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Passover: The Festival of Unleavened Trauma
Why Be Joyful When You Can Be Jewish?
If it weren’t for the food, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t sign up to be Jewish. With all the persecutions, pogroms, and antisemitism, it’s a tough gig. And that’s before we even get to the infamous ‘Jewish guilt.’
One holiday that really piles on the guilt is Pesach, or Passover.
I have a complicated relationship with Pesach. In short, it sucks. It sucks so hard that even the Christians haven’t bothered to borrow anything from this particular ‘celebration.’ Instead, they invented their own misery fest called Easter, sparing themselves the agony of listening to Jews wail about plagues and sacrifices.
Pesach feels like a personal attack.
During this time, Jewish people eat nothing but unleavened bread, known as matzoh, and scrub their homes obsessively to ensure not a single crumb of yeast remains. To make matters worse, my birthday often falls during Pesach. Can you imagine what a matzoh cake looks like?
Matzoh cake. That’s layers of matzoh with fake chocolate spread in between. Adobe Stock.
