Dayan Shalom Friedman, of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, has issued a statement claiming that, by celebrating the festival in a hotel, people are losing out on the virtue of cleaning their homes.

The holiness of Pesach “rises with the many preparations that you perform before the festival,” he says in a letter circulated to the Charedi community.

“Even the perspiration that you perspire through all the labour… is very important in Heaven.”

Dayan Friedman, the son-in-law of the former head of the Union, the late Rabbi Chanoch Padwa, said that a local hotel might be an option for people not well enough to make Pesach.

But “chas vashalom [Heaven forbid]”, he wrote, that people “should be tempted by the adverts to celebrate the holy festival in a far-away country on a beach with all the conveniences and royal service”.

This is London. They're Eastern European and charge a fortune.

Personally I wouldn't go to a hotel. I think a home Seder is more spiritual. But a man (who doesn't have the burden of preparation) telling women that they should get down and scrub because it's spiritual? Please.

I never got why people wanted to do that for pesach.

Look, I agree with him that it is probably a less spiritual experience if you are at a fancy hotel with a nice pool. I never got why people wanted to do that for pesach. But he should mind his own business.

Personally I wouldn't go to a hotel. I think a home Seder is more spiritual. But a man (who doesn't have the burden of preparation) telling women that they should get down and scrub because it's spiritual? Please.

I don't know what all this men-don't-have-the-burden-of-preperation talk is. From where I come the men are left with all the heavy jobs like moving furniture, kashering the oven and any other appliances, the shlepping of chometz dishes out and the pesach dishes in, and even washing the floors -the floors dont need more than a regular washing there is no need to get down on your hands and knees to scrubs -someone who insists on doing that should not be complaining. The women are left with wiping out the closets and re-folding the clothes.

This is BS. Someone has to scrub, 'cause if you don't, filth becomes ingrown. It so happens that often women get this part, because most men have to break their backs bringing a paycheck home, but that's a flimsy excuse to drop 5 grand per head or so on a Cancun passover ...

I don't understand why staying at home makes for a more "spiritual" experience than going on vacation. It sounds like this guy can't afford to go on vacation with his 10+ kids and is not taking it very well.

Thank you! And you forgot foiling the kitchen - cabinets, counters, sink, stove and fridge and all... not to mention a whole bunch of other stuff. Pesach is a lot of work - but it's a mitzvah! It's sad when people don't do mitzvah's because they are just "too hard." That's the same reason people don't make Aliyah...

I think it was Rav Avigdar Miller zt"l who said "[Non-sick or elderly] people that go to hotels for Pesach are utterly disinterested in Olam Haba." (Tape #33 "The World To Come") Someone asked him "But many gedolim go to Hotels for Pesach?" He replied "They're not gedolim!"

Three questions about Pesach hotels:
1) What happens at beaches at these Cancun hotels? What's the point of going to Cancun if you can't go to the beach?

2) Who cleans the hotels from chometz? Do hotel rooms need to be scrubbed as well as your own house, or is it not so strict since it isn't your own room and you don't own it?

3) What if you are visiting your friends over Pesach, and they have no room for your family to stay at, can you stay at a nearby regular non-Pesach hotel?

3- The "Pesach" part of the hotel is the food,

1- You're not supposed to ask that...
But it wouldn't surprise me if they have some sort of arrangement like the do with the pools and health club facilities...

2- The hotel staff. And Yes the standard is the same, but how much chometz is likely to be in a hotel room? Vacuuming should be more than enough to get rid of anything. But if you really want, you can clean the keyholes with alcohol and blowtorch the curtains when you get there...

3- The "Pesach" part of the hotel is the food, and the special arrangements for frummies, the rooms are exactly the same...

Is that what people who aren't filthy rich do?

But he should mind his own business.

http://thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&am...7&ATypeId=1



I wonder if Dayan Friedman is the one scrubbing the floors...