The Holy Chaos of Pesach Preparation
I have the most beautiful memories of Pesach from my childhood. The smell of my Bubby’s kitchen. The beautifully set Seder table. The quiet maneuvering among cousins to see who would sit next to whom. Some of my most cherished childhood memories are from Pesach.
Each year we would go to my Bubby and Zaide’s house. I remember the excitement and anticipation as the holiday approached. All of my cousins, aunts, and uncles would gather together. Without exaggeration, those were my favorite nights of the year.
But there is another memory that is just as vivid: The chaos.
Anyone who has prepared for Pesach knows exactly what that means. No matter how much you prepare, no matter how organized you try to be, the days leading up to Pesach are often chaotic. Children are home from school. The kitchen is trying to function while being kashered, cleaned, and reorganized at the same time. Meals still have to be made even as the cabinets are being emptied. Everyone is tired, the to-do list keeps growing, and somehow the clock seems to be moving faster than usual.
It is holy work, but it can also be overwhelming. Is there a way to find meaning in this chaos?
Rav Avraham Tzvi Kluger of Beit Shemesh suggests that perhaps the chaos before Pesach is not accidental at all. In fact, he notes, that even in the times of the Beis HaMikdash, the days before Pesach were filled with tremendous commotion. Imagine the sheer scale of preparation required to bring Korban Pesach — hundreds of thousands of families, coordinated sacrifices, the Levi’im singing, the kohanim passing the blood.
The message is profound: the chaos of preparation is itself part of the mitzvah. The effort, the mess, the exhaustion — they are the lived experience of taking Yetziat Mitzrayim seriously. We don’t just tell the story of leaving Egypt. We live a version of the rush, the urgency, the sense that something momentous is happening.
So the next time the kitchen feels overwhelming, remember: you are not just cleaning for Pesach. You are, in a small way, reliving it.
Chag Kasher v’Sameach.