Since I was coming to Santa Fe, New Mexico for shabbos I asked the people who hooked me up with the people I stayed by if they needed anything from Dallas. I knew that New Mexico didn’t have kosher stores and therefore people always needed something treasures like a package of sour sticks or something. The request I got was for kosher for Pesach milk, cholov yisroel if possible. I was a little taken aback, I had no idea that milk had to be kosher for Pesach. Or was this some sort of crazy BT chumra that militant kiruv organizations convinced their alumni to take on?
I know many of us like to jump to conclusions when talking about some of the stupidity that takes place on Pesach. After all, Pesach one of the best holidays for showing off to all your friends how machmir and frum you are because you only drink rain water, because tap water may have become leavened at some point.
You can also sit around and discuss how thorough you cleaned your house because you know that those old croutons wedged between the garage motor and chain mechanisms are going to be tempting when you find them on Pesach.
I am actually surprised by some of the things I learned recently about food items that need hechsherim on Pesach. Seltzer for instance needs a hechsher, due to the fact that seltzer companies take the carbonation used to make beer or some sort of complicated issue like that. This of course means that my entire family is going to hell because for years my father maintained and still does, that seltzer does not need a hechsher ever, unflavored of course.
I do remember as a kid watching my uncle Hesh-Bear may he rest in peace checking for bugs in the lettuce under one of those things used for lice. I always thought that we could eat bugs that were invisible to the naked eye. I guess it was crazy in the 80s and but now they check water for bugs so hey…
I do wonder if people take on any of the following chumros in order to show off to their neighbors how frum they really are?
Wrapping the entire bathroom in tin foil and koshering out the toilet, since leavened items definitely made their way inside.
Burning the household toothbrushes with the chametz
Using only kosher for Pesach oil in the car
Cleaning out the birdhouses of any chametz
Taking out any chameztdicke restaurant coordinates from your GPS
Avoiding non-kosher grocery stores
Comparing looking at or think about chametz to pritzus
Peeling your lettuce (I know chabadnicks peel tomatoes)
Checking your matzo for bugs
Burning all of your biodegradable plates with the chametz
Emptying out the mikvah and refilling it just in case those random beard hairs had bread crumbs in them
Are there people that dry out there nouths with paper towels before eating matzo so their saliva doesn’t leaven it in their mouths?
Do some people think it better to not eat matzo then have it leaven in their mouths?
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