feh

It’s Monday morning, approximately 48 hours before the prohibition on chametz takes effect, and I’m only just now beginning my Passover cleaning. We have nearly emptied out our pantry, but I haven’t had time to even consider the rest of the cleaning until the big Birkat Hachamah Solar Fest I was working on took place yesterday.
 
 
Now I’m getting started on general housecleaning, and saving the kitchen for last. After everything is clean, then I can move on to kashering tomorrow. And for the first time I can remember, I’m starting to question whether I should continue being so by-the-book strict about Passover. Every year, in addition to cleaning and ridding the house of chametz (and then nullifyling and selling it for good measure), and changing dishes, I also boil all our pots, sauce pans, and flatware and self-clean the oven. Why? The short answer – to expunge the utensils of the chametz. But what is chametz, after all, when hidden in the walls of our pots? In my opinion, (shhhh…..) a figment of the rabbinic imagination! And yet, I spend several long, hot, messy hours, and burn myself every year at least three times, ridding my metal of imaginary leavened “bliyot” (absorbed chametz.)
I would love to write a long, eloquent, post about why I cling furiously to this tradition. But I don’t have time. I have to go clean the oven.