And So This is Pesach...And What Have You Done?

 So the unleavened times are upon us. Wifey succeeded in doing her preparation -- going to Joanna's to buy a flourless chocolate cake for tonight. I bought my bottle of vodka, gin, and tonic, and will bring one of the two boxes of schmurah matzoh we had delivered -- one from Rabbi Yossi, and one from Rabbi Berl in Gainesville.

Schmurah matzoh is the REALLY pure kind observant Jews eat only on Passover. Years ago, I watched it being made -- in Crown Heights. Our friend Nechama's father was a baker at a matzoh bakery, and Jeff, our old friend Alan, and I were given a tour of the Dickensian building. It was something to see -- like watching a fine pizza chef remove the pie at the precise time.

We're going to Joey's parents' tonight for first seder, and we always have a great time. This year it'll be a small crowd, as Joey's older brother Bob and wife Vera and Vera's family are all in Peru for the holiday. I think the group will be Joey's younger brother Alan, and Jacqui's best friend from Bogota with her Cuban American husband -- a retired US Army colonel who I always love chatting with.

I think Little Man is the only child -- Baby Man will be home with a sitter given the late hour. I'll pour vodkas for me and gin for Jacqui -- she only drinks when I'm over - I am indeed that bad influence. You can only handle so much Passover wine.

Meanwhile, our people are in rather chippy times, following the terrorist attack by the Hamas savages last October, and the Israeli response. Here, anti -semitism, with the Hamas crap as an excuse, has reared its head.

Don't people get that you can despise Jews, but things never work out well for nations that persecute us. Israel has given so much tech to us -- cell phones, medical innovations. The Arabs gave us...the abacus. And that was quite awhile ago.

At least closer to home, there is a source of pride. UF's Chabad is hosting the biggest seder in North America -- at the O Dome. The UF President, Ben Sasse, brooks no nonsense from the protesting monkeys, like his cohorts at the Ivy League schools do.

Thankfully there have been relatively few incidents at UM and FIU, too.

I just read that Columbia went to online today because of the unrest. What times we live in.

My favorite is groups like Queers for Palestine. As if Queers would have any chance in the Islamic world. The dark joke is that their only saving grace is that, in Gaza, all the tall buildings have been destroyed, so Hamas can't toss gays off their roofs anymore. Gays owe the IDF for that!

So tonight we'll all ask the Big Man for peace, as we always do. It just seems this year is a bit rougher than usual.