London – A leading British strictly Orthodox rabbi is trying to halt the growing trend of Pesach getaways.
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Dayan Shalom Friedman, of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has issued a statement claiming that, by celebrating the festival in a hotel, people are losing out on the virtue of cleaning their homes.
The holiness of Pesach “rises with the many preparations that you perform before the festival,” he says in a letter circulated to the Charedi community.
“Even the perspiration that you perspire through all the labour… is very important in Heaven.”
Dayan Friedman, the son-in-law of the former head of the Union, the late Rabbi Chanoch Padwa, said that a local hotel might be an option for people not well enough to make Pesach.
But “chas vashalom [Heaven forbid]”, he wrote, that people “should be tempted by the adverts to celebrate the holy festival in a far-away country on a beach with all the conveniences and royal service”. [thejc]
isnt peasch suppose to be a zman cheras (for the bal abusta as well…)
anon 9:00 said,
“My cousin gave hashgacha to a few different Pesach hotels in both FL and CA. He took food to eat for himself. Enough said? “
UNFORTUNATELY I’VE HEARD THE SAME FROM MANY!! MASHGICHIM.
SICKENING
“If you force your children into a boring yom tov and scream, hollar like a maniac a month before pesach because EVERYTHING is pesachdig already is abuse in my book.”
What religion is this?? When I was growing up, it was a pleasure to make the house clean for Pesach. We loved helping our mother clean, cook, chop and bake. We thought it was great fun to eat on a folding table in the garage for the last week before Pesach and nothing could beats eating up all those chametz cookies and candies right before Pesach and getting a stomachache!!
My cousin gave hashgacha to a few different Pesach hotels in both FL and CA. He took food to eat for himself. Enough said?
If you want to keep kosher for Pesach, eat at home or with your family. Otherwise, it’s just a “kosher style” Yom Tov style, vacation.
Kosher Freilichen Pesach to all.
In the Alter Heim people had much smaller apartments/houses, it was easier to clean.
I suggest that instead of investing thousands of dollars in resorts, spend only one thousand on having a helper or two in your home to help you or even do the work for you, and spend a beautiful time surrounded by your family. A Koshern Paysach!
Brooklyn wolf said, “Personally, I can’t see spending Pesach in a hotel. I believe that Pesach should be spent with family and/or friends in a close environment.” It is exactly for this reason that I love going to a hotel for pesach. I unfortunately do not have any family to invite, besides my husband and one kid. my friends all go to their families. Pesach is very sad for me when I stay home. But when I go to a hotel, all the people at the hotel become like family to us! We go to uplifting shiurim and come back very spiritually rejuvinated. It really gives me simchas yom tov. Every year some Rav or another speaks up against pesach hotels, I see his opinion but I respectfully feel otherwise. When my children get married I will be very happy to stay home and make pesach for them, with their husbands and wives, that is my DREAM.
to chasid:
Why stop there? Buy and kasher meat yourself ( your bubbe salted her own meat ), throw out your timers and find a shabbos goy, eat nothing but fleishig and chicken fat ( your bubbe did not have dairy kosher l’pesach items nor any of today’s prepared food with hashgagas)
How can we so go off the derech??
1. The whole story of pesach is “Mesorah”, doing exactly what our Zaides and Bobbies did, that the reason many people don’t eat fish. Don’t eat kitnyoes. And other minhugam that is not relevant but still keep for the sake of “al titosh toras imechu”
2. Pesach we are so makpid on chumetz kol shehu, who can feel comfortable when sitting in a hotel and having a catering service cook, and bake, and import all sorts of foods, even with the best hashgauh it doesn’t come close to the own supervision you have at home.
One should ask themselves would my father do so??
I happen to disagree with this Rabbi . But if this Rabbi want somewhere legitimate to start , he should call up some Great Rabbis that do spend pesach in hotels and ask them this question.
If we see Bigger people then us doing something then it cant be bad , can it?
Go call up . Rabbi frand from ner israel. Rabbi suchard who runs gateways. on and on.
