Pesach Break

This year I began my Passover with a search for chametz (food that contains grain i.e. bread). This was my first time participating in this ceremonial ritual of hiding chametz in random places throughout the house to have someone else search for it. Ironically it reminded me of an Easter egg hunt but instead of finding colorful eggs you collect old pieces of bread. Once collected, the bread is put into a fire and burnt. Part of the idea of hiding the chametz around is so that in your search you can also find real chametz that was accidentally left during the cleaning.

Another new phenomena for me this Pesach was schmora matzo. I had no idea what this was or its significance but Yigal was set on finding some. So we spent a late afternoon trekking through Jerusalem to a back alley matzo bakery to buy it. Schmora matzo is special because of its long process and the intentions that go into its creation. This special matzo begins as wheat that is grown with the specific intention of becoming future matzo. Special care is taken so that the flour once harvested and milled never comes in contact with water. Once the matzo dough is made, it's then hand cut, and baked in a giant wood-burning oven. And like any delicacy it is carefully weighed by the kilo, then sold for a price of 360 NIS (that’s roughly $100 with the current exchange). At first this seemed to me as a complete extravagance but any food created in the 'slow food' manner seems to have special energy and there's something about anything baked in a wood burning oven that has such a good flavor. Not to mention you are considered the hero of the Seder night if you can manifest this special round matzo for the table.


The wood-burning oven


Weighing the matzo


Leftover scraps of matzo

Seder night for me this year was very special, set in a beautiful backyard surrounded by tons of fig trees, lots of friends around a bonfire, matzo ball soup, and plenty of lamb.

Passover in Israel is a national holiday and many people take the entire week off to travel. A good portion of the country is off on vacation.

For my vacation time I did a three-day workshop intensive called Shomra HaGan (keepers of the garden). Which is a wilderness survival course based off of Tom Brown's teachings. During the program I learned survival skills like how to start a fire from scratch using a bow-drill, build a shelter, and tracking. I’m still working on my bow-drill technique; I can produce smoke but no substantial coal yet.


My instructor teaching me the bowdrill technique


The base where the coal is created