If preparing your home for Pesach seems daunting, imagine tackling areas ten, twenty, or even fifty times larger — and taking responsibility for thousands of Jews having a chag kasher v’samei’ach. Learn how the pros get it done — and pick up some tips from them as well.
If your house is anything like mine planning and coordinating “Operation Pesach” can make you feel you’re running a factory. With a harried mother as foreman her industrious team of children and the puzzled cleaning lady work to dispose of chometz faster than the baby brings it right back in.
The woman in charge needs critical skills: time management problem solving organization budgeting to name a few. And there’s no room for extending the deadline; by Erev Pesach every item on that never-ending shopping list must be bought every crumb of chometz removed the house sparkling clean not to mention the extensive menu prep for the Seder and other Yom Tov meals.
Yet the scope of our home preparations pales in comparison to those necessary in industrial or health-care settings before the holiday. Here’s a peek into the steps taken by several companies and a hospital to get ready for Pesach. After learning of the complicated process and the excruciating details that must be considered you may find yourself grateful for the size of your house.
Orchestrated Oganization at Osem
For Osem producers of the ever popular Bissli and Bamba — not to mention a vast array of kosher-for-Pesach products — preparing for Pesach requires a large scale of coordination. “The basics of Pesach cleaning at home and in a factory are identical; they were given to Moshe at Har Sinai and elaborated in Shulchan Aruch” begins Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap the rav of Osem when describing the kashering campaign of the gigantic complex for Pesach. “The difference is that in a factory everything is bigger. At home you may use a big pot or vat for hagalas keilim; in a factory we use huge ‘bathtubs’ fitted with mammoth heating elements that boil water to 100 degrees Celsius.” The cleaning crew even uses cranes to lift certain parts of the production lines to kasher them.
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