PASSOVER

History of Passover video. (click to view video)

What is Passover? (click to view video)

Passover is a Jewish holiday which began this year at sundown on Wednesday April 8 and ends at nightfall on Thursday April 16 in the Diaspora (Wednesday April 15 in Israel).

All Jewish holidays begin at sundown because the Bible says it was evening and morning, the first day. Passover is special because it is central to the whole Jewish religion and marks the birth of the Jewish people as a nation led by Moses over 3000 years ago. It commemorates the departure of the nation of Israel from Egypt. The highlight of Pesach is the observance of the Seder, a unique ceremony performed on the first two evenings of Passover. At the Seder, different special foods are eaten and the story of the departure from Egypt is told. There is singing and special prayers.

According to the biblical account, the Hebrews were enslaved for four centuries in Egypt. God liberates them through a series of extraordinary plagues on the Egyptian people, their livestock and their land to break the will of Pharaoh. On the final night before the exodus, the Jews were told to slaughter a lamb, eat it, and put the blood of the lamb on the door posts so that the angel of God would know which houses are Hebrew houses. The angel passed over these houses, but killed the first born of the Egyptian homes. At dawn, the Hebrew nation made their exodus. The purpose of Passover is to remember this moment in the formation of the Jewish people.

The seder is a meal that commemorates the first night of Passover. The ritual meal includes food that carries special meaning. For example, herbs mark the bitterness of slavery. Matzah, the unleavened bread of the poor, represents the dryness of life under slavery. It represents the idea that the Jews had to prepare the meal in haste because they were leaving at dawn and there was no time to bake bread. There is a bone from the lamb to represent the lamb that was sacrificed on the eve of the exodus.

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