Food for Thought on Passover
April 6, 2020
In some ways, I have always been a gastronomic Jew, that is, my Jewish identity intertwined with eating and enjoying traditional Jewish foods, like chicken soup with knaidels, noodle kugel and mandelbread. I knew in my heart that for some of us, these foods were our “madeleines,” the tastes, smells and memories that connect us with our past.
Years ago, after my mother died, I would wander down the aisles of the supermarket at Passover, looking at the lovely stalks of fresh asparagus, the bags of tiny marshmallows, the chocolate covered orange peels and the matzah redolent of matzah brei and I would silently weep, missing her presence.
One comment on “Food for Thought on Passover”
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Yes, making do with what we have and what we can get without risking lives is this year’s Passover blessing. I have most of what I need. Won’t be able to make my Pesah Mondalbroit this year because our stores had no cake flour. No new Matzah meal, but will use what I have and make more by grinding up some in cuisenart. Not exactly deprived. I forgot to buy parsley and can get no curbside until long after this week (slots full), so I’ll be dipping lettuce. And every year from now on, there will be lettuce on my seder table for dipping–just as a remembrance of surviving this year’s pandemic. Gratitude is what matters. Next year with family, anywhere at all.