Yesterday, when I was supposed to be ruminating on the topic of “Clean” as it relates to the rapidly approaching holiday of Passover, I was out playing instead. We braved the morning fog to get to the movie theater in time for an early showing of “The LEGO Movie,” which was just as awesome* as my brother and various other family members had told us it was. Still singing to ourselves the movie’s notable song, we moseyed on over to Mellow Mushroom for a chametz-ariffic lunch.

It felt great to get out of the house for fun rather than errands. As much as I love the holidays, it takes a lot of work to get ready for them. For Pesach, much of this work is centered around thoroughly cleaning the house to remove all traces of leaven. Having the chance to step away for a few hours from the reminders of work yet to be done accomplished a lot in the way of cleaning up my attitude for this week’s home stretch.

* If you’ve seen it, you get it.

#BlogExodus, the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, invites participants to chronicle the weeks leading up to Passover through blog posts, photos, and other social media expressions.

Two #blogExodus posts in one day? Well, not really — this one is for the 5th of Nisan, which begins, like all Jewish days, at sundown. I wanted to make sure the day’s post went live before the setting of the sun ushered in Shabbat and I shut down my computer for the next twenty-five-ish hours.

Here’s a glimpse at one aspect of Pesach preparation at my house: the time-honored ritual Perusal of the Cookbooks. I’m a food geek who reads cookbooks cover-to-cover for fun, so dreaming up a menu that makes the festival’s peculiar dietary requirements sing is one of the most enjoyable parts of the holiday prep for me.

This isn’t even all of them.

#BlogExodus, the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, invites participants to chronicle the weeks leading up to Passover through blog posts, photos, and other social media expressions.

“All right, let’s go around the table,” our rabbi said, sweeping his gaze over the people crowded around the long, tall table at the back of the bar’s patio. “Tell us your name and, let’s see… your favorite Passover dish.”

Sampson and I arrived late for the pre-study schmoozing yesterday evening, but we were just in time to dive into the monthly “Torah on Tap” discussion. We know almost everyone’s names without being told, and the regulars know ours by now. As the imaginary introduction baton passed from person to person, we learned that matzoh ball soup is a near-universal Passover favorite, that Sephardic versus Ashkenazi charoset is a topic of some debate, and that people who claim to love fiery, fresh-grated horseradish are acclaimed as stupendous tough guys and gals.

With the key issues (i.e., best Pesach food) settled amongst ourselves, we were free to begin our loud and lively conversation on the month’s topic: “Plagues, Torture, and Collective Punishment.” We read selections from Torah and Talmud, rabbis both modern and ancient, Israeli Supreme Court rulings and psalms. The intensity of our discussion was balanced by our comfort with one another as we sipped our stouts or our sodas.

I like to think that anyone who saw us there, a group of Jews freely and publicly displaying our passion for our text, our tradition, and our deep commitment to ethics, would have been able to tell that something vital and vibrant was at work. All of us there were busy people, many having come straight from a long day at work (which, in Sampson’s case, involved two draining flights with brand-new students), and yet it mattered to us all enough that we made the effort to come together with our community to study big issues through a Jewish lens. That tells me something about my people and my Judaism.

#BlogExodus, the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, invites participants to chronicle the weeks leading up to Passover through blog posts, photos, and other social media expressions.