By Michele Chabin
Religion News Service
Tel Aviv, Israel – As religiously observant Jews know all too well, preparing for Passover can be backbreaking work. Every corner of the house, every toy box, sofa crevice and schoolbag must be scoured for “hametz” — leavened foods made from grain.
As it turns out, it’s no different at 35,000 feet.
Passover cleaning is so rooted in Jewish law and tradition that even El Al, Israel’s national airline, “kashers” (makes kosher) its entire fleet of planes and all airport lounges in preparation for the eight-day holiday, which begins at sundown on Saturday (April 19).
While El Al’s actual kashering process is slated to occur Thursday (April 17), planning for the Passover holiday — which commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt — has been underway at El Al’s Tel Aviv headquarters for several weeks.
Cleaning crews have been prepped, menus altered, new dishes ordered and planes rerouted to ensure that all 40 or so planes in the fleet arrive here on time for their nose-to-tail scrub-down.
Rabbi Yohanan Hayut, director of El Al’s religious services division, said three dozen kashering experts will supervise the holiday change-over. Leftover hametz will be stored and ritually sold to a non-Jew, as required by Jewish law.
No bread or other products made from grain — including beer and whisky, which are distilled or fermented from grain — will be served during Passover. Roasted almonds and dried fruit snacks will be served instead of pretzels and crackers. As many as 35,000 pieces of matzoh, a grainless cracker, will be served to passengers regardless of their religion.
Only kosher-for-Passover products will be available at the duty-free shops at Ben-Gurion Airport, the largest airport in Israel.
Because every-day plates absorb hametz, Passover meals will be served on disposable plates with disposable flatware in economy class, while business- and first-class passengers will be treated to new dishes and cutlery.
“Kitniyot,” or legumes, which Jews of East European descent are prohibited from consuming during Passover, will not be served, and El Al will only serve matzoh that has been prepared according to the strictest of standards. All Passover meals, regardless of the country in which they are prepared, will adhere to these high standards, he noted.
“On Passover, as during the rest of the year, we do not compromise on anything,” Hayut said, sounding like a general overseeing a delicate military operation.
For Passover, the planes’ ovens will be scrubbed, chemically cleaned, then heated to the maximum temperature for at least 30 minutes. The airline has purchased 500 new oven inserts and trays in which to cook the food.
Passover preparations will not stop at the galley, however.
“The cabin floors will be cleaned and the carpets will be cleaned with special cleaning materials, then vacuumed,” Hayut said. “Our team of 35 kashrut supervisors will be equipped with brushes, spotlights and the tools they need to ensure everything is free of hametz.”
Passengers hoping to bring their own food onto the plane, either because they aren’t religious and because they crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, will be politely told to store their their “contraband.”
“Until two years ago some (fervently Orthodox) people brought their own food onto the plane,” Hayut acknowledged. “Now these people are told not to because the Passover food is under the supervision of the Edah Haredit,” Israel’s strictest kosher authority. “The flight crew is instructed to tell any passenger who brings their own food to put it away.”
Though Passover presents special challenges for El Al and other Israeli institutions, “as Israel’s national airline, we observe all holidays, and this is just one of several,” said Sheryl Stein, spokesperson for El Al’s American office.
“Just as we don’t fly on Yom Kippur or the Jewish Sabbath, we take Passover very seriously. Observing Passover is a sacred obligation, one we’re proud to fulfill.”
Even secular Israeli Jews who resent Israel’s lack of formal separation between religion and state actually welcome the trappings of Passover, says Yehuda Goodman, an anthropologist at the Hebrew University.
“Religion and state are much more interwoven in Israel than in, say, the United States, and from a very young age Israelis arrange their world in relation to Judaism and Jewish symbols,” Goodman explained. “Polls show that the vast, vast majority of Israelis celebrate Passover in one way or another.”
Even if they reject Passover’s dietary restrictions, Goodman said, Israelis appreciate the hard work that goes into El Al’s pre-Passover cleaning frenzy.
“If you look at the traffic jams just before the Seder is set to begin, you realize that Passover is a national holiday, not just an Orthodox religious one. El Al is simply part of the national ethos,” Goodman said.
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted April 15, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I remember as a kid that our family was the beneficiary of a neighbor’s cleaning for Passover. We often got their pastries and even some bagels (long before they were available widely). I never thought about the implications for El Al. And I thought cleaning for company was aggravating enough!
posted April 15, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I remember Passover being observed at my girlfriends home. It seemed so special and everyone was so happy. The food was great!
posted April 15, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Well it’s nice everyone is happy, but everyone is happy at Christmas time (yes, atheists like giving and getting presents too) and we don’t have all that frenzy. And that so-intensive cleaning won’t get every atom from wheat; what’s the point?
