Here goes one of those lists. I knew Pesach was here when...

I had to pay $11 for mayonnaise.
I had to pay $3 for Coke.
Nobody was at shul. We had Davening, but nobody showed.
People went to hotels and were willing to spend 30k to not have to clean their house.
My cousins came and didn't help us clean.
I started worrying about starving.
I found out about potato starch and stopped worrying.
I hadn't slept for a week and my house still wasn't clean, even when my cousin showed up with her kids.
My cousin saw me cleaning and didn't offer to help.
I saw people running on the street wildly screaming 'we have to clean.'
We sold our Chametz, but have no idea who we sold it to.
A random guy knocked on our door and said we have his food.
I shot the guy.
I was excited to find baked goods for less than twenty dollars.
I bought a Costco membership to save thirty dollars on Matzah and ten dollars on chocolate covered almonds.
I prepared so hard for a meal and fell asleep in the middle of it.
I had to purchase more Haggadahs, as another fifty rabbis wrote Haggadahs over the year.
My house was finally a bit clean.
I still wasn't able to find anything.
We pulled out our best china dishes, and realized we use plastic the rest of the year. But for the eight days, we have really nice plates. We're classy.
Everybody was fighting.
Meat ended up costing more, and the butcher said it was Pesach.
I didn't understand what the difference was with Kosher for Pesach meat.
I questioned how the cost of meat went up.
I told the kids they have to clean the windows.
My kids asked how that has to do with Pesach.
I told the kids 'It's Pesach,' and that was my reasoning.
I then told them the lawn had to be mowed for Pesach.
I was happy the windows finally got cleaned.
I asked my husband why we don't have a cleaning person like everybody.
My kids asked a lot of questions and I couldn't tell them to stop asking questions.
I told them that the only time they're allowed to ask questions is the Seder.
I was trying to figure out why there's no annoying son.
During the rest of the year we don't encourage questions.
The kids started running around the house with their food.
I threw out my laptop, just in case.
My husband didn't help.
I needed more tinfoil. Five rolls of tinfoil does not cover the house.
When it came to the Seder, he took a lot of credit. He even called himself the head of the Seder.
My fingers were full of cuts.
I learned cleaning is dangerous.
I was called a heretic for only staying up till 3am.
I started liking desserts made with coconuts. I never liked those before. And I won't like them after Pesach.
I was worried about having to put all the Pesach stuff away for eight days.
I realized I like Shavuot more than Pesach.
And we still went away. And for some reason, the in-laws couldn't have us for the first days, to make the whole Pesach thing easier on us.

It's the night before Pesach. You've cleaned the home. It’s fully Kosher for Passover. What do you do now?

Put Bread Around the House
Now that you've cleaned the house for the past few months, and got rid of all leavened bread, it's time to hide ten small pieces of Challah around the house. You want them to be really small and very hard to find.
If you find all the pieces, it's now time to prepare for the Seder. If you can't find the ten pieces of bread, clean again and celebrate Pesach Sheni.
Many people don't find this tradition of hide-and-go-seek fun. It makes them very nervous.

Watch The Ten Commandments
The night before Passover, after you have found the bread crumbs you sprinkled around the house right after you cleaned the house of bread crumbs, it's important to keep with Jewish tradition of watching The Ten Commandments. It's a tradition that has been passed on from generation to generation, beginning all the way back in Flatbush.
After watching The Ten Commandments it's time to clean more.

Kasher Everything
You cleaned, but you didn't clean enough. The kitchen is spotless, but it's still not clean enough for Pesach. You still have skin on your hands. It's now time to use more sink, stove and oven cleaner yet. Now, place your fingers in chemicals that burn through bone. This way you can cook with your hands on Pesach (don't do this- I don't want to get sued because sarcasm is not understood).
After you've burned yourself with oven cleaner, pour boiling water everywhere and risk your life with a blowtorch to ensure your kitchen has no bread and your oven is broken. This way it will be impossible to cook Chametz. And that is Kosher for Passover.

