But as so many things are, Pesach is more fun in Israel. For one, it means vacation. And yes, even though I go to camp (aka army), I still have to get up at 6 every morning, so I too enjoy vacation. And for two, in Israel there is only one day of chag (holiday where we cant drive/use electricity etc) at the beginning and one day at the end, as opposed to America, where you get two days on both ends. And the best part about Pesach in Israel is no matter how religious or non-religious you are- everyone does Pesach. Everyone cleans their house out, everyone has a seder, and almost everyone stops eating bread. Even the arabs know whats going on! They wander around the week before generously offering to take all your leaven and/or electronics off of your hands.
So aside from missing Temp-Tee cream cheese, Manischiwitz Passover Coffee Cake (which I got! Thanks to Mama Skversk), Mrs. Freundel's chicken soup, and my family, I do not understand why anyone would go back to America for the holiday (cough, Dov Lerner, cough).
As may be evident, I have had a wonderful Pesach so far. Even last Sunday, which was spent (almost entirely) cleaning with Mia, was fun. Well maybe fun is the wrong word, but at 1 am, when we finally finished I was allowed to collapse dog tired in my sparkling clean apartment with a belly full of last-taste-of-chametz pizza. Monday I got to join the droves of Yerushalmis burning bread in the streets (we even had government issued chametz-burning bins!), and took the rest of the day easy before hiking down to Talpiot (a neighborhood of Jlem) for Seder. I had Seder with Aron and Tamara (and Mama) Skversky, who become my family more and more each day. It was probably the smallest Seder I have ever been to (only 6 of us), and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I was the youngest person at Seder and got to sing Ma Nishtanah. There was lots of Torah and lots of talking, and I got to pull out my 6th grade Hagadah from Mrs. Greenspon's class and give out divrei Torah that no one had heard before! Who says you need a new Hagadah? You just need a new audience! We sang "Who Knows One?" with the appropriate gusto (though that part always makes me miss my fam), and ended the Seder at around 2am. I crashed on the couch and joined them again for lunch and lots of hanging out before eventually making my way back to my own apartment.
Chol Hamoed (the days in the middle of Pesach where you get to do all the electrocuting/driving type activities), was equally fun. Wednesday I went hiking in Wadi Kelt with my friends Shira and Baruch (plus his two friends- Abe and Daniel). We had a nice silent hour of hiking before we intersected the more commonly hiked area and the 800+ Israelis that were also enjoying their vacation time. We waded through them until we got to a less-populated section of the trail and stopped for lunch and swimming. You could tell which of us had a mother and a kosher-for pesach kitchen. Shira and I pulled out some cashews and cucumbers. Baruch pulled out an entire chicken and potato kugel. We shared.
Thursday, well there were lots of things I was going to do on Thursday so that I could feel productive and accomplished and all that. But then I decided to hang out with my friend Kiefer instead. She broke her foot a few weeks ago, so she isn't really up to doing much but sit. So I packed up a blanket and some snacks (thanks Ima for all the pesach goodies!) and we spent the entire afternoon sitting in a park. It was wonderful. My friends Elodie and Daniel joined us and we all just lounged in the shade for hours, playing cards, and complaining about the army and marveling at the young arab entrepreneurs who showed up in the park with their livestock (first a donkey, then a camel, then a horse) and made money off of all the Israeli children who wanted rides around the park. We then went back to my apartment for dinner and a movie. The dinner part proved more difficult than planned, as all the restaurants that delivered had kitniyot (DAMN KITNIYOT!!!) and the ones that didn't (have kitniyot) were like 60 shekel for a personal pesach pizza, so we ended up making matza pizza (with ketchup, as all the tomato sauce had kitniyot. Damnation.) which was actually, delicious.
Anyway, now it is 1pm on Friday. I am still in my pj's and need to shower/clean/pack/finish this email so that I can head to Efrat for Shabbat. I caused quite a ruckus when I did not go there for Seder, so I will be spending the rest of Pesach at their house, which will not only be fun, but will mean I get to eat something other than coffee cake and chocolate milk :)
I hope you are all having a wonderful chag/life.
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