Mobilizing the Pesach Army

Talk about the cleaning madness that gets engendered in the month before Pesach and you will generally find that it is women who get mentioned in connection with that cleaning. On occasion we will hear someone suggest that children can also be involved in this undertaking. It is rare that we hear about involving husbands.

Yes, other family members can and should be involved. Everyone, regardless of age or size, has something they can contribute to the cleaning process. Think of a family as a "cleaning army" and you'll see the possibilities. An army is organized in levels, with the privates on the bottom and going up in the ranks to the five-star General. Critical jobs and organizational matters are the purview of the General; privates get the grunt work and follow the orders that come from above. If you are the General why aren't you taking advantage of the forces under your command? Everyone benefits from a clean house so it's everyone's job to get the house in that condition. Ladies, you need to stop thinking of yourself as the only one who can do the job.

Right about now someone is about to comment that a lot of the cleaning done for Pesach is totally unnecessary and is something that women bring on themselves. I'm not going to argue. But here's the thing: you can tell me from now until doomsday that the cleaning tasks can be eliminated except for the few, very few, necessary to have a kosher home for Pesach. You can point out--I've done it myself--that cleaning every nook and cranny of the house has nothing to do with halacha. You can repeat ad infinitum that women do all of this to themselves. You can talk until you are blue in the face, but you cannot escape one essential fact of reality: No man has ever praised his wife for doing only the minimum of what is required to make a home kosher for Pesach. No family member has ever come home erev yom tov and declared "Wow, I like the messy look you've created for Pesach this year!"

Do we sometimes go too far in our preparations for Pesach? I refer you to that saying about bears in the woods. Here's the thing: I'm going to do that cleaning anyway, regardless of what others tell me or even what I sometimes tell myself. How hard I have it is going to depend on how willing I am to ask for help (or even demand it if that becomes necessary). Never underestimate how much help could be available from the people living in your home. You're the General: organize your troops!