Monday, April 18, 2005

Passover -- or is Judaism really anti-female?

I honestly don't believe that Judaism is anti-women. Many, maybe most Orthodox Jewish women have come to terms with where they fit in the religion, their role, and their relationship with halacha (law) and Hashem (G-d). Except when it comes to Passover!

This holiday, its requirements and its stringencies, was truly created by someone who had it in for women. With tongue in cheek, look at the list below:

  • Have you cleaned every inch of your house? Many of us say we won't, most of us do.
  • Is that a bread crumb behind the refrigerator? Better move it out to check. Forget that nothing from Passover is going to go behind the refrigerator, you might own bread products on Passover!
  • Have you checked all the ingredients in your shampoos, soaps, lotions, makeup, etc. to make sure there is not a hint of any wheat or grain, or wheat by-products?
  • Have you scrubbed your floors, and then scrubbed them again?
  • Have you checked under your sofa cushions? Behind your bookshelves? Inside the pages of the history book you haven't looked at since college? There might be a grain of wheat.
  • Have you scrubbed all your baby's toys, and then scrubbed them again, then again, because each time you clean one he makes it dirty again?
  • Have you gone through your car with a fine toothed comb, digging M&Ms out of the cushions, picking wrappers out from under the seats, and vacuuming till within an inch of its life?
  • Have you locked away all your regular pots and pans, dishes and glasses, forks and knives, and every utensil you use the rest of the year?
  • Have you covered your impeccably scrubbed counter tops with aluminum foil or heavy plastic, poured boiling water over every corner of your scrupulously clean stainless steel sink, and scrubbed the inside and outside of your refrigerator and freezer, and any cabinets you plan to use until they shine?
  • Have you run your self-cleaning oven, scrubbed the bottom, sides, top, and shelves, and then run it again?
  • Have you turned on your burners without a pot on top and let them burn (gas or electric) for what seems like forever while your house slowly heats up and the knobs start to melt?
  • Have you dragged out your Passover pots and pans, dishes and glasses, forks and knives, and every utensil you will need to cook for the entire week of Passover plus a few days of preparation?
  • Have you spent several hours searching your house by candlelight to see if you missed anything?
  • Have you taken what you didn't missed, wrapped it in a rag and burned it with the appropriate prayers?

And finally,

  • Have you watched your husband spend a few hours cleaning his car and the drawer beside his bed, and then sit down in the living room with the Sunday paper?

Truly, this is not a holiday loved by women -- at least not before it starts!

8 Comments:

At 6:21 PM, Blogger Eli7 said...

Ok, I'm not married and don't have my own house to clean for Pesach, so maybe I just don't understand this, but women, be strong! Have your husbands help you clean for Pesach! There is no reason you should be doing all the work!

 
At 6:27 PM, Blogger Keren Perles said...

Yeah, as another non-married non-house-owning Ortho woman, I don't see where the problem is? Somehow, my father's worked at least *almost* as hard as my mom this year (minus the cooking, but that's my mom's choice).

 
At 8:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

sounds like where "spring cleaning" came from...

 
At 5:35 AM, Blogger Jason H. Elbaum said...

Erica,

Cute! I assume, though, that you do know that most of the items on your list are not required for Passover. Clean all you like, but don't blame the festival.

I do agree that Real Men Love Pesach..

Chag sameach!

 
At 8:15 AM, Blogger TRK said...

Erica,

As a single Ortho flatsharing MALE I'd like to say "you go girl" (accompanied by one of those hand movements you see so often on Ricki Lake.

Seriously though, somebody's gotta whip husbands into shape and stand up and tell women that DUST ISN'T CHOMETZ. I've already blogged on this twice.

Some of us men are actually decent folk.

TRK

 
At 3:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You make the smart choice in not having daddy help clean because if he did he would just bother you more than he does sitting on the couch doing nothing
-- Naomi

 
At 10:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Passover not a holiday for women?

You mean not a holiday to be married to this type of man!

Yet again, neither is any other holiday!

Remember, dust is not Chametz and yor kids are the Korban Pesach (Passover sacrifice)

 
At 2:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what ?
Females have ruined uor lives ever since gan Eden.
Abaut time we men re gain a little control !Pessach at least is a beginning

 

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