Yell at the Kids
Yell at the kids for not helping. You didn’t want them to help, because they get in the way and set the table wrong. Not the point. You need to get out some of your frustration. This is your twelfth year in a row making the Seder, and you're still trying to figure out why your sister has yet to have hosted this thing.

Cover Everything
You've watched The Ten Commandments, yelled at the kids, cleaned the counters, Kashered them, risked your life with a blowtorch, taken out an eye with oven cleaner, and scarred one of your kids.  Now it's time to pull out the tinfoil and the dishes.
You can use plastic tablecloths to cover everything, however they're not shiny enough. A good Kosher for Pesach home should blind anybody who walks in and tries to eat. Any home not covered in tinfoil is not Kosher for Pesach. Any dish not covered in tinfoil is not a Passover dish.
During each part of the process you should be Shpritzing. Shpritzing stuff doesn't stop after you've cleaned.

Don't Sleep
There is always more to clean. You missed something. If you're not worried, you definitely did not clean enough for Pesach and you're probably a heretic.

Burn Eggs and Chicken
Burn stuff. The food on Pesach is already painful on the stomach. You might as well burn it.

Did you Purchase Everything?
You're not worrying enough.
Go back to the supermarket. You did not buy enough food for the week. Eight twenty pound roasts. Thirty pounds of Matzah. Seventy pounds of Kugel. One hundred and ninety pounds of Manischewitz cakes and macaroons. That will not feed the family and your sister for the week.
Why macaroons are Jewish? Due to Pesach, we have evolved to a people who enjoy coconut balls. The only people  that enjoy coconut pastries.

Go Back To The Supermarket
You should've bought more. There is still more kosher for Pesach wine at the supermarket.
Purchase more tin and tinfoil. There is more brisket and you need more tinfoil to cover the living room.

Now that you're ready and everything is prepared, yell at the kids and tell them to clean more. Give them spray. Shpritzing should still be happening. Now, fight with your spouse about not having enough money to pay for all the Pesach food, and feeling like idiots for spending fifteen dollars on mayonnaise.
And now, call your sister to tell her how much you're looking forward to having her, with her in-laws tagging along, come right before the holiday, when everything is prepared.

Next time we will talk about Seder table prep, Dvar Torah preparation and how to impress guests by keeping them till 3am with your thoughts on the rabbis' thoughts on the Haggadah. We will even delve into how to hold the attention of the children with Styrofoam hail and lice. We will also discuss how to return stuff after Passover without shame. In the meantime, you should be Shpritzing more oven cleaner and yelling at the kids.

The Kohen was lambasted for sacrificing a sheep of questionable lineage. (Mordechai)
You get it? Lamb is young sheep. Lamb is in the word 'lambasted.' Sacrifices. Sacrifices are in the Parsha. Lamb.
 
Why did they clean with Pledge? Because they had to annul their Chametz. (Rabbi Mendel)
You get it? When Pesach comes, you have to clean your house, get rid of all of your Chametz, and annul it. You make a pledge. Pledge is a cleaning product. A pun with a brand. A pun that also works as an advertisement. Multiuse.
 
I was determined not to clean the cemetery for Pesach, but they foiled my plot... Sorry. That was a grave injustice. (Mordechai)
You get it? Cemetery plot. Foiled the plot, so he cleaned it. And then the double pun there, with 'grave' injustice. Grave means a place of burial, or something that causes alarm. Love it when words have two meanings. Always helps with the puns. Whoever came up with the second meaning for words had a good sense of humor. And people always use tinfoil to cover stuff on Pesach. That's almost three puns right there.

To celebrate Independence Day, my nephew moved out of the house. (Rabbi Mendel)
You get it? Israel Independence Day is coming up. And he misunderstood the use of 'independence.' It was a bad decision. He has no money.
 