We have alternated between going to hotels and staying home for years. For everyone except the mother, it is the same. You all sit down to a prepared feast in either place. Going away just makes it easier for the woman in charge, who does not have to spend her whole yom tov slaving over a stove. She can actually enjoy the yom tov with her family in a relaxed atmosphere. In our house, all the children get a cleaning project before pesach so they understand about the preparations, we bring along all the arts and crafts and hagaddahs. Our seder last late into the night often finishing after 2am. anon 12:01 those that finish right away would do so at home too. It make no difference if they in a hotel, those are the type of people who have the fathers go to sleep in middle of the haggadah and tell their kids to wake them up for the meal.
Going away is a luxury that most of our grandparents did not have. However, just because it was not done in the “alter heim” does not make it a lacking pesach. In the “alter heim” they didn’t wash the ceiling and take apart closets under the guise of pesach cleaning. They just swept up the crumbs and threw out he chometz. I don’t see anyone complaining about changing the way things were done about that.
Two quick stories.
1 – A Teacher in my daughter’s school was describing to her class what Pesach would be like when Moshiach comes. Korban Pesach, etc. One girl raised her hand and asked ” Does that mean we’re not going to Florida?”
2 – When asked about the length of the seder in the hotel, my friend said, “as soon as the first waiter walks out of the kitchen with the fish, we say GO AL YISROEL.”
GREAT MEMORIES!!
Anonymous said…
THATS THE PROBLEME WERE TO MUCH INTON GASHMEYOS
March 14, 2008 11:01 AM
===================================
If we are too much into gashmiyos then why dont you be our role model and start by throwing out the following just for starters.
Telephone, car, cel phone,washn dryer. Cut off all your utilities because after al ypur great grand parents had no running water and im sure u want to emulate them.
THATS THE PROBLEME WERE TO MUCH INTON GASHMEYOS
I agree with the Rabbi. But, then again maybe if I could afford to take may family to a hotel I would have a different opinion!
I don’t know where you come from, but my mother was a CPA and my father cleaned for Pesach! In respect for tradition, I still do a major bulk of the cleaning!
I AGREE WITH 10:06 AM
“If u need entertainers & carnivals to lift your spirit up, then u r in real MORO SHCHOIRA”
if you really want to feel, the real simchas yom tov,
“it’s at home”,
when you know the strict laws of pesach, and that you worked hard to clean, and prepare everything, and you have learned what yom tov pesach, is all about then at the seder you feel the real simcha spiritually.
(if you plan ahead it’s fairly easy, like what rooms to clean first, how to clean it so that you know if it had chometz it’s really gone and so on,and where is everyone gonna eat chometz when the house is clean etc.. )
TRY IT!
I think the Rabbi’s opinion is perfectly legitimate. If this is such an important mitzvah, he should elevate his holiness and the rest of the community’s by cleaning out his and everyone else’s houses for Pessach. It’s completely chutzpahdik to make someone else’s life hell (namely the wives) for the sake of your own “holiness.” That is not what yiddishkeit is about.
Tell this Rabbi that Raising Food prices right before the holiday is also not a MITZVA, it`s actually a BIG avaira.
Many things are not mitzvos. If you think its wrong say it as it is ,because by saying it is not a mitvah is meaningless.
tounge in cheek if u have time to surf the net and write into blogs u have time to make pesach
and yes pesach is a family yomtov not a wedding where everyone dresses for everyone else besides the boys looking over the girls etc and all the rest off the lavim people are over by making a family yomtov into a glamour parade!
and im sure dayan friedman knows these reasons as well, but doesnt want to antagonize anyone
the seforim do bring down the inyon of sweating for a mitzva specifically at matza baking
and cleaning the home alluds to the inyon of “soor shebisa” cleaning the minutest drop of chometz is merumaz on cleaning ourselves out from the yezer hara & tavos and doing teshuva on averos that have tainted and stained our neshomos
Aren’t we supposed to be like kings on Peseach???
what is the meaning of pesach?
when our forefathers, were in egypt, hashem omited the HOUSES of the jews, when the eldest born were killed, to distinguish between a jew, and an non jew.
in hebrew it is called PESACH.
and thats why we all need to be home on pesach.
What’s the dif?
The same goyta that cleans your home cleans the hotel.
