Prasa NOT Pasta

Short post as not only is Pesach approaching quickly, but so is the end of tax season.

So with Pesach just around the corner, I decided it was time to start seriously prepping our preschool aged son for what to expect. So far it is proving to be a humorous adventure.

Like many children, my son is fascinated by sedarim (orders/routines), but more so. He remembers every details of a routine. For example, when recounting the previous visit to a certain high rise building that we regularly visit, he names every step of the process down to the seemingly insignificant detail of how Daddy must lift him to reach the elevator button because it is "soooooo high up!" Seems like we have a "1st son" on our hands.

While he declares every holiday or event as his favorite, I'm predicting that Pesach will become the highlight of his year, just like it is the highlight of Daddy's year. He loves order and routines, and Pesach offers just that. It also offers a lineup of other things he absolutely loves: grape juice, a warm breakfast on yom tov, the opportunity to be with family, and songs, songs, and more songs. This kid loves singing and chazanut.

The only problem with the new routine is that he wants a different, more familiar, routine. This week my husband made him a "mock seder" while I got ready to go out. So after making the first kiddush of the seder, Sephardiboy stands up and tells Daddy that he forgot to sing Shalom Aleichem and Aishet Chayil. Fortunately, the idea of making kiddush twice (yes, you read that correctly) was quite thrilling to him and seemed to make up for the disappointment he had experienced earlier.

And if the routine is confusing, even more confusing is the concept of Chometz. When I first starting teaching the concept, I had asked him what foods he thought were chometz. What did he list first after bread? Drumroll please. . . . . . . . rice. I quickly made a mental note that I will have to introduce the subject of kitniyot before a future Rebbe introduces it in school since our approach is more nuanced. But, it is too early to introduce the concept now.

At this point my son has catagorized an entire list of food as either chometz or not chometz, and rice is no longer in the chometz list. He knows he will not be having his favorite food (pasta) for Pesach "because Pasta is Chometz."

So yesterday, he overheard me and Savta discussing the Pesach menu. I asked how much Prasa (A meat patty made with prasa, ladino for leeks) we will be making and in runs our little tzadik screaming "But, pasta is chometz. We do NOT eat chometz on Pesach." I respond, "PraSA, not PasTa."

So far I am 0 and 2 in teaching about Pesach.