you the beginning of months; it is the first, for you, of the months of the year\u201d (Shemot 12:2). Nissan, the springtime, is the beginning of our national existence, marking the moment when we as a people shed the trappings of slavery and embarked on a fresh start, taking only the essentials \u2013 there\u2019s a matzah-versus-chametz<\/em> metaphor right there \u2013 on a journey to build themselves, with Hashem\u2019s guidance, into something new.<\/p>\n And every year, during the weeks leading up to Pesach, each of us gets to do the same, starting with our pantries and refrigerators.<\/p>\n In Nissan, we examine our environments and free ourselves. We celebrate our freedom from slavery in Egypt on a national level, and we free ourselves as individuals from the things holding us back or just making us feel cluttered. \u00a0What do I have, and what do I really need? What can I get rid of, and with what might I best replace it after Pesach?<\/p>\n Starting with that little container of sauerkraut that came with my husband\u2019s falafel, who knows how long ago, that was \u201cprobably still good\u201d and \u201cmaybe he would eat it sometime.\u201d It\u2019s in the garbage now, and I don\u2019t even feel guilty. It was a mitzvah; tashbitu<\/em>!<\/p>\n I feel like a new woman already.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The words of this author reflect his\/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love this time of year \u2013 in particular, the month leading up to Pesach. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t get stressed over preparations for the approaching holiday, because I do. I even get stressed over the articles that pop up telling us how not to be stressed. \u201cDon\u2019t worry; you don\u2019t have to scrub<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133529,"featured_media":59325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\n