Enough washing floors just in case …!  Bring on the Matza!

When I was a yeshiva student at Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem, I would spend every fourth Shabbat in Hevron – city of our forefathers and mothers. I always stayed with a certain family – father from Brooklyn, mother from Connecticut. We would walk to the Tomb of the Patriarchs to pray Shabbat morning.  (It’s really like a castle, built by Herod, which EVERYONE needs to see.) Chaim let me carry the Uzi when he sometimes allowed me to join the tours he led.

Not long ago I was on a bus in Jerusalem and the Mom was there with daughter number two and a grandchild. I knew it was them behind me because that Connecticut Yankee was saying to her daughter and granddaughter, “You see that guy there in front of us? That’s Chanoch who used to come for Shabbat – and he would always wash the floors in honor of Shabbat while we were preparing for our usual 5-6 guests in our tiny apartment!”

Of course, I turned around and was very happy to catch up with them about things.

So, you see, washing floors and preparing for Pesach or Shabbat leaves an impression in the heavens, and in the hearts of all Yidden! And here, I just finished washing the floors in my “safe house” here in New York.

Thank you S and L for taking me to buy shmura matza what seems like SO LONG AGO – before the total hunker-down-at-home orders! I did all I can do to prepare, had a lot of help from the people here, listened to some Breslav Music – and now can wash the NEW pots and pans I bought, and cook a bit for my alone-but-with-the-Almighty seder.

An hour or so before candle lighting I will hopefully host a “ZOOM – internet - seder” for my little group of Hebrew School students, to get them into a holy spirit. This year they will sing the Four Questions with me - and THEN I will ask them four MORE questions, which I HOPE they will discuss with their parents ...

Then I will put on my Kittel which reminds us this year of so much more than any Yom Kippur, and pray, and Do SEDER.

Chag Samayach – Love and Health and Redemption for ALL! A Zeeseh Paysach!

Rabbi Andy Eichenholz