The Passover Cleaning Frenzy

"There is no end to it. For two weeks in ultra-Orthodox homes there are no toys, because it's already kosher for Passover. They go crazy and cause traumas for the children. Don't walk there, don't eat here. Hametz! They eat in a small corridor, on a rickety table, because the table is already kosher for Passover. What's the logic? Is it permissible to yell at the children, not to smile at the children? Is it permissible to kill yourself and on seder night to cry because you are so tired? This is absurd."

 

The festival of freedom? Not when you have a house to clean
The cleaning frenzy has elements of both compulsion and competition.
By Tamar Rotem • Ha’aretz

If objects could speak, household utensils would tell of their terror before Passover, on their way to becoming kosher for the holiday by being immersed in boiling water. For days on end, books lie outside on the balcony, spread open in the middle to air between the bars of the balustrade.

Has an unruly crumb or any other trace of hametz (leavened food ) ever flown away from this strange position? Very unlikely. Pages become dirty and acquire odd concavities and bindings turn yellow before the books are returned to their proper places in the bookcase.

No doubt, toys, will never be restored to their original shape after energetic laundering. "Fill a pillowcase with small toys - Playmobil, Lego, blocks - tie its edges together, fasten with a rubber band for hair and throw it into the washing machine," says Dr. Rivka Neria-Ben Shahar, explaining in a phone interview about the cleaning frenzy in religious homes, while she cleans out drawers.

For many days now, to get to her desk, Neria-Ben Shahar has had to jump over a row of her daughters' dolls, all of them well-washed and combed. This was the custom in her childhood home, to launder and wash all the toys and dolls to rid of them of all traces of hametz. The bottoms of puzzle pieces were wiped, one by one, to rid them of crumbs that may have stuck to them. After all, puzzles are put together on the floor, and everyone knows that floors are teeming with hametz.

Her tiny study is already cleaned for Passover. The dolls will be returned to their drawer just before the holiday when the children's room will have been made absolutely kosher. Neria-Ben-Shahar is a young academic. She recently won a prestigious Fulbright grant and in the summer will travel to the United States to write on religious ritual for women. She finds it hard to explain why she clings to the old cleaning customs, and why radical feminists like herself do not liberate themselves from the burden of Passover.

Uphill battle

"Passover is Passover," she says. After all, this is an uphill battle against the tiniest, concealed, almost invisible particles of hametz. And war is war, and one must arm oneself with brooms, rags and toothpicks to pry the hametz out of even the most hidden crannies.

There are two unbreakable rules for Passover cleaning: One is that there are no shortcuts in koshering the house;and the other is that it is always done the way it was in one's father's home, unquestioningly. And especially when ones father is from the religious aristocracy.

Neria-Ben Shahar is a granddaughter of Rabbi Moshe Neria, a major figure in religious Zionism, and with a pedigree like that - noblesse oblige. All her life she has alternately rebelled and submitted to him. For example, as a declared religious feminist who worships at an egalitarian synagogue, she wears ultra-Orthodox Zionist style clothing and head-coverings.

"I'm the first-born in the family. When I was a child, I never left the house during the Passover vacation. This was absolutely clear. I had to do nearly everything."

She is amazed that the religious Zionist youth movements Ezra and Bnei Akiva hold outings nowadays before Passover. "The world has changed in this respect," she says, "and girls these days are not required to do the whole house." Back then, she says that "all my girlfriends and I would take breaks during the cleaning to make phone calls and compare what each of us had managed to do: 'I'm doing windows,' 'We're already in the kitchen.'" A kind of competition.

"In the house where I grew up, during the course of the year, they never put books on the dining table because maybe hametz would touch them. To this day I am in shock when I see people put something on the table that hasn't been through immersion in boiling water. On the tables themselves I put, like in my childhood, a few layers of separation. A plastic tablecloth and then a Passover tablecloth and then another plastic tablecloth so a kosher utensil will not touch a hametz table.

