5 Offbeat Passover Resources You Haven’t Heard About Yet

You already read all of the Passover guides from all the kosher certifying organizations and rabbis. You already bought your groceries and already have all your favorite recipes. You’ve already read the educational materials on My Jewish Learning, Aish, and Chabad. At Jewish Young Professional, we don’t believe in repeating the same shit you’ve already heard from wiser people. Also, I am not a scholar and I am not a master chef, so it would be particularly idiotic for me to attempt to offer advice and guidance on these subjects (not that this stops me). But I can Google and I’m sharing some Passover-related things that you may not have come across yet in order to enhance your holiday:

1) For a twist on the text: The Hip Hop Haggadah

Is your Pesach not fly enough? Do you want to bust a rhyme at your seder table? If you’re looking for a new way to tell the story of the exodus, check out The Hip Hop Haggadah from Rappers & Rabbis. This is an unsponsored post and I have zero affiliation with this group; I am just a boring white girl who cannot rap for shit but who is highly amused by this concept. Rappers & Rabbis also does events – they have a Hip Hop Seder Saturday night April 16, Hip Hop Havdalah, and they have a fellowship program if you’re a prayer leader looking to take services to the next level.

Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay

2) For practical advice: How To Clean For Passover In One Day

Granted, this post of practical cleaning advice by Ruchi Koval of Out Of The Ortho Box works a lot better if you’re not trying to do it the day of Passover (my bad because I just got around to this post today) To be honest, if you aren’t ready for Passover by this point, you are basically screwed. Your best option is probably to “sell” your home and all the chametz within it, get a tent and a little charcoal grill, and go camping for the next eight days. (Actually, this sounds kind of fun in a way…) But bookmarking this for future reference because I am bad at cleaning and time management.

I find it somewhat hard to believe that this is ever going to be a self-portrait of me, but you never know. Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

3) For entertainment: A Lion King Passover

Six13 is a Jewish a cappella group. They do a lot of holiday medleys and this year, they even have a Billy Joel Passover medley. Still, my favorite of theirs is their Lion King Passover medley from a few years ago. (You know my love of Disney). Anyway, this is unsponsored and I am not affiliated with this group in any way. They’re just really talented and I am a fan!

4) For the beauty junkies: cRc Lipstick Ingredient Search

Do you want to look good over Passover while still ensuring that all of your beauty products are acceptable for Passover? Maybe you have a photo shoot of sorts over chol hamoed? (FYI, this is one reason why I’m not going camping for the next eight days per #2…)

There are many opinions about cosmetics and toiletries during Passover. Lipstick tends to be treated more strictly due to the potential for ingestion. The Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc) has a nifty ingredient search tool if you want to check whether your favorite lipstick is ok for Passover. They’ve preloaded some products from large well-known brands, and if your preferred brand isn’t listed, you can enter the ingredients individually. I think approximately 0% of my blog readership cares about the halachic acceptability of lipstick on Passover, but I will include this anyway.

By the way, this blog will absolutely never become a beauty blog (granted, I said this blog will never be a poetry blog and poetry is like, my biggest tag, so you probably shouldn’t believe anything I say), however, I love hearing people’s makeup, skincare, and haircare recommendations, and their strongly held opinions on beauty products. My comment section is open and I do not judge!

Bring on the strongly held beauty product opinions! Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

5) For some good news: The Reopening of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, TX

It is weird to be getting ready to celebrate Passover these days. Celebrating a holiday in the backdrop of global tragedy is bizarre and difficult to reconcile. Perhaps we shouldn’t even try to reconcile. I cannot even begin to imagine what the people of Ukraine are going through right now.

I found myself feeling oddly comforted by some good news following a previous crisis. Congregation Beth Israel, the synagogue in Colleyville, TX at which there was a recent hostage situation, has reopened with a rededication ceremony, following repairs and restoration after the synagogue was damaged by gunfire. The hostage situation affected me emotionally more than it arguably should have, and I’m finding an odd sense of redemption that Congregation Beth Israel reopened before Passover. I don’t expect this to be of massive comfort to those fighting for their lives, or people deeply concerned about those fighting for their lives. But I found that the reopening gave me an unexpected sense of hope.

It feels good knowing the synagogue has reopened. Photo by cottonbro: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-chairs-near-white-concrete-pillar-5986496/

With that, Chag Sameach! Happy Easter! Ramadan Mubarak!