Baile Rochel Locked In? Nah! Can't Keep a Good Girl Down

Baile Rochel tell you how it really is:

Life in The Corona Lock-down

The other day I got an emergency call from my childhood playmate:

"Baile Rochel, the world is waiting for your words of wisdom."
"Nu, me?"

What wisdom?

I'm just a sloppy overweight middle-aged senior citizen who keeps getting chastised by my children for taking walks outside the house. I dress like a bandit with a mask and all. OK, I admit that the "mask" is just a folded shmatta, cut from a ripped flannel sheet. For goggles, I have my trusty multifocals.

When people ask why I still go outside I answer:

"Doctors orders!"

When corona virus, COVID-19, the plague, or whatever you want to call it, is no more than an awful memory, high blood pressure, diabetes, serious aches and pains, etc ad nauseum will still be live threats. In addition, I live in the "sticks," in a private home, so I don't need scuba gear in an elevator or public stairwell.

I rarely see anyone when outside, and if I do, I cross the street. And if that's not possible, proper corona manners demand that the younger wanderer must climb the nearest tree. A close call was averted when a clueless little kid started approaching encroaching on my personal space, about the distance/height of a star basketball player, so I growled. He got the hint and ran away.


Like many, I'm hoping that I still have clothes that fit when this corona has crooned away. In a "normal year," I would have given fattening chametz, the food forbidden on Passover, away before the holiday begins. And in case you haven't been following the Jewish calendar, Passover's next week. Corona prevention regulations forbid giving away food, so my husband and I are enjoying suffering by eating pancakes-made in large family quantity and other forbidden for dieters foods. Yes, I'm finishing the beer, too. It's chametz!

I haven't seen my grandchildren in person since Purim. But now on the advice of one of my kids I am "living my old dream" to be an international "entertainer" by reading children's stories daily on facebook. Anyone can tune in, as long as you have a facebook account. Join to watch my daily shows.


One corona related regulation I'm following very strictly is staying away from the supermarket. My husband can't do his beloved shuq, open market, shopping either; it's in Jerusalem and shuttered. We must be saving a lot of money. Every few days I call the manager of the local grocer and order a few things. They arrive straight to our doorstep.

And I can't remember the last time I ate out with friends, another frugality of the corona lock-down. We now meet frequently on Zoom, Skype, Whatsapp, email and, of course, my blogs written under my other name. But:

 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND!

Mrs. Sullivan's Dancing School, Bayside, NY, circa 1953

Post-Pesach/Passover 5779, 2019

Yes, it's hard to believe but last night as Shabbat ended, so did Passover for Jews wherever.  This is a rare year when even those of us in the Holy Land find ourselves still in Passover mode for eight full days. That's because as Passover ended, Shabbat began, and on Shabbat we are forbidden to cook, shop, switch the kitchen etc. Also, the chametz we had sold stays sold until after Shabbat.

Before the Chag Shvi'i shel Pesach, the last day of Passover, we make a special blessing Eruv Tavshilin which starts the cooking of a meal which is to be eaten on Shabbat. We may finish the cooking, and do any other food preparation for Shabbat as part of that Eruv Tavshilin.

After Havdala, the ceremony that separates the Holy Shabbat from the regular days, we can then start rearranging the kitchen into regular Chametz mode. About an hour plus after Shabbat, if we've sold our Chametz, we retake possession.

It didn't take me all that long to take off the counter coverings and get my kitchen back to normal. I made sure to find all of my coffee paraphernalia before going to bed, figuring that in the morning I'd be too confused and tired to think straight. Especially since this is the first year/Passover in the new kitchen, it's a bit more complicated to remember where I'd stashed everything.

B"H, thank Gd I found it pretty easy to get this new kitchen in and out of Passover mode. I'm pleased, thank Gd, with my kitchen.

No, I haven't yet had any chametz. Some years it takes me until Shabbat.

Whether Weather? Which is Right?

I'm a bit of a nutcase. I'm super-highly sensitive to the weather. I'm horrendously phobic about housework and cleaning. I need just the right light and weather to clean my house. The sky must be clear and blue. I need the bright cheery weather to cheer me on.

Last week, when I checked the forecast app on my phone, I saw predictions of perfect pre-Pesach (pre-Passover) cleaning weather, even for my nutty standards. But this morning, when I looked at the sky, at what photographers call "Blue Hour," all I saw was a yellowy grey. I got gypped.

