Thanks so much to Rabbi Rabbi Ellen W. Dreyfus, of B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom for this great guest post.  Rabbi Dreyfus is the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

When my youngest son was a freshman in college, he called a week before Passover, to discuss his coming home for the holiday.  “I can’t wait to eat your food,” he said. “I love your food!”

Pesach in our family is not a time of deprivation, but a week of enjoying wonderful, special food together.  I’ve never understood why people kvetch about Pesach food, and count the days until they can eat chametz again.  We eat better during Pesach than the rest of the year, mostly because I spend much of the week in the kitchen, cooking almost everything from scratch.  I have many favorite recipes, some of which have been passed down through the generations. My matza balls are a recipe from my husband’s great-great-grandmother, Iska Hamburger (the mother-in-law of Rabbi Leo Baeck).  My hazelnut torte is from my great-grandmother, Lina Halle Wolf.  This year my brother smiled after taking his first bite of the torte and said, “This is what Pesach tastes like!”

When I make those recipes, I feel the presence of those long-dead women in the kitchen with me.  My appliances are fancier, but the ingredients are the same, the taste is the same, and the purpose is the same. I feel a bond with them, nurturing my family and friends as they did theirs.

This festival is my favorite. It is the most labor-intensive (read: exhausting), but the most rewarding. Unlike other holidays, my synagogue responsibilities are peripheral and my kitchen is most central. But the food is plentiful and varied and delicious, with new ideas and recipes added to the collection every year.  I usually have enough food in the house to continue Pesach for another week, but alas, the holiday ends and it’s time to change over the dishes again and go back to the ordinary. There’s always next year… in the kitchen.