It’s the last day of Passover (for Reform Jews and Israeli Jews) and I am thinking about the ratio of strawberry jelly to whipped butter on my egg matzah. (By the way – I think it’s very strange that the NYT almost always spells it “matzo”. Now that I think of it, I have three different brands of matzah in my house (Streit’s, Manischewitz and Yehuda) and they all use the “matzo” spelling.) I am trying to perfect the amount of pressure to use when spreading butter on the matzah before it breaks. Although I think that it is smarter to break the matzah before taking it out of the box – less crumbs. And isn’t Gluten Free Matzah a game changer, especially if you get the onion flavor? Eileen wanted to know if we could use it at the Seder. But the side of the box says: not for Seder use and the blessing to be said over it isn’t even the Motzi. (The blessing we say over bread). The blessing is the one we use over things that have lots of different ingredients, especially if they didn’t grow from the ground or a tree or a bush.

But back to crumbs. I have no apology in me for six months of inactivity on this blog. Do I really want to say this? I just couldn’t write. Depression? Fear? Angst? Paralysis? Between Israel and worry; Antisemitism and anger; the political climate in Washington and frustration; the presidential polls and fear of what the election might bring; the hostages and hope; struggling to keep the faith; praying for peace and a cessation of suffering both in Israel, Gaza, the Ukraine and countless other places I confess I do not pay enough attention to.

That’s probably why it is easier to get out the dust buster to pick up the pieces. I can do something about the mess in the kitchen. I feel fairly powerless when it comes to everything else. I know, I know. This is a democracy, and every voice has a place, every voice is heard. Really – seems to me it is mostly the ones that are screaming the loudest and the most extreme. Genocide? Do they even know what that means? And West Palm Beach or probably to be exact Palm Beach County had more incidents of antisemitism than any other county in Florida? And our college campuses? Did I say I wonder if things will ever get back to what we use to call normal?

But enough – tonight it is Pizza. Although there was an article that Corey sent me recently that posits that the original matzah that the Rabbis were eating in the first century or so was soft and pliable more like pita than cardboard. Now that would be a real game changer. And what do you think of the Manischewitz rebranding? Maybe we need to rebrand the world.

Hoping to get back to you soon.