My aunt loved to tell the story of her first Pesach in Israel. Excited by the choices in the supermarket, she brought home a huge assortment of kosher for Passover products unknown in the US. Only when Pesach was over did she learn from a friend that all of those products contained kitniyot (legumes, which Ashkenazi Jews avoid on Pesach). Israel has a much larger kitniyot-eating population, especially when you consider that most Ashkenazim eat them, even if they keep Pesach. I know strictly observant Ashkenazim who think nothing of buying Bamba (made with corn and peanuts–of course my parents insisted that they ate peanuts on Pesach growing up in Europe because they don’t count as kitniyot) for their kids to eat on Pesach. I still don’t understand why people buy it at all. . .
The best way to avoid the kitniyot issue is to shop at a haredi supermarket. The prices tend to be low, kitniyot are carefully labelled and kept apart, and you can get everything you could possibly need in one stop including kitchenware, yom tov clothes, small appliances and even shoes. Produce is usually cheaper in the shuk, but not always. Last year the store I frequent sold a 10kg bag of potatoes for NIS 20, definitely a good price if you can use that much. My handy-dandy list says we ate 23kg last Pesach. You can buy hand shmura matzah there too, by the kilogram or in a box of three. At some point we decided that nostalgia did not justify the price of the hand shmura, so we’ve gone over to machine shmura for the seder.
Needless to say the haredi chains don’t carry everything. Many Ashkenazi rabbis allow cottonseed oil (and the OU certainly did when I lived in the US) but try finding it without a hechsher saying “le’ochlei kitniyot bilvad.” The rabbinical authorities rule strictly here about kitniyot, and while we have no problem with some of the kitniyot derivates, we still don’t feel comfortable serving food made with a product labelled “only for kitniyot eaters.” Every year my husband and I have a debate about whether or not to buy canola oil; I think our rabbi told us no last year. The only kinds of oil with a non-kitniyot hechsher are walnut and olive, both quite steeply priced.
In the US, the OU publishes a list of products considered kosher for Passover without a special stamp (Domino sugar comes to mind). No such list exists here. Wine is always labelled kosher for Passover, but you need to wait until Rosh Chodesh Nissan when the stores turn over their stock to get just about anything else. Even though sugar is kosher for Pesach if bought beforehand, I prefer to have the hashgacha.
One thing I love about Israel is that the country celebrates every holiday together. People avoid scheduling meetings the week before Passover and the city supposedly gets cleaned up. But shopping before Rosh Hashanah and Pesach is a nightmare. You find long lines in the stores till one or two in the morning. One memorable year I brought my 6mo and 2yo to the store for Pesach shopping. I had to wait on line for three hours while my kids terrorized the store. The 2yo was fascinated by the store’s freezer switch, set right at his level. Since then my husband takes off half a day and we go together. Last year I bravely took my four younger kids, but my little one lost it and we had to give up in the middle.
As I posted earlier, I like to shop about a week before the holiday. It starts to get crowded then but the shelves are well-stocked. We inevitably need to get something at another store. I’d really like to have a few friends fan out to different stores and make up a list of prices. We could figure out the cheapest store for each product, buy enough for everyone, then meet and exchange. I haven’t succeeded yet in pulling that off yet. Can you believe that some stores post a sign prohibiting writing down prices?
If you’re new here and you find preparation for Passover difficult, keep in mind that your reward will come when you can go to sleep on the second night of the holiday instead of taking out that seder plate once again.
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