Passover

Well, we are experiencing our first Passover holiday here in Jerusalem. We were warned about some of what goes on, but we weren't prepared for everything.
First of all, let me remind you that Sunday is our grocery shopping day. My husband works long hours all week, and Saturday and Sunday are his only days off. On Saturday everything is closed for Shabbat (the Sabbath), so Sunday is our only day to go. Believe me, it makes for a very hectic day!
Anyway, yesterday (Sunday) we headed out to do our grocery shopping and noticed that we weren't fighting quite as much traffic as usual. That was our first clue.... everything was closed! It makes sense of course for businesses to close on the first day of Passover, but we hadn't expected it. So, no groceries for us yesterday. Thankfully, I keep enough extra in the house that we didn't starve ;)
Mondays are my husband's busiest day at work, but he had to take off for a couple of hours to go to the store. Now is when things really get crazy. We knew about this law called the "Prohibition on the Display of Hametz Law". The law states that "No merchant will display a hametz product in public for purchase or consumption. For the purposes of this law, 'a hametz product' includes bread, a bun, a pita or any other product made of flour." I read this, but in my mind I had assumed that this meant leavened products. In the Bible the Passover is also referred to as the "feast of unleavened bread"2Chr 35:17 because of Exodus 12. Anyway, silly me, I figured we just wouldn't be able to buy bread and the like. But if you read the law, it does say "product made of flour", but nothing about yeast. (I'm sure there's some reason behind all of this that I just don't know about.) Let me tell you... they really take this seriously! Last year there were businesses that sold products made of flour that faced criminal charges! And it's not just selling the stuff... they can't even display it!
I knew that the bread aisles would be empty today, so I thought ahead to bring my camera, thinking that it would be kind of interesting to see empty shelves..... this is where my husband rolls his eyes--- you're bringing the camera... again!? Seriously though he doesn't mind; he just walks away and pretends not to know me ;) I was glad that I brought my camera because there was much more to see than I had expected! I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself taking pictures in a grocery store, but I did get a few.

This is where the bakery usually is.... they covered it up with boxes of some "Kosher for Passover" item.
These freezers usually contain items like breaded chicken, so they've covered those up.

This is what most of the aisles looked like. They were all covered with tarps, only a few Kosher items left out for sale.
We'll have to go without breakfast cereal and spaghetti this week.... but we'll live ;)