Passover Peeps

Rabbi Cindy and Claire Nathan collided at the junction of the Passover and Easter aisles of The Friendly Skunk IGA. Rabbi Itzak is on an extended leave from Congregation Loch Loman to treat his persimmon phobia. Rabbi Cindy teaches at the Hebrew school in Capital City, and she's filling in for Rabbi Itzak for Passover, and she is dreading this evening.

Congregation Loch Loman will eschew family seders for a communal seder for the whole community. That means a lot of basketball-besotted Christians will be there. She is sure that when little Benjamin Greenberg asks, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" someone will answer back, "Because Butler is in the Final Four."

So she was quite pleased to collide with Claire Nathan. Retired Home Ec teacher Claire is widely known to be the leading Christian theologian in Periwinkle County. Rabbi Cindy asked Claire what to do to keep the Christians quiet.

"Tell the Catholics to sing," Claire asked. "That'll shut them up."

"What about the Protestants?" asked Rabbi Cindy.

"Give them peeps and tell them that the Halakhah requires that guests keep their mouths full of peeps during the service."

So Rabbi Cindy and Claire Nathan both filled their carts with peeps, for different celebrations, Claire intending hers for use in the scrambled eggs for the Easter sunrise breakfast, and went to the checkout aisle together.

"Do you prefer to serve peeps fresh or stale?" the cashier asked.

In the parking lot, putting her peeps into the trunk of her Desoto, Rabbi Cindy muttered, "Easter celebrations are really strange."

[If you wonder why Rabbi Cindy drives a Desoto, read the post for March 18, Running a Business Like a Business. And a woman of the author's acquaintance was actually asked the "fresh or stale" peeps question by a cashier this week.]