Mindful Matzah

Until now I was aware of only two kinds of eating in the Jewish calendar - not eating i.e. on fast days, and eating a lot as part of a mitzvah, on Shabbat/Yom Tov and especially Purim (also on erev Yom Kippur it's a mitzvah to eat).

But now I see that Pesach is a third way - a week of simple food, avoiding all those baked goods we like to eat, a week when the food is different and it draws our attention to how and what we eat. The point is not to imitate our usual fare with Pesach bread rolls and Pesach bizzli but to see what happens when things are different, when we lack the usual variety of consumer products. Mindful eating.

Which is why, much as I dislike the whole kitniyot thing, it actually serves a purpose at least in Israel, as it severely limits what you can buy in the supermarket; which keeps up the spirit of limited diet on Pesach. Food for thought?

Chag sameach.