Could this be some temporary aberration?

Sitting at the computer, the view was even worse, and it wasn't just the dirty window panes.

So I checked the phone's weather app again.

IMHO that's a forecast for almost ideal weather.

There's another weather site on my computer, which is also calibrated to Shiloh, so I checked that one.

It predicts a different scenario. Which weather forecast is the correct one?

Adding to my mounting panic is that yellowy tinge I see in the sky. It's a clear sign of desert dust storms. That's a weather phenomenon we never experienced on Long Island.

During our first spring in Israel I learned about dust storms and sandstorms, when the clean wet laundry morphed into awful, sandy yellow dirty laundry after hanging outside on dry but yellow days. Days like today.

If I'm forecasting correctly, from the color of the sky, this may be a very difficult and challenging week to clean the house. Spring cleaning must be done when I can safely open up the windows and hang out lots of laundry. True Passover, Pesach cleaning can still be done. I don't need the outdoors all that much to clean the refrigerator, just good music.

So, now I must motivate myself, recalibrate to plan my pre-Pesach cleaning differently. And that also means that non-kitchen, non-chametz cleaning must be after Passover, when the skies are clear and dust-free.

Passover Approaching, Freezer Empyting

Yes, I cleaned off the top shelf of the freezer already. And now that I see the picture, it's clear that I didn't put it back properly. And some of the food on the bottom shelf is actually chicken that is Kosher for Passover.

Considering that we have a week until Bedikat Chametz, bli eyin haraa, we're doing OK.

I'll be giving away and throwing out some food. Not the end of the world...

Pre-Passover Countdown Just 2 1/2 Weeks

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but if next Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh Nissan then we barely have two and a half weeks until the house must be ready for Bedikat Chametz.

I don't think there is too much in the freezer, but there definitely too much forbidden chametz in the house. And in terms of general junk, we are drowning in it.

Eeks, Just Over a Month Left to Get the Freezer Chametz-Free

Here's my freezer. I have to finish all that chametz in just over a month. It seems like an impossible task. On the bottom there are bags of challah I made just last week.

In a week it's already Adar, then two weeks later, it's Purim, and a month after that it's Pesach, Passover. I kept pretending to myself that there was a n "extra Adar" like in some years. This year isn't one of those. 

Some people keep gorgeous immaculate homes. I'm not one of those. Even "cleaned for Pesach," my house doesn't get close to the pristine beauty those other houses radiate all year long.

But, thank Gd, we all know that dirt isn't chametz!!!  Still that's no excuse not to clean well at least once a year.

Pre-Passover Sites Sights

Selling your chametz in Jerusalem is no problem. You can do it when shopping in Machane Yehuda market.

Notice the stamp of Ehud Olmert on Israel's Capital City...


And this, "Still Life Before Passover." Two laundry hampers are posing as carefully as possible, wary of falling.

Tomorrow I begin to get into the serious cleaning--the fridge!

Cleaning my mind

Not only our homes must be cleaned, but our minds, too, and don't forget the out of doors. But all that mostly has nothing to do with Passover. To be prepared for Passover, the only thing we must get rid of, destroy, is "chametz." Now, what actually is חמץ chametz? And how does it differ from מצה matzah, which is permitted?

Linguistically, both words have the letters mem מ and tzaddi צ.

And time-wise the difference between the two is just seconds. Judaism is very concerned with time. Shabbat and holidays begin and end at specific times. The three daily prayers are also strictly within exact time frames. Days begin and end at pre-determined times. It's not "approximate." What amazes me is that these rules and regulations were determined without modern time-pieces, without advanced clocks and computers.

Matzah has to be prepared within 18 minutes. How were these 18 minutes determined a thousand years ago, or even a hundred or fifty when accurate watches and clocks were rare? I have no idea, honestly.

And back to those letters, mem מ and tzaddi צ. What other words have them? Mitz, מיץ, juice and l'tzamtzem, לצמצם, to reduce to minimum, the essence, like juice.

From the same linguistic root as chametz, we have chamutz, sour, chometz, vinegar and other negative words.

Does that mean that chametz and matzah are the essence of Judaism? That "fine line" between permitted and forbidden, holy and profane can be found in the production of matzah.

Chag Kasher V'Sameach