A video is going around social media in which construction workers from the Gesher Yehudit project can be seen taking a break from their work on Friday night to make kiddush and eat some dinner. They are in full construction gear and make kiddush while reading the text from a cellphone with the construction site in the background.

The reactions to this clip are varied, from shock to insulting to impressed to demeaning to insulting to insulted, and to all sorts of other reactions. Some feel bad that these people are forced to work and resort to making kiddush like this, while others think they are idiots, or worse, for making kiddush amidst such serious chilul shabbos, while others yet think they are wonderful for trying to keep some tradition despite the circumstances.

Life is complicated. It is not back and white, as many people make it out to be. Israel has a very high percentage of people who are not religious but keep some level of tradition. Many make kiddush on Friday night and have a family dinner, even while watching a football game n television or a movie or using their cellphones. These people were not forced to work on Shabbos against their will. At the same time that they felt it necessary to work, whether for the higher paycheck or for professional advancement or for belief in the task at hand or for whatever reason, they still felt it important to commemorate the day in their traditional manner. Had they been home, they also would have been mechalel shabbos. No religious Jew is being forced to be mechalel shabbos - at least none is evidenced in this video.

As an aside, I find it cute that they pass around the wine for drinking according to age. One might think, ok they did something traditional, but the overall chilul shabbos would show they don't care too much. That might or might not be true, but most, or many, people do what they know, what they grow up with, whether it makes sense or not, even if/when it contradicts other aspects of their lifestyle. I find it somewhat endearing. 

this is a video put out as part of a campaign of a private organization called Shishi Israeli that is trying to promote some sort of Israeli culture that includes Jewish traditional things among Israeli cultural things. They have billboards up around the country merging a soccer ball with a challa - saying Friday soccer (football) is an Israeli tradition, and kiddush is an Israeli tradition. According to the Shishisraeli website, the people behind this are secular businessmen trying to promote family values and unity. Needless to say, some people are upset about this promotion.

Each year in perhaps the past 7 or 8 years there has been a serious increase in the number of articles, and the promotion of them, discussing why kitniyot should be allowed nowadays even for Ashkenazi Jews  at least in Eretz Yisrael. This year I seemed to sense less of a discussion about kitniyot and fewer articles and arguments, though I also seemed to sense, without taking a survey or a poll, an increase in the number of Ashkenazi people I am in contact with that are eating kitniyot on Pesach.

I personally have found the logic in the arguments very compelling. Despite that I will not be eating kitniyot on Pesach. At least not this year, and I doubt I will change that tradition until there is a mass acceptance by a consensus of rabbonim on the matter.

Pesach is all about tradition. Some people do the craziest things on Pesach out of tradition. Pesach is all about doing crazy and unusual things, many of which have become tradition, just so that the "children will ask". We do things different on Pesach. We do not just do what is logical and what makes sense. We even have the main feature, or one of them at least, of the Pesach seder of children asking why we do things so differently on pesach, and the answers are not very specific. The answers talk about slavery and freedom, not explain why we dip or recline. There is something about doing things differently on pesach.

Does the ban on kitniyot make any sense nowadays? Perhaps not. An argument can easily be made that the time for such a ban is long gone, at least in Eretz Yisrael. But why must I break with a tradition that is hundreds of years old? Just to eat some hummus on pesach, or maybe some rice? Is there anyone out there that cannot survive a week without hummus or beans or rice? I know I can, and I have no interest in breaking a tradition that is hundreds of years old just so that I will be able to smear some hummus on my matza.

More or less, this is the same reason why I do not eat all the foods that have been around in the past 10 or 15 years that are made to replicate "real" foods, such as Pesach rolls and Pesach pasta and the like. I enjoy eating Pesach food for the week. The point of the holiday is to be different than the rest of the year, and I am fine with the food reflecting that. As I said about kitniyot - I can survive a week. It is just a week, not forever. And as someone said to me, our grandparents, and even more so their grandparents, did just fine for the week with far less than what we have available to us. A week without kitniyot or rolls is easily survivable. It is definitely, in my mind, not worth giving up hundreds of years of tradition for the payoff of a bowl of rice.

This morning on the radio they were talking about an interesting topic that comes up every few years. Tradition tells us that when the Jews entered the Land of Israel, the Well of Miriam which accompanied us through our wandering in the desert and provided our water, went into the Kinerret.

I don't know if it is one of those legends like the Loch Ness monster and BigFoot, but every few years we hear a report about someone who claims to have discovered the location of Miriam's Well within the Kinerret.

So today on the radio they were talking about another study regarding the search for Miriam's Well. I did not really understand what they were talking about, but I found an article about the recent discovery....

Here is the article in Hebrew... It mentions some of the traditions held by locals as to the location, as well as some legends of how divers would try to enter the underground well they thought was it and they were not able to... very interesting stuff, but I don't know what finding the well does for us (other than just for the historical aspect of course)...

I was reviewing this weeks parsha - parshas Bo, and I found the source for an old Jewish tradition!

Have you ever packed for a trip, no matter how big or how small the trip might be? A guy will throw into the suitcase a pair of underwear, a t-shirt, a clean shirt and maybe a spare pair of pants (slacks) if the trip is going to be for more than 2 days.

Then the wife (or mother) packs. She throws in at least 3 changes of clothes for each day of the trip. She throws in all her creams and makeups. She throws in every possible thing she might need.

Then she packs for the kids. Every possible book or toy they might consider playing with and reading. Enough diapers to last the baby until it gets potty trained. Enough clothes to cover any situation including one where each child soils his garments three or four times a day.
She will even make everybody take a swimsuit, just in case. Even if there is not going to be water within 500 miles of your destination!

Then she packs the food. Every possible item that is ready to be eaten that is sitting in the fridge gets packed. Every single condiment that anybody in the family might prefer gets packed. Enough plastic-ware for a lifetime.

And then she will throw in a few more things "just in case".

In Parshas Bo, after the plague of darkness is lifted from the Egyptians, Pharoah calls in Moshe and tells him that he will allow them to go out to pray to their God. Pharoah says even the little kids can go with. The only limitation is that the flocks and herds should stay.

Moshe answers, in 10:25-26, that not only will we go and take our cattle, but you will give us of yours for us to sacrifice as well. he says everything is coming with. nothing is staying behind. We are taking everything with which we might serve God, and because we do not know what items we might need [and how much of them], and we will not know until we get there, we need to take everything along.

There you have it. Moshe was not a woman, but maybe he got his list for packing from his wife. That is why we pack so much even for short trips..