"When I go to teach, I tell my students that I am a liberated woman lecturing to them. Liberated from cleaning. I have a household helper. When she comes, I hug her in excitement, because most of the time she is unemployed, and I let her help me with the drawers." On Passover most of the burden falls on women and girls but at least in her case her husband is a full partner. "When I was a little girl, my grandmother did everything, and my grandfather sat and learned until the last minute, and he would show up at home like a guest on the eve of Passover to do the hametz check. In my home, we have a detailed division of labor plan for the cleaning. My partner, for example, does the kitchen. The stove, the refrigerator, the most difficult things. Would he rather I took the car to be cleaned? In return he will do the tiles in the kitchen and the garbage closet."

Neria-Ben Shahar says there is a real fear of hametz accompanied by female guilt. And in this sense it goes way beyond spring cleaning. "Women," she says, "are driven by the anxiety that 'if I had exerted a bit more effort, it would have been better.' This fear that a crumb of hametz is hiding especially there in the Lego drawer can definitely lead to obsessiveness."

Always someone who is stricter

This is a very competitive area: There is always someone who is stricter, or whose home is cleaner and, she says, "There's always the doubt - maybe the water from boiling pasta touched the walls so maybe we'll cover the walls with aluminum foil." Among the ultra-Orthodox there is a saying that is now more apt than ever: "Hametz isn't dust and women are not the Passover sacrifice." Between the lines there is general disgruntlement over the cleaning frenzy led by women, which apparently has nothing to do with koshering for Passover. But this is the way of the world: No one dares to rebel openly.

Yocheved Horowitz of Jerusalem remembers from her childhood how they would dismantle the kitchen appliances, wash every part in boiling water and go over it with toothpicks or toothbrushes between the joins to get rid of hametz. "They would give each of the children an aluminum pot that hadn't been cleaned properly all year long. Because who has time? During the course of two weeks we would scrub that pot with water and scouring powder and steel wool until we got blisters on our hands."

Horowitz rebels against the cleaning terror. She says: "It annoys me that people don't observe rabbinical law properly. They forget what is trivial and what is essential." A few years ago a page of rabbinical law in Yiddish was distributed to women in the area of Mea Shearim where she lives. It was written by an important rabbi, Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, who was a member of the Council of Torah Sages. According to Horowitz, in the handout they listed all the tasks a woman must complete before Passover, and also what isn't necessary to do. "The rabbi wrote, for example, that it isn't necessary to dust or to clean closets. There are number of things that must be done: The pots must be koshered if they are used. Before they are immersed in boiling water, it is necessary to clean the pots thoroughly. But today in any case people buy new pots and they have new utensils for Passover. "The second thing is to sweep the house well and perform a thorough hametz check, and that's it. You don't have to do all the windows, you don't have to sort out the clothes. Why now, when you're killing yourself, do you have to turn out all the closets? I laugh at those women and I pity them.

"People ask me, what's the problem with a gleaming home? It's beautiful that once a year you sit like kings at the table and everything is clean and polished. But people don't have a life. This holiday is the holiday of freedom. It's ironic that women make slaves of themselves. Women start getting anxious at Purim and the very strict are already putting pressure on themselves at Hanukkah. They phone me and say: 'I have to marry my daughter off right after Passover,' or 'I have to give birth any day now and how am I going to manage after the birth?' My house is so neglected. The children are on top of me, and they are scattering hametz all over the house. Just the anxiety causes muscle cramps, even before you've started to work." Horowitz tells of homes where they pour boiling water on the floor tiles, "as though they eat off the floor." Or they go over the floor, tile by tile, with a toothbrush dipped in kerosene.

Some put plastic sheeting over the whole floor because if a Passover fork happens to drop on the floor, it is no longer possible to use it. There are also households where all the eggs are washed before Passover and households where all the drinking water is boiled or else the faucet is covered with a cloth because even in the pipes a grain of wheat might be hiding.

There are families that use boiled sugar water during Passover lest crumbs have crept into the sugar. And this is not enough: They also filter the sugar syrup through a diaper.