Let me remind you what Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg shlit”a says: “SPRING CLEANING” has NO part of Pesach preparations!
The tired, sleepy mother/wife at the Seder who is exhausted from all the cleaning done to “spring-clean” the house, will get no S’char (reward) for dozing through the Seder!
So clean, yes. But stick to what is outlined in Halacha as required areas to clean. Areas where no Chometz ever goes should be cleaned for Shavuos etc.
The wolf has an excellent point. When I was a newlywed, we closed our apartment and spent Peach with my wife’s parents in Flatbush. Does he want everyone to stay home and not spend the yom tovim with parents and relatives?
To comment no. 3
No jealousy whatsoever.
I don’t know what u consider SIMCHA, but the REAL SIMCHA u can only feel by the heimishe community being at home, & working hard to get the Pesach in.
If u need entertainers & carnivals to lift your spirit up, then u r in real MORO SHCHOIRA
We made our sederim for years and also thought we’d never go away, before we started going to hotels. There is no mitzvah to exhaust yourself, particularly as you get older .One tradition we were glad to give up was my wife being so exhausted that she could barely sit through the first seder. We still clean our house just in case we have to stay home. I’m still amazed that people feel entitled to decide what’s right for others. If you don’t like going to hotels, then don’t. Noone is forcing you to go.
Meh. Different strokes for different folks.
Personally, I can’t see spending Pesach in a hotel. I believe that Pesach should be spent with family and/or friends in a close environment. But that’s just me.
If Dayan Friedman is against hotels because of the environment, or the expense, or whatever, then he should just say so. Casting it in light of “… it bad because you won’t clean your house” is, IMHO, fallacious. Would he have the same objections if we went to my in-laws for Pesach? I don’t think so.
The Wolf
i once worked in an office where the boss was a modern guy, filthy rich, he send his son to Mir in Yerushalayim,
His son calls his dad before pesach, his dad asks are you coming home for yom tov?
the son says where are you for peasch?
the father answers in Florida,
the son says if your not home im not coming,
guess what ? his chusiva mommy had to roll up her sleeves and prepare the house for a seder.
Yes, I agree with the comments about Shtuss in hotels, but….
Only a MAN would come out with this stuff.
Tell me, does he help his wife for Pesach?
We have to be “dan lekaf zechus” for some families meeting somewere half way is the only chance of getting together. Regarding the beach look at it as if it’s a big Mikvah.
Excuse me,
Ask any of my friends and family I am far very far from a lazy traditionaless person yet I will be in Miami like so many others. Though in a private apartment not hotel.
Yom tov does not always have to be bitter, so hard working and mura shchoira. Most clean the house anyway.
If you force your children into a boring yom tov and scream, hollar like a maniac a month before pesach because EVERYTHING is pesachdig already is abuse in my book. Children see beauty of the sedar just the same in an apt in miami or somewhere else.
What differece is it if you drive from bp or willy to sesame street or dorney park? So they have the boat ride in Miami.
Dont be so naive and face the music. If you dont give your kids a break they will grow up like all of us so called “bummies” for going away yom tov just because they grew up extreme.
Another reason,
Maybe some of those parents going away are secretly so far away from yiddishkeit but because of their kids they act frum and for them a middle ground is hotel.
Stop judging you sound jealous. a bunch of lazy traditionaless pple troll the web when its so called usser. Do not be fake just for the sake of kids. Be who you are and control your own home the way you wish. Stay out of others it is not your business. You are to busy looking into others that is why your child will look like them in years.
NEVER UNDERSTOOD!
How do u feel Pesach without any preparations.
their children wont know more than pesach is only about going to hotel entertainment
FINALLY SOMEONE CAME OUT AGAINST GOING AWAY FOR PESACH. i think our children have no idea what it means to have a pesach seder at home these days. people are lazy and would rather throw away tradition which is something we pass down generations. what are we teaching our kids? pesach is meant to spend at home with your family and to work hard until we get to the point of eating. no one says you have to scrub walls but for crying out loud ppl. what is our world comming to? going to cancun, hawaii, bahamas for pesach? its crazy what the world has come to. a bunch of lazy traditionaless pple.