Beating Pesach house cleaning – at a cost

SUZANNE BELLING

And although South Africans are generally blessed with domestic helpers, many of whom dread the onset of Passover cleaning and preparation almost as much as their employers, the good news is that there is a way out. South Africans increasingly are emulating their co-religionists, especially in the United States and Israel and taking their families off to a kosher l’Pesach resort for the duration of Passover, or, at the very least, attending a communal seder.

The most popular affordable getaway this year seems to be Chabad’s Rabbi Ari Kievman’s retreat at the Shumba Valley Lodge in the Magaliesberg – less than an hour’s drive from Johannesburg.

“The programme will begin on Thursday, April 2 and will cater both for Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions,” says Kievman. There will be shul services, all meals and seders, as well as a variety of attractions in the vicinity, including Hartbeespoort Dam, the Lion Park, Sun City and the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.

In KwaZulu-Natal, there is the five-star Zimbali Coastal Resort, where the Fairmount Luxury Hotel has 154 rooms and a permanent shul on the premises. There is also a golf course, indigenous vegetation and wetland areas. This is being organised by Cape Kosher. Children’s programmes and baby-sitting is being arranged.

Avron Almeleh, of Avron’s Place, the kosher fleishik restaurant in Sea Point, will open for chol hamoed. During the entire period, he will provide all the meals for the President Hotel, including both the seders and breakfast, lunch, supper and morning and afternoon teas for the eight-day period. 

Accommodation at the hotel is fully booked for Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4, but, according to a spokesman for the hotel, “we have vacancies for all meals during the Passover period at present”.

In Umhlanga on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, where Shlomo Wainer of Chabad of the North Coast accepts guests for the Pesach week, there will be two seders. “The accommodation, however, is fully booked,” he said.

There will also be a communal seder on the first night under the auspices of the Durban Hebrew Congregation.

The Green and Sea Point Hebrew Congregation in Marais Road will, as usual, host communal seders on both nights, while the Cape Town Hebrew Congregation is holding a community seder for the first night only, as is the Wynberg Claremont Hebrew Congregation.

The Great Park Synagogue in Glenhove Road in Johannesburg, will be having one communal seder (first night) while the Greenside Hebrew Congregation in the city, is also arranging a first night.

The community seders, however, do not absolve people from changing their pots and having Pesach products after making their homes Pesachdik.

One is spared the effort only if one goes away before Pesach comes in (in the morning when one is no longer able to eat chometz).

Rosh Beth Din Rabbi Moshe Kurtstag says as long as one sells one’s chometz before Pesach and locks up one’s home (not returning until the entire Passover period is over), one does not have to make one’s house or flat Pesachdik.

“The only problem that arises is when going overseas to places like Australia (which is ahead of us when it comes to starting Pesach) or the United States (which is behind us when it comes to ending Pesach), then special arrangements will have to be made – like organising another Jew to sell one’s chometz to a local non-Jew. If there is a doubt, this should be discussed with a rabbi,” he said.