I bet you're wondering: why was there no baking challenge for this Shabbat?
Here's the answer: It's Pesach Sheni!
Pesach Sheni, or "Second Passover," is a fascinating holiday that we don't really observe anymore. Basically, the Torah is talking to ancient Israelites, who would have had to go to Jerusalem for the Passover sacrifice and would have to have been in a state of ritual purity to eat it. The Torah tells us that, if you weren't able to participate in Passover - maybe you couldn't get to Jerusalem, maybe you were impure - you could have a do-over one month later, on a holiday called Pesach Sheni.
Today is Pesach Sheni: the Jewish holiday of do-overs and missed opportunities. And it just didn't feel right to me to have a baking challenge for today (at the bottom of this email, you'll find info for our next challenge, though).
I bet the idea of a do-over speaks to a lot of us. We want a do-over for all the missed activities and milestones: graduations, weddings, bnai mitzvah, even funerals. We want a do-over for the movies missed, the restaurants skipped, the concerts cancelled. We want a do-over for our seders, for our springs, for our souls.
How many of you have found yourself edgy and antsy recently? How many of you have been snapping at others? Or feeling acute loneliness? A rabbi once told me that depression is anger turned inward - how many of you are finding yourself relating to this time with anger, whether directed outward?
I think we all need to recognize the force of loss present in our lives right now. We need to be able to say: I am sad, I am grieving, for the losses we are incurring, the unavoidable challenges of this time.
Because a fundamental problem in our society is that we often turn feelings of loss into feelings of anger. We try to blame people for losses, because we feel a floating negativity that, instead of naming and encountering as grief or fear, we turn to anger and blame.
We've all been doing this these days. And we have to shift away from it. This is going to be a long quarantine, and we have to approach it with our vulnerable emotions, like grief, at the front, not our "tough" emotions, like anger.
A way you can do this is Pesach Sheni. What are you grieving for? What losses are you feeling? Go inside and contemplate this. If you find yourself getting angry or blaming, turn away from that. Go back to your own feelings of loss. Encounter them and sit with them.
Because by naming them, and allowing ourselves to feel them, we can liberate from them. That's Pesach Sheni: a second Pesach, a second liberation. Go to those places where you feel grief, and tap into a spirit of emotionally vulnerable liberation. If you still have some matzah around, have a piece. If not, sing Dayenu. And free yourself.
Okay, and now for acknowledgements on the flour tortilla challenge, and your next baking challenge.
Thank you to:
Karpf
Wolfson
Bray
And others who made these amazing flour tortillas!
Next week, your challenge is: gnocchi!
I love gnocchi - these amazing pillows of deliciousness. You can make either ricotta (easier) or potato (harder) gnocchi. I've never done it before, but I think Mother's Day is the time for me to try. Send me your pictures! And here are some links:
Shabbat Shalom,
