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How were they able to afford to prepare for Pesach? Not everything is kasher-able. Im sure most couldnt afford second sets of pots and pans and dishes.
What did the poor people do before Pesach? Our idea of poor is totally different than the definition of poor in der Alter Heim.
A lot of the chumras we have now didn’t exist. I expect back in the day many people cooked over a fireplace and had 1 pot (probably made of clay).
I think they had a lower standard of living than that which we have become used to. Look around at the vast amounts of “products” available for pesach. I doubt in previous generations they had kosher l’pesach frozen pizza, or cereal. They made do with what they had. I had heard from someone that people had certain pots that they kept chometz free all year and that they would save the chicken fat etc all year round to prepare for pesach.
They Kashered the pots, the silverware, the glasses, etc. They probably had separate dishes. Whatever one could not kasher for pesach they had different for Pesach, whatever could be kashered was kashered. They probably also didn’t have a five piece place serving for each person. They probably had a soup bowl and a plate. Or just a soup bowl.
In der Alter Heim some people couldnt afford a pair of shoes or a coat…..
…..or internet access. How did they access the coffee room?
@Bowwow: It’s not that in the old country there was a lower standard of living but the technology to manufacture all the goodies we have today didn’t exist in many of the towns and hamlets.
Growing up in the 60s-70s we had very few options for Passover snacks. We had those jelly candies shaped like fruit, nuts or Kott Orange soda (It’s Kott to be good). Remember, no diet either.
I asked my father who lived in Poland before the War what his mother did for Passover. He said she kashered whatever she could such as the glasses and had a few seperate dishes/pots/pans for Passover.
probably 1 fleishig and 1 milchig pot we r just extremely spoiled
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We do many chumras which are good, in that they make it extremely unlikely to actually violate something, but even without them, if one is careful and knowledgeable he also won’t violate anything.
they didnt have to prepare for so many people because half the town got wiped out by the most recent epidemic
Matzos didn’t cost $20+ per pound. The town butcher probably charged the same to prepare a chicken that he did the rest of the year.
In short, they didn’t have the price gouging that we have now.
Bar Shattya, in many cases they didn’t know who would show up!!! They didn’t have the luxury of phones in every home or even cars. Sometimes people traveled for days and just showed up by family.
It was cheaper to prepare for Pesach in the shtetle than for chometz. The only extra expense for special Pesach food was for matza, and their seder k’zaisim were alot smaller than ours. Everything else, including the wine was homemade. Pass the borsht.
And shtetle Jews did not have large sedarim or guests, they could barely feed themselves. They had no hotel or travel expenses. Chol Hamoed was not the time to hitch the horses and take the kids for fun things $$. And sinse people did not mish, you did not have to feed your Yom Tov visiters with all kinds of Shicks, OhNuts,Bartons,etc.
Walton, they most definetely had a lower standard of living in the old country.
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