Burning chometz was an interesting communal experience that took place at a synagogue across the road. I had noticed a prominent note pinned to the shul door requesting that people did not leave chometz to be burned outside the shul and that chometz should not be burned in tinned foil or plastic bags. As I approached at the appointed time I noticed two things. The first was a lot of, what I believed to be, orphaned chometz, by the shul door. The second was a very acrid smell. Black smoke appeared from behind a parked car. Its source was a cardboard box lined with tin-foil. Inside plastic bags were silently melting. I positioned myself down wind and left feeling fortunate not to have been knocked out! During Pesach I found that there were several approaches to crockery at the Seder table. Few people use 'real' crockery. There are several approaches to 'disposables'. There is the 'economy' approach. But water content will seep into the paper and one has to avoid slicing through and puncturing a host's already damp plastic table cloth. The sophisticated coordinated approach holds no problems. However, if one is of a helpful nature, the recycling approach might involve an unexpectedly frustratingly long time trying to get plastic plates grease free. I was given to understand that recycling plastic was to prevent littering the planet with unwanted waste. But plastic marks, and – unless one is very clumsy, or follows certain Greek traditions – has a shorter life than china. I was tempted to point this out, but decided not to offend my host. I decided that I would put it down to a foible. Something like requesting horseradish out of its 'Norwich season'. A huge advantage of Yom tov in the Upper West Side is the unbelievable choice of minyanim. We went to Lincoln Square shul, being careful to avoid the Reconstructionist minyan which is next door. Curiously, the Lincoln Square shul was forever in reconstruction. Every year, for four years, I heard: "Next year in the new building." They have now moved (before the messianic age). Nearer the flat was a minyan across the road, or the Carlebach minyan. Whatever time your Seder finishes, whatever time you roll out of bed, one is never too late for Carlebach! I have been to it, but have had to leave early to be in time for a late lunch! Left: The Lincoln Square Synagogue at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the corner of West 69th Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was built in 1970 and designed by Hausman & Rosenberg. The Orthodox congregation was founded in 1964. Photo by Beyond My Ken. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wi ki/File:Lincoln_Square_Synagogue. jpg
23