They said the milkshake was divine, which is forbidden, because you shouldn't eat molten ice cream. (Rabbi Mendel)​
You get it? Malt sounds like molt. Molten gods. Forbidden. Another educational pun, to bring Torah to your lives.

What drink do people drink on the thirty third day of the Omer? A Lager. (Rabbi Mendel)​
You get it? Lag BOmer is the thirty third day of the Omer. Lag, Lager, a pun. Take out the 'bom' and you have Lager, even if most Jews don't drink it. The real answer is milk, but that's not a pun.

​Let's take a stroll down memory lane back to Pesach and Yahrzeits with the Kibbitzer's pictures from last month. We want to thank David Kilimnick for sharing how he spent his time eating, and not in shul.

The Torah taught us (Shemot 13:8) 'And you shall tell your son on that day saying...' So, around 3,500 years ago, every Pesach, the parents started telling their children the story of the Jews leaving Egypt. A great movie was made, and they kept on telling their children the story. It got to a point where they even had Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston perform a song, just to get their kids to listen to the story, but they still had to tell the story every Pesach. The only issue is that the kids didn't understand any of it, because it was in Hebrew. Nonetheless, the parents still told the story.
For many years, they asked why it only said 'boys,' until a brilliant rabbi said 'boys means children.' And the feminist movement began with girls staying up for the Seder. That's a historical side note. We will speak about how many women were bothered by this act of feminism, as they wanted to head to sleep. To this day, many women are anti the feminist movement, due to the extra work they've caused.

Many parents started telling their kids about the story of the Exodus right after Purim, to get their kids to help them clean the house of leavened bread, Chametz. And the kids started asking, how cleaning windows had anything to do with Chametz. So, parents had to make up another story about how windows in Egypt where very clean, and how they also cut their grass and took out the garbage for their parents in Egypt.

The original Seders were about telling the children stuff, as that was the commandment. Very quickly, the parents realized that kids have questions, and that ruined the Seder. The only questions the adults had was, 'How many questions do kids ask?' They wanted to ask Moshe, but they were afraid he would hit another rock. (Which is how the theory of the Pesach Seder being a punishment to parents, who would've been bothering Moshe with annoying questions, came about. Now, at the Seder, the parents have to answer questions. Not many support this theory, but there is no doubt that most of the congregants in my shul would've bothered Moshe; Moshe would be stuck answering questions about rent going up, and that is not fair to Mosher.)
Then, this new idea of what they call 'education' started up in the year 1296 BCE. This was where parents decided that they should not have to teach their children. So, they gave over that job to other people, called teachers, that they can yell at and blame for their children being dumb.
This new way of teaching marked a paradigm shift in parenting. Within three months, all Jewish parents took to this new way of teaching their children. Parents were so happy to not have to see their kids in the house, they were even willing to spend thirty thousand dollars a year. In those days, it was 6,000 deben, or 8,000,000 shekels. The parents were fine with it, as long as their children were out of the house. And that's how private schools began.
They made the teachers answer the questions. Kids asked questions and then the teachers answered the questions. The new wave of teaching, through education, had the children testing the teacher. The parents were fine with it, as long as they could blame the teachers and scream at them. 

On the Seder night, the teachers had off. They called it vacation, even though they didn't go anywhere. They couldn't afford to vacation. The teacher's salary was so low back then, that when all the other families were vacationing, the teachers had to stay at home to celebrate. Even so, the teachers had a respite from teaching. The parents had no idea what to do. The parents were still stuck telling the story of the Jews leaving Egypt, as the commandment was to tell it on that night.