"There is no end to it," she says. "For two weeks in ultra-Orthodox homes there are no toys, because it's already kosher for Passover. They go crazy and cause traumas for the children. Don't walk there, don't eat here. Hametz! They eat in a small corridor, on a rickety table, because the table is already kosher for Passover. What's the logic? Is it permissible to yell at the children, not to smile at the children? Is it permissible to kill yourself and on seder night to cry because you are so tired? This is absurd."

Horowitz is also critical of the use of the most caustic cleaning products, which are harmful to health. "There are people who don't touch the oven all year long. Along comes Passover and they spray the oven with a caustic substance that eats the grease but it also enters the lungs," she says.

If not openly, at least in the ultra-Orthodox Internet forums, people complain about this. This week someone complained specifically about a certain cleanser the ultra-Orthodox use a lot. "Eeeeenough, I'm fed up, I'm simply fed up, I can't stand it any longer. The whole house smells of this sharp odor. I breathe it and I eat it and my head is spinning ... I tried to hide the poison but the wife bought three for the price of two. I am waiting for the festival of freedom - the holiday that will free me from this cursed product" (which he mentioned by name ).

'Hallo!" replied a woman. 'Stop denouncing! This product is responsible for millions of clean and kosher for Passover homes and saves a lot of rubbing and scrubbing energy."

Comments

[Yoel Mechanic]

There are issues of peer pressure that one could have a legitimate and sincere conversation about: specifically about when chumrahs become mandatory. Chumrah is not Halachah, but should be seen as valuable additions to ones' personal avodah. A second thing to have a conversation on is the illegitimate urge to make fun of all this from outside. The illegitimate mockery makes the legitimate conversations impossible.

[jancsipista]

chumras are the result of mental disturbance in an age when we have so many rules to add more is the sign of insanity,the only way to counter all theese unessacery chumras is to say too much is too much if we dont then the idiots will rule our lifes just like in iran and afghanistan,stop before its too late

[yidandahalf]

Maybe this is the only time they really clean. Alot of people are funky slobs. Clean away, and clean again. What's the problem?

[Anti-Terror]

Who is causing the terror and suffering that is befalling the Jewish People??!! Answer: all the Rabbis!! This is what the Tzaddik Saba Israel says about Rabbis: "ALL the Rabbis, they are Rabbis but they are NOT righteous.... They have a lot of lies within them. They look for money, honour and fame." See the following link to hear Saba Israel talking against all Rabbis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRwXHe8zg_o He wrights to the former Israeli President Zalman Shazar that they are the ones responsible for the Holocaust and the ones causing the terror and suffering that is befalling the Jewish People because of their controversy over the Baal Shem Tov and Rebbi Nachman and their present controversy over the Tzaddik Saba Israel who is the ONLY Rabbi of all the Jewish People. They are like Korach who opposed Moshe Rabbeinu. Saba Israel has revealed that he is Rebbi Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman in Jerusalem, the King, the Moshiach. Here is the conversation where he reveals that he is the King and that everyone must bow down to him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj33jell5lM&feature=related We are making a petition against all Rabbis, please join, sign and share.  http://www.atzuma.co.il/saynotorabbis

Saba Israel says "We are in great danger. Everyone must accept it that I am the King!!" AT EVERY INSTANT, IF THE JEWISH PEOPLE WILL GET CLOSE TO REBBI NACHMAN AND WILL NOT LISTEN TO ALL THE RABBIS, TO ALL THE OPPOSERS, THE REDEMPTION WILL TAKE PLACE IMMEDIATELY, YES!" (Saba ISrael, the MOSHIACH)

[Yirmiyahu]

I once heard a rabbi say; "dirt is not chumetz and our children are not the Korban Pesach!"

