For congregants of Netivot Shalom, like most Jews, preparing for Passover can be stressful.
While purging chametz (food with leavening agents) and planning seders, it can be easy to forget about the spiritual preparation for Passover as well.
“Everyone is busy preparing their homes for Passover. Cleaning, ridding the homes of chametz, beginning major holiday shopping, cooking, taking all the Passover dishes out of storage and moving everything around. It’s a very intense time,” said Rabbi Elliot Kaplowitz. “We have a lot of classes and learning, and hopefully it’s not just the physical preparation that people are going through, but there’s a spiritual component, and that people are spending time thinking about the holiday and what messages they want to share with their family seders.”
Leading up to Passover, Kaplowitz said he weaves Passover themes in his sermons and classes, providing materials for congregants to study and reflect when on their own.
“For the past several weeks already, my sermons and classes have at least tangentially broached the topic of Pesach, and as we get closer, it becomes much more explicit and working messages in that I think will resonate, providing source material for people to look at and ponder over lots of conversations in synagogue,” he said.
One thing Kapolwitz talks about is that many of the preparations taken for Passover are often excessive — and more than the technical legal requirements — but many people engage in them because of tradition.
“That’s how everyone grows up. There definitely is significant concern about getting things right for Passover, and there’s a lot of stringencies and a lot of things to be careful of,” he added. “But I think it’s largely kind of cultural. And what people grew up with is that you go through this rigorous cleaning process. And if you were to not do that, it wouldn’t feel like that’s us.”
Most years, Netivot Shalom tries to ease that stress brought on as congregants prepare their homes for Passover by hosting a meal on Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Passover.
“I think it’s always nice to have a meal with a congregation. I think when it’s a time of the year that is really helpful to people, that’s nice,” Kaplowitz said. “Some people will be leaving town and going to spend the holiday with family elsewhere. Other people will be hosting a lot of family. So, … even though we’ll be spending a lot of time in shul, there won’t be the same opportunities for socializing and coming together over the holiday in the communal setting.”
Kaplowitz added, “I think coming together with people that you like and care about and talking about the upcoming holiday and getting all excited for it, it’s a really powerful thing.”
Kaplowitz said during Shabbat HaGadol, he plans to talk about the rise in antisemitism and threats to the Jewish community and its impact on the community’s priorities.
“We’re having a chametz party, an opportunity for everyone to come together to enjoy Shabbos dinner the week before Pesach, when many people’s homes are already in Pesach mode. It’s a big Shabbos dinner that can be quite a stressor,” Kaplowitz said. “We’re going to have a Chinese dinner, and we’re going to have a beautiful Shabbat davening leading into it, and it’ll be a really nice opportunity for everyone to come together and enjoy a Shabbos meal.”
Kaplowitz added, “It’s a challenge to go into a holiday when Israel is at war and when so many people that we love and care about are being impacted and having to run to bomb shelters. Lots of congregants have relatives that are serving in the army, so we definitely enter [the holiday] with a lot on our minds. Every year we make the message and the story of Pesach feel relevant and resonant to the times we’re living in, and this year is certainly no exception to that.”
 and planning seders, it can be easy to forget about the spiritual preparation for Passover as well.){kind=link}