For many years, they tried telling the story, but they kept on getting interrupted by their children. This whole idea of education started killing the evening of decent adult conversation about how to purchase slaves.
After many years of trying to silence the children, and trying to put them to sleep with songs like 'Avadim HaYinu' sung to a monotone, they realized there was no way out of it. The kids weren't going to bed, and they now had questions.
The parents couldn't control the questions. And the more the parents supported education, the more questions the kids had. The most asked question was, 'Why do I have to go to school?'
Even when the parents made the Seder more fun and friendly, the kids asked. That's how the tradition of kids asking came about. The rabbis realized they couldn't stop the kids, so they made it a tradition. The community said, 'Let the kids ask the questions.' At this point, many kids stopped asking questions. That lasted for a week, before they realized that this wasn't a reverse psychology ploy. Then, they started asking more questions.

When the Seder came, the questions didn't stop. The kids were happy to finally spend time with their parents, and the parents were mad. 'Why is there a Seder?' 'How many Jews were in Egypt?' 'Why are we going to Miami for Pesach and not Egypt?' Even questions about why there is a Seder were asked by the kids who were learning about existentialism. That was when philosophy was banned in Yeshivas and Jewish day schools.
Everything was a question. They saw ten plagues that made no sense. So, they asked, 'How are puppets, Styrofoam balls and plastic jumping animals plagues? They seem so fun.' And the kids killed a good time with their questions. 
Then masks came out and they thought the ten plagues were extra fun. So they started asking how Styrofoam balls can hurt anybody when they have a mask on.

So, the parents decided, along with the rabbis that they'll ask the questions for the kids. To quote Rav Mendel, 'That will shut them up.' So they came up with the Mah Nishtana. 
None of the kids cared about the salt water. They didn't even taste it, as they skipped the dunking in salt water. To quote my niece, 'The children made a decision to not eat anything that was not sweet.' So, the salt water dunking question made no sense to them. Now the kids ask questions on the questions.
Even worse, the kids now give Divrei Torah on the questions. They ask questions on the questions, and answer their questions with more questions. This tradition was developed in 1988, around the time that parents started asking themselves if sending their kids to Yeshiva was a good idea

The Mah Nishtana is a beautiful tradition to this day, and the kids have no idea what it means. The children get up there and sing the song. The parents see how poorly their kids read, and how they don't even know all four verses, and they scream at the teachers for not doing their job.
To punish the teachers  for not being around for Pesach, the schools have to now host a pre-Pesach Model Seder, where kids are discouraged from asking questions.
And now, every year, when it is time for the Seder, the parents relive the pain of Egypt.

The ten plagues weren't just dangerous. They were annoying. They can kill your day. As fun as puppets, Styrofoam balls and plastic jumping animals are, plagues can kill a good time. Let's talk about them.

Blood
Hemoglobin can kill a decent dinner. There's a reason for the Kosher laws of drawing the blood out of meat. Even red food-coloring is scary. I don't eat red cake. Due to plagues, I've never touched a red velvet.
You think you're drinking bug juice and all the sudden it's salty. You can't play sports like that. What happened to the Gatorade? Now you're a cannibal with unclenched thirst. 
I can't drink red stuff. Even grape juice out of a cup, looks messed up. When I dunk it on the plate with my pinky, I wouldn't eat that. On the plate, that looks like blood. A very clear watery purple blood. Even before I drop some of that salt water on the plate, I've got to clear the grape juice.

Frogs
Ever had a fly buzzing around you? It's annoying. Now you have frogs jumping all around you. It's the nature guy's dream. But, you can't enjoy a decent soup like that. 
Just at the Seder. I can't enjoy the Seder with my nephews around, playing with plastic frogs. They always ends up in my matzah ball soup. I feel like my bowl is the target. Everytime, I lose a crouton or two.

Lice
If you went to my school growing up, you would understand. The worst part of lice is that you have no friends. When they checked for lice, and they caught it, that was quarantine time. You stayed away from Shmuel. Shmuel always had lice and nobody seemed to like him. It was the plague of no friends.

