All the Chumros That’s Fit to Print

Tamar Rotem reports in Haaretz.com about how chumros (stringencies) on Pesach strike fear in the heart of the chassidic community.

Books with pages spread wide open, perched on balcony railings and shedding imaginary crumbs of not-kosher-for Passover food. Shelves covered in new paper, and masses of aluminum foil on kitchen counters and the stovetop. Signs on doors warning “Do not bring in hametz” – referring to leavened products – with several exclamation marks.

All of these were signs in my childhood that Passover was approaching. Above all I remember the near-hysteria that overtook the women and girls in the house, which mounted as the holiday grew nearer while they, dressed in rags, pursued to the death every stain and crumb.

In truly strict homes, I heard from girlfriends, they began the preparation for Passover on the day after Purim, which falls a month earlier. There they knelt on the floor and scrubbed every single tile with brushes and kerosene. In other households they took a toothpick dipped in rubbing alcohol and cleaned pot handles and faucet cracks with it. The contents of closets were laundered well in advance and the clothes were hung out on lines, with pockets turned inside out, for days on end. There were homes where they ate nothing but potatoes and eggs for some weeks.

Chabad Hasidim, Hasidim affiliated with the Eda Haredit, and especially the Toldot Aharon Hasidic sect are the most scrupulous of all.

While Hasidim avoid eating “soaked” matza – i.e., matza that has come into contact with water – among the Lithuanians (non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox Jews) this stricture does not exist.

“You don’t want to insult anyone,” explains a Chabad Hasid, who prefers not to be identified by name. “It’s uncomfortable if the host offers you a cucumber, for example, and you don’t eat it because its seeds resemble grains of wheat.”

In Chabad circles, it is absolutely forbidden even to mention bread or bread products aloud during Passover.

Prof. Shaul Stampfer, a lecturer in the history of the Jewish people at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that observance of customs related to preparing for and keeping Passover is an opportunity to express devotion and piousness in contemporary life, when observing religious commandments has otherwise become relatively easy.

“There was a time that it was impossible [in the Diaspora] to obtain kosher wine or kosher-slaughtered meat. Today everything is prepared, in packages at the supermarket. Proscriptions bring back something of the difficulty of observing commandments. It’s possible to ridicule them, but in principle it’s a human and emotional thing of the first degree,” says Stampfer.

Often the objective of following the Passover rules observed by Hasidim is not clear even to them. Sometimes they avoid various kinds of foods, only because in the past their community did so.

“In Russia [where Chabad Hasidism began], there were no eggplants,” says the man from Chabad, “and therefore at Passover, Chabadniks don’t eat eggplant.”

In Chabad they don’t eat radishes. The reason: The third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson [this was also the name of the seventh, and last, Rebbe], did not eat them during Passover.

As a rule, Hasidim do not eat fruit or vegetables on the holiday that have not been peeled, for fear that hametz has adhered to the peel, and customarily remove the peel even from tomatoes. For the same reason, they also will not eat berries, dates and the like. The very strict avoid eating any vegetables or fruit, apart from potatoes.

The disciples of the last Lubavitcher Rebbe noticed that he did not use a knife on Passover, and therefore a minority of them they have also stopped using knives, though they do not understand the reason.

On seder night it is customary to eat from glass dishes, but in Chabad they allow the use of porcelain with a gold rim. Why? Because at seders conducted by the Rebbe, the food was served on white china decorated in gold.

… For their part, Chabadniks also prefer to drink homemade wines.

…. Also in Chabad, they cook meat and fish dishes for the week-long holiday in advance.

… In Chabad, families rent a bakery for half a day and the members of the family come to work and to supervise the bakers. In other circles “matza groups” are organized, with a number of people coming to supervise the baking.

The risks that accompany the baking and eating of matza keep Hasidim awake nights. “The matza might crumble and the crumbs, heaven forbid, might land on a plate with soup or salad dressing,” says one man from Chabad. “Therefore, our custom is for everyone present [at every Pesach meal] to receive a bag with matza in it and he eats it from inside the bag. Only after the table is cleaned of crumbs do we go on to eat the rest of the food.”

Amazingly enough, many Hasidim refrain from eating matza on Passover in general, except for the olive-sized piece as mentioned in the Haggadah on the first night.