Dunking Rachael: My First Chametz Burning

Friday, April 9, 2010

My First Chametz Burning

As I continue to climb the ladder of observance I attempt to add practices and experiences to continue my Jewish exploration and growth. This year I actually made an attempt to fully do the traditional chametz search and then the next day Burn The Chametz.
One problem, by the time I had decided to do this I had already cleared the entire house of any leavened contraband! All I could find were some lowly pretzel sticks from the Purim basket fundraiser from our synagogue.

So I diligently placed ten pieces of pretzels around the house in an honest attempt at the Chametz search. My husband and I had tw

o of the three needed items for the search, candle, check, wooden spoon, check....feather? No feather! Well some improvisation was needed...the closest thing I could find to a feather was a swiffer duster! There we are candle, spoon and swiffer trying to beat our dogs to the hidden pretzel sticks. We were following the directions of our rabbi and something I had read on the Chabad site, but I couldn't help but think that this wasn't what Chabad had in mind! the next morning I was on my own. My husband had left the burning ritual to me. I have never witnessed this and didn't have anything to go by except what I had read on line. Once again I looked around the house and gathered my supplies......I had my printed prayers and materials, I had matches and paper and the now ever important pretzels sticks. I even saved the Lulov from sukkot. I was ready!....well except for the rain. Anyone who lives in the Northeast knows about the amount of rain that we have been getting. This was no ordinary rain, this is rain Noah would have related to. But neither rain, nor boiling chicken soup was going to keep me from my appointed task. I found my rain slicker and decided to light the whole event right at my back door and then throw it out the door onto my stoop! As smoke began to fill my kitchen, I feared it would set off one of the smoke detectors in the house. I recited the prayers...then ran like heck to open the windows!

I want to give myself an "A" for effort, but clearly on execution and form...well definitely "needs improvement."

2 comments:

lewyn said...: I learned this year that you can forget the feather and candle and the ten pieces- his view is that it just distracts you from what you really need to be doing, which is a SERIOUS search for chametz you might have missed.

Also, its perfectly OK to flush chametz down the toilet.

http://www.scharatzedeck.com/03_10_6_pesachguide4.html

IMHO, its hard enough to do actual halachic observance without getting hung up on silly customs that don't rise to the level of binding rules.; April 11, 2010 at 1:26 AM
Karen Zampa Katz said...: thanks.... that is helpful!; April 11, 2010 at 8:28 AM

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Beit Din test Question #22 "If you were to join the Jewish people......."

22) If you were to join the Jewish people, what considerations would guide you to that decision? How did your course help you to recognize some meaningful ideas to Judaism? Are there some things you have learned in the course that you find difficult to accept into your life?

I have been a thinker and a seeker for most of my life. I have explored many faiths, been involved in and have a keen interest in philosophy and psychology. I was raised in an Irish/Italian Catholic home. I lived as a Buddhist/Unitarian Universalist for most of my adult life and previously was married for 20 years to a Jewish man who did not practice his faith of origin. At the birth of my child, now 19, I sought to learn as much as I could about Judaism in order to expose this child to the faith of part of her ancestors. So I come to this new point in my life with all my experiences, knowledge and aspirations.

But the question remains how did I come to consider conversion? It is though love that the door of conversion was opened. I fell in love with a Jewish man who participates in his religion, yet he did not require me to convert, pressure me, or in any way attempt to persuade or force me. This exploration of faith was of my choosing, my volition, nurtured by love.

Clearly I am not dogmatically tied to my faith of origin, seeing that the religious expressions which dominated my adult life have been mostly non-theistic. The major change/challenge for me is in the consideration/acceptance of a theistic understanding of existence. Through explorations with my sponsoring Rabbi, reading, (lots of reading!) and the Hillel class I have come to an understanding of the divine, a place of relationship with a theistic point of view that resonates within me.

To help to articulate this I refer to the work of existentialist thinker and Jewish educator Franz Rosenzweig.

“The function of religion, according to Rosenzweig, is not to erect theological systems or establish universal truths, but to lead to experience of God, starting from one's own personal existence. He "commends 'the Pharisees of the Talmud and the saints of the Church' for knowing that 'man's understanding extends only so far as his doing.' Religious observance is, in effect, the doing of one's religious convictions; the two cannot be separated."
“(Time Magizine Monday, Jan. 01, 1951 , http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814185,00.html)

For Rosenzweig the written word was to be less important than the living exchange, for it is in the doing that the relationship to God will manifest. This idea blends well with my own mindfulness practices. These practices express that it is in the awareness of the moment, the only moment we truly have, where peace and divinity can be experienced.
Through my answers on this exam, my participation in the class and my meetings with my sponsoring Rabbi, I believe I clearly present that I am coming to know, and hopefully I am beginning to understand the meaningful ideas in relationship to Judaism. Clearly there is so much to learn, and experience.

I am most taken by the direct experience of the divine associated with taking on the laws and practices of this ancient faith. I have aspirations to practice in this tradition, but once again they can be best articulated through Rosenzweig:
“Rosenzweig’s approach was subjective also in connection with the mitzvot, Jewish observances. He did think that he would one day become a fully observant Jew, but believed in the gradual approach in which the observances slowly made their impact by “ringing a bell” for him. Typical of this approach is Rosenzweig’s answer to someone who asked him whether he wore tefillin [phylacteries]: “Not yet,” he replied.”
(My Jewish Learning.com http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/IntellectualTO/Rosenzweig.htm)

Like the bell of mindfulness practice, the mitzvot, the mindfulness practice of Judaism, will take time to incorporated and to resonate within. Like the ringing of the mindfulness bell, or the sounding of the Shofar, the act of doing Judaic practices pierces the daily, the mundane and hopefully will help to awaken me to an even richer and more connective relationship with the Jewish people and the divine.