Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

How Do You Keep, and Break, Passover?

In the past few years, I’ve struggled to reconcile being a non-believer with my love of Jewish culture and traditions. So I’ve wavered back and forth on keeping Passover and fasting on Yom Kippur, the two most intrinsic rituals of self-deprivation for the sake of enlightenment on the Jewish calendar. This year, after a few years of nonobservance after the first two days, I went back to trying a sort of Passover lite — I stayed away from bread, pasta and cereal for the full eight days, with the exception of one emergency thin-crust pizza lapse. Basically, I stayed away from leavening but I didn’t obsessively check the ingredients or the label on packaged food. I really enjoyed keeping the holiday in a less-than stringent way. It led me to be more conscious of how I eat and try new additions to my diet (note to self: I am a total bread addict). On a spiritual and cultural level, this loose observance kept the meaning of the holiday fresh in my mind without making me feel as though I were engaging in the holier-than-thou “corn syrup is evil” one-upmanship contests I remember from my time at a Jewish day school.

The best part of observing this way is yet to come. Because keeping Passover means indulging in the most delightful ritual of all — the post-Pesach carb binge. Growing up on the Upper West Side, I always joined my family in celebrating one way: a trip to H&H bagels for a dozen hot bagels, the first of which we would break off and share, followed by a big Italian dinner. Mmm. When I lived in Boston, my favored practice was to head to Cambridge’s beloved Pinocchio’s pizza, home of the tastiest Sicilian slices in the world. My roommate Sarah and I said the motzi over a fresh mozzarella and tomato slice. I’m not sure what my plans are this year, but the packaged challah rolls I usually keep in the house are tempting me so much right now (bread addiction again) that they may be reward enough.

It’s a Jewish tradition to invent your own mini-traditions for the holidays. So Forward readers, how did you observe Passover this year — super strictly, not-so-strictly or in between? And most importantly, do you and your family have a special tradition for that first bite of leavened goodness? Please share in the comments.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.