[alexdro]

'Passover'
www.zoharme.com
Graphic Commentaries on Judaism

[seymour]

I just rent my dogs out to facsimiles in Boro park and say I did not feed them today they will go through you house and eat and lick everything to find and food to eat. and what ever is left over in no fit for a dog and the the assur of chumutz does not apply

mission accomplished

better yet just spray one whole house in bleach or some toxic waste and them one can then use eat for paseach

[Yoily Weiss]

Lots of people have OCD. I am glad to say that in my family, there is no frenzy at all. All the children pitch in according to their level of understanding, and a great time is had by all. OK, Mommy gets a bit nervous, but there is no child abuse, and the children get to play with their toys every single day!

The parents mentioned in this article need professional help, or else they need to find a Rabbi who will tell them the proper way to clean (driving people nuts is against the Torah).

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to the Talking Heads:

Watch out, you might get an aveirah
Nu bubbeleh? strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary Jew
Burning down the chametz

Hold tight, wait till Purim is over
Hold tight, We're in for multi-chumrot
There has got to be a way
Burning down the chametz

Here's your ticket pack your bag: time for going to the Catskills
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too frum, Maybe Florida is more fun
Fightin' breadcrumbs with fire

All wet- hey it might be gebrokhts!
Shakedown- hechsher on everything
770 Eastern Parkway
Burning down the chametz

It was once upon a place sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna get O.C.D.
People on their way to shul, rabbi what did you expect
Gonna burst into flame

My house- S'out of the ordinary
That's right- Don't want to have no leaven
Some things can make me sweep the floor
Burning down the chametz

No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin' yet
Everyone's in a kollel
I don't know what you expect blogging on the internet
Fighting breadcrumbs with fire

[WoolSilkCotton]

Driving everyone around you crazy is a traditional way of preparing for most Jewish Holidays.

[nobody]

It's very easy to sweep away large pieces of chametz, or crumbs, from the floor or the table if they are dropped there. You just grab a broom and sweep. Wow, it's all gone, like magic!

Some people actually eat matzah for 2 weeks instead of just the week of pesach because they are so paranoid about chametz droppings.

Meanwhile the Talmud asserts that less than a kezayit does not need to be searched for, and we are not over on the prohibitions for having less than a kezayit in any places in the house. Of course, you are forbidden to eat such tiny things during the festival if you do possess them, but is there a reason people might start licking the corner of the floor incase there is a breadcrumb there in order to eat it? There is no reason to get so nutty about cleaning.

[martin nerl]

i wish more people in bp would stay home to clean the driving is crazy

[Froike]

It was my impression that cleaning one's house and posessions for Pesach is not only a physical cleaning; but a cleansing of the soul. I think it's appropriate for all Jews, I speak for myself first, to be introspective and clean out the spiritual Chametz first.
Hashem forgives unintentional sin towards him...yet it's how we treat eachother that needs much improvement. Torah without Derech Eretz is not a good thing. Let's concentrate on being better to each other: Honest in our business dealings, talk and act like menchen...drive like menchen and be kind and good to each other!

[BeenThereDoneThat]

1. I agree, after seeing the inside of so many charedi houses, that this seasonal clean is entirely necessary - if it wasn't for pea-sack, then these places would never get properly cleaned.

2. As usual, they are more driven to do these type of things than concentrate on improving relationships with fellow humans.

3. The obsession with chometz often overrides the message of the entire holiday. Remember, that it is that the no chometz rule is only the "gimmick" of this holiday, not the reason for it.

[David]

I agree with BeenThereDoneThat - this is the only proper clean many of these Charedi houses will ever get. It is also an ideal activity for those with OCD - and for those that don't have it - they will soon develop it.

I wish they put the same effort into being decent and honest human beings as they did into insane activities like cleaning every page in every book, or washing all the children's toys in the washing machine (ruining them in the process) and upsetting the children by not letting them use toys for two weeks.

[seymour]

I really thing that way back when the people did not go so crazy with the chumatz thing.
since if they did they would not have started a tradition of bidikus chumatz

[esther]

"I really think that way back when the people did not go so crazy with the chumatz thing."

i think about that too... today there are people covering door knobs with special covers... what was like then before the invention of plastic and foil?

dust is not chametz.