A Beaver Lake Pesach Celebration - by Rivky Isseroff
Ask any balabusta who makes Pesach at home on how she feels about the work and preparation involved, and you are bound to get an eye-roll accompanied by a major sigh. The cleaning, scrubbing, kashering; the grocery purchases, the cooking/baking, the setting up of the seder plates and the tables- while all lovely to behold and celebrate together with loved ones, are definitely labor-intensive and time-consuming tasks. Add to that the stress of being half-Pesach, half-still chometz in your kitchen until you completely turn it over (“Don’t eat that bagel in here!”) and, once turned over, figuring out how to feed your family and eat for x-amount of days before Pesach without eating matzah- is enough to elevate anyone’s blood pressure by several points.
Enter Bomo and Dina Silber to spearhead a great and novel idea of kashering the Beaver Lake kitchen and hiring a caterer to make a “hybrid” Pesach program of dining in the casino while still having the luxury of living in your own home. They brought on board Ben Schwartz and Yosef Silver and their families, and together produced an amazingly delicious and beautiful set of Yomtov meals. The seder tables were set with real tablecloths, a seder-plate on every table. The food was fresh, plentiful and delicious, with a nice variety of menu choices at each meal. And the spirit was just what you would expect at Beaver Lake- warm and heimish. Families were given the option of not joining in the meal plan, joining for some days in the plan, dining in the casino or arranging beforehand to pick up their packed meals and bring them to their own homes to dine privately.
Yom tov afternoons sported Ga-Ga games for the kids in the casino, a jiu-jitsu demonstration, and just pleasantly hanging out with friends. During Chol Hamoed families went on hikes, enjoyed a less-crowded Urban Air in the Middletown mall, going to the movies, and a special surprise snowstorm that enabled kids to go sledding down the hills of Beaver Lake. Chol Hamoed meals were accompanied by the background music of Ben Schwartz’s DJ equipment, followed by simchah dancing, karaoke, and an awesome game of Coke and Pepsi.
But I would have to say that the most wonderful thing was being able to sit like a mentch at the seder table and not have to jump up to warm the soup or the meatballs and not have to wash the dishes afterwards until 2:30 AM. My daughter and I kept marveling at how terrific everything was and how we could never go back to making the seder ourselves. We were spoiled. And we were able to return to the comforts of our Beaver Lake home, not be squashed into a hotel room, and truly enjoy ourselves at a fraction of what it would cost to attend a hotel program. Much gratitude goes to the Silbers, Schwartzes and Silvers for all their planning and hard work. It was deeply appreciated by all.
I fervently pray that next year we will all be zocheh to celebrate Pesach in Yerushalayim. But if not, we hope that we can join again to have Pesach in Beaver Lake- with or without the snowstorm.
