HIGH ALERT At the door I acted as an El Al security agent and inspected visitors for any crumb of chometz. Little children were instructed to wash their hands and maybe feet too. (I didn’t actually make them take baths… but almost)

Many dreams of young girls are universal: good friends pretty clothes a kind chassan and a beautiful wedding. My daughter will say that I am chauvinistic and I tell her I am. Girls are girls and boys are boys and that’s just fine with me. Besides there’s nothing wrong with those dreams. (Life lesson: It’s what you do when they don’t come true that is the measure of true worth.)

But there are different dreams unique to frum women. Things most women don’t even think about. A beautiful sheitel a house within two blocks of shul free/reduced yeshivah tuition and of course a Pesach kitchen. If frum women produced Disney movies the song “Dreams Come True” would have a stanza about a Pesach kitchen.

I know this for a fact because I am a frum woman and I have dreamed for a long time about having a Pesach kitchen.

Don’t get me wrong I didn’t want anything fancy. No state-of-the-art stove or granite countertops no no — that wouldn’t feel like Pesach. It needs to be a bit grungy and primitive to fit the bill. An oven a stovetop a sink scrunched into some corner of a poorly lit basement or laundry room. Concrete blocks for walls or unpainted dry wall would round it out nicely. That my friend is the definition of my ultimate Pesach kitchen.

This dream took on some urgency when I realized three years into my marriage that I would be the one making Pesach. I never considered taking on this responsibility at such a young age. However circumstances occur in life when you need to step up to the plate. (Another life lesson: When you need to step up to the plate step up to the plate.)

At the same time I also realized that I do not work well under pressure. I needed time to get ready for Pesach and well when you have little kids and one kitchen and that kitchen is chometzdig and you can’t really “turn over” until very close to Pesach — Houston we have a problem.

Somehow I managed although just thinking about Pesach sent chills down my spine. I listened to all the shiurim about how Pesach cleaning is not spring cleaning but nothing penetrated. It just sounded like gobbledygook to me. Frankly even without spring cleaning there was still a whole lot to get done.

Maybe it was those dreams of a Pesach kitchen that kept me going. As I peeled carrots apples and potatoes and more carrots and more apples and even more potatoes I would send up my tefillos: “Hashem one day only if it’s good for me I would love love — did I say love? — a Pesach kitchen.”