c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ When Beverly Macales sits down at her family’s Passover Seder, she does so with the satisfaction of knowing that virtually everything in her home _ including her clothes closets and childrens’ toy boxes _ has been thoroughly cleaned in preparation for the holiday, which ranks among her favorites.”It’s such a good feeling to sit down at the Seder table and look around and everything is spotless,”said Macales, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Granada Hills.”It is so wonderful. I can’t compare it to anything.” Passover _ an eight-day festival (seven days for Reform and Reconstructionist Jews) celebrating the biblical Hebrews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt and the beginning of Jewish nationhood _ begins this year at sundown on March 31. But for Macales, the Passover season starts long before the first of the two ritual Seder meals, which are held on the holiday’s first and second nights.

An Orthodox Jew, Macales is among the minority of American Jews who follow Jewish tradition concerning Passover preparation to the letter of the law _ and then some. For her, Passover is preceded by weeks of intense cleaning to rid her home _ and all her possessions _ of”hametz.””I really go `meshuge’ (crazy),”Macales said of the month’s work that’s an annual part of her life.”People look at this as if it’s a chore. I really love doing it. Besides, it’s my duty as an Orthodox woman.” In Jewish tradition, hametz _ basically bread and other leavened or fermented grain or legume products _ represents slavery, both physical and spiritual. Likewise, unleavened food _ the flat bread called”matzah,”for example _ represents freedom. That has led to a complete ban on eating or even possessing hametz during Passover.

For the observant, that means eliminating any trace, no matter how small, of hametz from the home _ and, by extension, automobiles, baby carriages, clothing pockets and any other place where a crumb of hametz may be lodged. The process ends with a ritual known as”bedikat hametz,”during which a mock search is conducted for bread crumbs that have been”hidden”in advance. Once found, they are burned as a final act of purification.”It’s not sufficient just to throw out the hametz you know you have,”said Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, a professor at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary.”You also have to search for the hametz you don’t know you have.” Observant Jews not only use different dishes, cutlery and cooking utensils during Passover, they also thoroughly clean and cover with tin foil or paper their kitchen sinks, stoves, refrigerators, ovens, countertops and food cabinets.

They also purchase new toothbrushes and cleaning sponges, vacuum their rugs, wash kitchen walls and ritually”sell”all their non-Passover food to a non-Jew, from whom they”purchase”it back after the holiday. The only foods consumed during the holiday period are those rabbinically certified to be free of all hametz and”kosher for Passover.””In devout homes, this search is so detailed that it compares with the need to manufacture computer chips in totally dust-free environments to avoid flaws or failures in operation,”noted Rabbi Irving Greenberg, author of”The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays”(Summit).

Less than 20 percent of America’s nearly 6-million Jews adhere”to anything close to the classical standard”for preparing a home for Passover, said Jim Schwartz, research director for the United Jewish Appeal Federation of North America. However, an unknown but sizable number”keep to some level”of traditional Passover observance _ even if they just stop bringing bread into their home during the festival.”There’s quite a range of observance,”said Schwartz.”Even among the thoroughly non-observant, there’s a carry-over effect from earlier generations.” While Orthodox Jews account for the bulk of those who are strict about their Passover preparation, they are by no means the only ones. A growing number of more liberal Jews who view the detailed preparations as more a choice than obligation also follow the practice.”I’m not that observant (of traditional Jewish law) the rest of the year, but Passover is different for me,”said Rabbi Linda Holtzman, a director of rabbinical practices at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa.

Holtzman grew up in a household that paid minimal attention to Passover minutiae. Today, she revels in it, blocking out bits of time here and there in the days leading up to the holiday to get her home ready for Passover.”I find cleaning my house for the holiday to be extraordinarily meaningful. I get lost in the absolute focus on detail and find it to be very freeing,”she said.”I find it compelling that for a week, at least, I can really change my state of being, physically and spiritually.” Participating in Passover’s rituals also provides Holtzman with a sense of connection to Jewish history.”I love standing in line with other Jews buying Passover food. I love complaining with them about the prices. It’s living continuity.” In Cincinnati, Reform Rabbi Abie Ingber also throws himself into preparing for Passover to a far greater degree than the vast majority of liberal Jews.