Still watching someone else’s superstitions can be entertaining. It seems pretty harmless other than all the chemicals and energy used.
posted April 15, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Good excuse for cleaning house. (or the airplane).
It certainly proves that even the Jewish airline is willing to go through what is necessary to follow the religious traditions.
posted April 15, 2008 at 10:33 pm
With all due respect to your non-belief, nnmns, you should not reduce preparing for Pesach to “superstition”. The prep is very hard work, taken very seriously by observant Jews, and is certainly not meant for entertainment. I don’t believe in communion, yet I wouldn’t belittle it, either. I’m sure it’s not your intent to do so, but that’s how it seems to me.
You have to understand a Jew’s point of view. We’re not only trying to follow what we believe to be the letter of Torah, but also of Talmud, as you probably well know include interpretations, oral and written, over hundreds of years, by rabbinic scholars.
We therefore “search for Chometz” symbolically as well as literally, and engage in rituals that to us, deepen the meaning of the observance. Try to understand.
posted April 15, 2008 at 11:11 pm
“We therefore “search for Chometz” symbolically as well as literally, and engage in rituals that to us, deepen the meaning of the observance”, wrote ecl.
Even as a kid I remember learning (in our New England Liberal Protestant Church) from a rabbi that, as ecl said, the search for every crumb was as much a search for the “crumbs” in our lives as it is a search for crumbs in our house. It is not so much superstitious as it is a physical manifestation for a symbolic cleaning. I really like the idea, though I am thankful I do not have to do it. In that we tend to eat while watching TV and even while working on the comuter, it would be a tedious and awful job. I think even atheists develop rituals that have meaning for them. The overlap between psychology and superstition is significant, and something for which no one needs to apologize. If it helps, let it happen.
posted April 16, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Even as a kid I remember learning (in our New England Liberal Protestant Church) from a rabbi that, as ecl said, the search for every crumb was as much a search for the “crumbs” in our lives as it is a search for crumbs in our house. It is not so much superstitious as it is a physical manifestation for a symbolic cleaning.
Have I already told you you’re a treasure? (yes, of course you know I have.) Thanks for adding words that enhance what I tried to explain briefly. Your comments are definitely “value-added”.
Would that more people would be so understanding (and with such a great memory of childhood!!). Sincere thanks.
posted April 17, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Reply to pagansister et al…
Yes, even secular humanists can have superstitions and rituals. But life is short, and A is A. Every minute spent gathering crumbs is a minute wasted NOT improving our lives. To improve our lives, we do the ACTUAL work of improving our lives (and those of ohers).
pagansis… you respond to something he did not say; poor argumentation. No one’s saying it’s not hard work or not taken seriously.
Some of us ARE arguing that it is not based on reason or reality (= “superstituion”), that the time is better spent in other, real-world pursuits, and that our ancestors didn’t have all the answers (or even most of them.)
More at http://www.thejewishatheist.com
shalom,
Alan
posted April 17, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Mr Perlman wrote, “Yes, even secular humanists can have superstitions and rituals. But life is short, and A is A. Every minute spent gathering crumbs is a minute wasted NOT improving our lives. To improve our lives, we do the ACTUAL work of improving our lives (and those of ohers).”
I think that the time spent hunting for crumbs is well spent indeed. What better time for self-reflection than in th emindless chore of cleaning. And as a metaphysical pursuit it is a perfect opportunity to assess those ways you have strayed from an intended course (whether you or a divine source set that course is something else again), and to chart a return. There is nothing demeaning or worthless in the little chores or the annual chores. We clean our house scrupulously before Christmas in anticipation of placing the tree. It is as much a part of our holiday preparations as slecting the branches for particualr ornaments. Too much “Type A” driven is not opnly unhelathy, it can result in little more than spun wheels. I suugest as a reading assignment “The Last Lecture” – a good book (of no particular denomination or persuassion) from which you may discover some unexpected treasure.
posted April 17, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Your respond to something he did not say; poor argumentation. A.Perlman
WHAT?? All I said was it was a good excuse for cleaning house or the airplane. Never said it wasn’t taken seriously or wasn’t hard work.
posted April 18, 2008 at 12:27 am
OK, my bad – AGAIN! The response at 2:08 on April 17 was mine. And while I am confessing, those typos are a horrendous example of thinking too fast and typing too slow, and not stopping to check my spelling. Oi!