Pre-Pesach Pyromania

After a final stuffing meal of pasta and bread at our favorite dairy eatery, Macaroni, we came home to continue our preparations for Pesach. On the way, at several locations in our neighborhood, we saw large groups of people, crockery and appliances in hand, clustered together. Closer inspection revealed that they were waiting for teens with blowtorches and giant pots of boiling water to either toast or boil their wares to prepare them for Pesach. It seems odd - and simultaneously cool - that religious Jews are so concerned with kashrut that they are willing to heat their cookware to red-hot temperatures while at the same time are so trusting that they allow teenagers in dirty t-shirts set up on street corners to administer the cleaning process. The man standing next to Jon remarked, "I used to think I had OCD. Then I realized it was just my Judaism."