Wild Animals or Flies
If it was flies, those can also kill a good time. Just flying near your ears, you want to smack them. And now they're swarms. You end up hitting yourself.
Imagine Sukkot with no sticky tape for the Sukkah. You've got honey around and flies. And now, you don't even know where the honey is and your Sukkot is ruined.
Most rabbis agree it was wild animals, as they disagree with the cartoons. You can't enjoy a Sukkah dinner with wolves running around either. Even racoons have the whole family running into the house. Either way, your Sikkot is ruined.

Livestock Pestilence
Cows doing whatever they want. They've got delirium. Not good. It's impossible to milk them. You've got to chase them. You catch them and now they're disobedient. They're telling you, 'I'm neighing today. No more moos for you.' That's what delirium does. Next thing you know, they think they're bees. 'I'm not making milk. It's honey today.' Pestilence will kill your breakfast.

Boils
Ever had boils? Disgustingly bad pimples. You can't go out with those things. You show up to a Simcha with boils and you're not getting a Shidduch. When it comes to matchmakers, boils work more against you than age. You pop one, that can take out a bathroom mirror and the sink.
Those things are embarrassing. 
They can get huge. You're asking, 'Where did this limb come from?' Embarrassing.

Hail
I think we can all agree we'd rather just get snow. That stuff kills the cars. 
Ever go out without a hat or a hood with hail? It's a plague. Add fire to the hail, it's a bad plague. If you don't freeze to death, you get burnt. Painful. And your car is done for.

Locusts
They're cute outside, but once they go into your living-room, it's messed up. You think these mess up your field? They truly kill a good BBQ.
They don't make the plastic locust jumpers, because that would be a letdown. If you've ever seen how little height you get out of that rectangular plastic frog tail, you would understand. It's an embarrassment.

Darkness
You would understand this if your neighbors were also too cheap to pay for street lamps, and then refused to put on their porch lights.
Only positive about darkness is you can't see the boils.

Killing of The Firstborn
This is apparently not good. Just remember the blood on the doorpost trick. 

I think we can all agree, pestilence makes for a really bad day. If I had flies hovering around my steak, I would've let the people go. I don't want any plagues in my mouth. 
Next time there are plagues, stay home and put blood on your door. That will keep the people out.

I have the same questions every year. Feel free to ask them at the Seder, and interrupt the Mah Nishtana like I do.