Ingber, who grew up in an Orthodox household in Montreal, directs the Hillel program for Jewish students at the University of Cincinnati. In addition to cleaning his home for the holiday, he also prepares Hillel’s campus kitchen and dining room for Passover.

In an effort to clean away all traces of hametz, he uses a blow torch to clean the interior of the Hillel oven and splashes boiling water on all kitchen counter tops. Cooking utensils are made kosher for Passover by dropping them into an oversized pot of boiling water into which a large heated stone has been dropped to keep the water as hot as possible.

Students preparing for the Reform rabbinate at the Cincinnati branch of Hebrew Union College participate in the process along with him _ even though he knows that as members of one of Judaism’s most liberal movements they are unlikely to continue diligently following the practice once they leave the school.”I grew up with these traditions and I want to pass them on,”he said.”If the traditions inspire you, fine. But first you have to know what they are. It’s about tying yourself into a rich tradition that psychologically prepares you for Passover’s internal lesson of freedom.” For more than three decades, Mindy Feller, the wife of an Orthodox rabbi in St. Paul, Minn., has taught classes on how to prepare for Passover. Her best advice:”Pace yourself.””Start slowly and weeks in advance by cleaning clothes closets, for example, slowly working your way into the kitchen,”she said.”The thing is not to leave it all for a final burst of cleaning just before the holiday. That’s overwhelming and squeezes all the joy out of what should be a very joyous festival.” Feller, who belongs to the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch sect, also suggested making the cleaning a family event.”If it’s just the woman doing it, it breeds resentment, and that also takes all the joy out of Passover. A woman needs to come to the Seder table feeling good about the process,”she said.

Feller cautioned against thinking of the process as”just Jewish spring cleaning.””I tell people that dusting the top of high bookshelves is nice, but it’s not necessarily searching for hametz in the deepest sense. I explain that there are spiritual elements to ridding your life of hametz, which corresponds to liberating ourselves from being puffed up with arrogance or haughtiness,”she said.

But coming at the time of the year that it does,”there is a sense to Passover of it being a time for spring cleaning,”said Diamond, the Jewish Theological Seminary professor. However, he noted that even ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel _ who might be expected to say one can never be too zealous in observance of traditional Jewish law _ have warned against the process getting out of hand.”They warn against making Passover something to be dreaded,”said Diamond.”Basically, they’ve said do not create a situation where you have lost more than you’ve gained.” For those observant Jews who do dread Passover’s requirements, money can ease the pain. For some with lavish homes, relief is in the form of entirely separate kitchens and eating areas that are used only during Passover. Many hire others to do at least some of the extensive cleaning.

In recent years there has also been an explosion in the number of fancy resorts _ including cruise ships _ offering Passover vacation packages approved by Orthodox rabbis. The packages typically include gourmet Seders, lectures by world-renowned Jewish scholars, rabbi-led worship services and a host of children’s activities.

For a price, often steep, an effortless but fully kosher Passover can be had in Hawaii, the Canadian Rockies, Florida, Puerto Rico, Arizona, New York’s Catskill Mountains, Bermuda _ and, of course, Israel.”More women are working today, even Orthodox women, and they no longer have the time or strength to get the house really ready,”said Gabe Levenson, who for 30 years has chronicled the travel industry for Jewish media.”So now Passover’s pre-packaged like everything else in America.” But Beverly Macales, a mother of five who spends some seven hours just cleaning her refrigerator in advance of Passover, will have none of that.”I get into every nook and cranny with a toothpick. I get nuts,”she said of her refrigerator cleaning.”My oven takes another five or six hours. I sit there with the Easy-Off. I let nothing by. As far as I’m concerned, the people who go to a hotel for Passover are the ones losing out here.”

DEA END RIFKIN