Chicken Soup with Asparagus and Shiitakes, Served with Roasted Fennel Matzoh Balls

Set in spring, when the earth is renewing and reassembling herself, Passover is celebrated as a sort of second New Year, reflecting the rebirth of the Jews as a free people after the Exodus from Egypt. Children start the season with new clothes, and houses are thoroughly cleaned and freshened up to make way for the new foods and special sets of dishes reserved just for Passover use.

And just as they delay until Rosh Hashanah their first tastes of the sweet new autumn fruits, so many