Why are we not eating?
Why is the Dvar Torah (Torah commentary) going on? Doesn’t the Haggadah have a lot of these already? Why are we listening to Mike’s thoughts? The rabbis have been discussing this for two thousand years…?
Why are we not eating?
Why is my shirt stained?
Why am I sitting at the kids’ table?
I am 30 years old and single, I get it. Why am I sitting at the kids' table?
Why is he still talking and why has he not finished the Dvar Torah?
Why are we not eating? 
Why is it that every time you try to kasher the house you start a fire?
Why do none of the kids understand the questions they just asked?
Why do I lean, when I am drinking wine, which stains?
Why does my sister-n-law spend $18,000 a year to send these kids to Jewish day school, when we have to help them sing the simple song, 'Mah Nitshtana'?
Why does this little kid not read Hebrew?
​Is Charoset really mortar? It doesn’t seem to work as a strong adhesive, or dry very hard.
Charoset stains too?
Why is there a toy in the middle of the floor?
If this Charoset is mortar, can that be the reason why most pyramids are not there anymore?
Is this another one of those schemes?
Why does Charoset stain too?
Why is my three year old nephew still awake?
Why do we not answer any of these questions?
Why are we not eating?
What does a chicken neck have to do with a sacrifice?
Why did they not sacrifice chickens when they are so easy to catch and throw on a truck, in boxes?
You burnt the neck?!
Why do we only dunk twice on this night, when we have all the Israeli salatim (dips) on every other night?
Why do we not dunk in Chumus on this night? Does Chumus rise?
What is Kitniyot again?
What is a legume?
Why did you translate that Hebrew word into an English word that is harder to understand than the Hebrew?
Are eggplants also a legume? Can you make bread out of eggplants too?
Why are we not eating?
Why was everybody screaming at all the children to shower, a good eight hours before the holiday started?
Why am I drunk already? It was only one cup of wine?
Why are we drinking on an empty stomach?
Why are these kids still up?
If we are talking about knocking out the kid’s teeth, why are all these children still running around? Do they not take our threats seriously?
Why did my brother’s wife just tell her child that she has to go into timeout? Is that the alternative to knocking out the teeth?
Why does everybody laugh when we give somebody the ‘wicked son’ to read?
How many more people have something to share about the four sons?
Why is the little one leaning on me?
Do we read about the annoying son?
Can we talk about this child sitting next to me?
Is that the same Dvar Torah?
Why are these kids still up?
Is there anything about annoying parents?
Can you please wake me up when people are finished talking about the four sons?
Why did I spend twenty minutes cutting up toilet paper before the holiday?
Why is somebody giving another Dvar Torah?
That just has to stop?!
We have been here for three hours. Are they considered the wicked son? Should we blunt out her teeth?
Did slavery last as long as these Dvrei Torah?
If we got out of slavery, why did we spend two weeks scrubbing the floors of our home, by ourselves?
When are we going to eat?
Why don't we talk about the Jews who didn't leave Egypt?
Why did my aunt tell my cousin that if she would have screamed like this in Egypt, she wouldn't have been freed?
Ouch!!! Why did nobody move this Lego car?
Why are all of these random people at our meal? 
They never invited us?
Why is my cousin still yelling?
If she wouldn’t have been freed from Egypt, why did we free her from the table?
Why do we need all of these toys to let us know what the plagues were?
Why do little Styrofoam balls not remind me of hail?
Why does the frog toy not move, when I push on the back?
Since when is food coloring considered blood?
Does blood stain like charoset?
My foot still hurts. Why does Lego hurt more than all other toys?
Is it the extra corners and little circles on the Lego?
How did I put on eight pounds already? I haven't eaten anything yet?!
What is a kazayit? Before I eat the matzah, I want to know- is it the size of an olive, egg or melon?
Why do I have to stuff the whole thing into my mouth within three seconds? Who came up with that amount of time?
How do you commemorate the death of the first born?
Why is my stomach hurting. I have only eaten half a piece of matzah?
Why did this child, we will call them the annoying child, take soup before me?
The house is not very clean. Did you try to cleaning this place with a feather?
If it is not fit for a dog to eat, it is not considered chametz. Does that mean that we can eat my roommate’s food?
Why is the light in our fridge never on?
Why are we the only family in the community that did not go to a hotel this Passover?
Why is nobody answering any of my questions?
Why do I have to move the food to the other side of the table? Is it in our genes to eat anything within arm’s reach? Can't these people control their eating habits?
Why did Gd not command us that brisket is the only kosher meat there is, when mom never cooks anything else?
Is brisket the only kosher cut of meat?
If Elijah doesn’t drink that cup, can I have it?
Why does my foot still hurt?
I like bread made out of potato starch. If it is enjoyable, can I still eat that on Pesach?
Why do all the Jews go to the zoo on Chol Hamoed (intermediary days of the holiday)?
Are there other permitted activities for religious children, asides from the zoo?
Why do non-Jews not smuggle food into zoos, movie theaters and hockey games?
Why do non-Jewish people wear baseball hats when they travel, when they are already not Jewish?
I like the tune of the song ‘Who Knows One,’ but why the pop quiz?
I would have studied if I knew that I needed to know Thirteen. Is there a cheat sheet?
Does anybody know thirteen?
Why did nobody tell me that Matzah stains too?
Why am I sitting at the kids table?
Why are my nephews still yelling?
Why is the three year old still awake?
Why did the kids just get screamed at for asking questions at the Seder?
18k? Really. Why does this kid not know the 'Mah Nishtana'?