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mamadebWhat I thought were allergies turns out to be a mild cold. This is of the good. I mean, colds aren't good but they go away and this one isn't bad.
My rabbi just issued instructions for Pesach because it's complicated this year. The first seder falls on Saturday night. This creates a problem - we are required to eat challah (not the specific traditional sweet eggy bread, but true bread nevertheless - pita will do) for the Friday night and Saturday morning meals. We are also required to stop eating chometz by a specific time in the morning and to have our homes free of it an hour later. Plus, custom forbids eating matzah for 24 hours before the seder (and our family doesn't eat it from Purim on.)
One solution we've seen is to eat "egg matzah" - matzah made with eggs and apple juice instead of just water (and flour, of course.) This is technically "cake", but if you eat enough of it, it can equal bread. I was, frankly, hoping to do this as it would make life very easy.
Alas, it is not to be. Our rabbi's instructions are very clear. We have to use challah for both meals and he pretty much disapproves of egg matzah in general - it should only be used if someone needs to because it's softer or easier to digest.
Bear in mind, while he is very strict about a lot of things in his personal observance, he rarely makes pronouncements or imposes his observances on the whole community. An example would be the local eruv - he doesn't hold by it, but he has no objections to the congregation doing so, and many of us do. So if he has chosen to make these clear instructions, he has to have reasons, and we have to go along with it. He's a brilliant and thoughtful man who understands what sort of minyan he leads.
So, we're stuck.
I think we're going to be making "motzi" over a plastic sheet in the living room, carefully folding it up over the crumbs, taking it downstairs, shaking it out and tossing the sheet in a trashcan. Both times. Using pita bread because it has less crumbs.
My rabbi just issued instructions for Pesach because it's complicated this year. The first seder falls on Saturday night. This creates a problem - we are required to eat challah (not the specific traditional sweet eggy bread, but true bread nevertheless - pita will do) for the Friday night and Saturday morning meals. We are also required to stop eating chometz by a specific time in the morning and to have our homes free of it an hour later. Plus, custom forbids eating matzah for 24 hours before the seder (and our family doesn't eat it from Purim on.)
One solution we've seen is to eat "egg matzah" - matzah made with eggs and apple juice instead of just water (and flour, of course.) This is technically "cake", but if you eat enough of it, it can equal bread. I was, frankly, hoping to do this as it would make life very easy.
Alas, it is not to be. Our rabbi's instructions are very clear. We have to use challah for both meals and he pretty much disapproves of egg matzah in general - it should only be used if someone needs to because it's softer or easier to digest.
Bear in mind, while he is very strict about a lot of things in his personal observance, he rarely makes pronouncements or imposes his observances on the whole community. An example would be the local eruv - he doesn't hold by it, but he has no objections to the congregation doing so, and many of us do. So if he has chosen to make these clear instructions, he has to have reasons, and we have to go along with it. He's a brilliant and thoughtful man who understands what sort of minyan he leads.
So, we're stuck.
I think we're going to be making "motzi" over a plastic sheet in the living room, carefully folding it up over the crumbs, taking it downstairs, shaking it out and tossing the sheet in a trashcan. Both times. Using pita bread because it has less crumbs.