Marking's Passover Celebration

HAPPY PASSOVER

The Cultural Background

Passover is a feast that is common to two of the world's great religions. It has been a time of celebration for the Jews into their distant past and Jesus celebrated the holiday just prior to his crucifixion which lead to its being co-opted by the later Christian faith as a celebration of the "Last Supper".

The Sabbath and festivals of the Jewish year are celebrated both at home and in the synagogue according to both Jewish Law and Custom. These festivals are commemorative in nature (the Sabbath commemorates Creation, while Passover commemorates the Exodus from slavery in Egypt).

An important aspect of these observances is sanctification. Secular or temporal meals become sacred, while joy and relaxation become sacred obligations (mitzwot).

Pesah also spelled Pesach (Hebrew for Passover) is one of the three major Pilgrim Festivals. The term Pesach refers originally to the paschal (Passover) lamb sacrificed so the Jews would be saved from God's plague of death of the first born son in each family. The festival is also sometime called Hag ha-Matzot ("Festival of Unleavened Bread"), for unleavened bread (Matza) is the only kind of bread consumed during Passover. The Passover celebration is held on (Nisan 14) of the Jewish Calendar (this year, 1999 the first night of Passover is April 1st).

The festival is celebrated for seven days in Israel and by Reform Jews and for eight days in the Diaspora.

The History

The story of Passover actually begins with the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt to be with his son Joseph who had become Viceroy of all Egypt.

However, Joseph and his brothers died, generations passed, the Jewish people multiplied and the former good relations with the Egyptians soured. The Pharaoh decided to take action against the influence and growing numbers of Jews in Egypt. He passed law limiting the freedom of the Jewish people, taxed them heavily, and ordered the men into forced labour. However, the Jews still multiplied. Finally, in an attempt to limit the growth of the Jews the Pharaoh decreed that all Jewish newly born male children be drowned.

One Jewish mother, in an attempt to save the life of her newly born son, makes a small boat of bulrushes and seals it with pitch and puts it in the Nile River. It is found by the Pharaoh's daughter who rescues him. She called him Moshe (better known as Moses), decided to raise him herself, and hired the baby's mother to be his nurse. His mother, of course, taught him about his rich Jewish heritage.

When the children of Israel could no longer endure their terrible suffering, Moshe (Moses) went to the Pharaoh with the message from God, "Let my people go that they may serve me.". We all know the story of how the Pharaoh refused. The ten plagues followed, ending with the death of the first born of every house that did not have the blood of a freshly killed lamb spread over the door so that the Angel of Death would "pass over".

After this last plague the Pharaoh released the Jews and allowed them to leave Egypt. Thus the children of Israel were liberated from the on the 15th day of Nissan, in the year 2448 after the creation of the world.

Leading the Jewish people on their journey during the day was a pillar of cloud, and at night there was a pillar of fire, giving them light. These Divine messengers not only guided the children of Israel on their way, but also cleared the way before them, making it both easy and safe. After three days, Pharaoh regretted that he had permitted them to leave, mobilized his army and personally took off in hot pursuit of his former slaves.

He reached them near the banks of the Red Sea. Then God spoke to Moses: "Lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it; and the children shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground." The sea parted, the Israelites went safely across and when the Egyptian army attempted to follow, the water poured back on top of them and they were drowned.

This is the story of Passover -- or Pesach -- which recounts the birth of the Jewish people as a nation.

The Seder Meal

Passover eve is ushered in at the synagogue the evening before the start of Passover after which each family participates in the Seder (an elaborate ritual meal). The Haggada (literally "narration") a collection of passages culled from the Scripture, Talmud and Midrash is accompanied by medieval hymns.

During the Seder four glasses of wine are drunk to sybolize the four stages of the exodus: freedom, deliverance, redemption, and release.

A fifth cup of wine is poured and place on the Seder table. This is the cup of Elijah. During the Seder the door to the home is opened to invite the prophet Elijah in.

	The Seder Plate
	A Seder plate is central to the ritual. On this plate there are several symbolic foods.
		We find the Beytzah or Beitzah (a boiled or roasted egg, which symbolises the Hagegah or festival offering and is a symbol of life itself, a triumph of life over death, a symbol of new life and of rebirth.
		*There is also the Zeroah* (a shankbone or roasted or boiled meat) which represents the sacrifice of the paschal lamb.**
		There is the Maror (horseradish or romaine lettuce) or bitter herbs which is eaten during the meal with Matzah (unleavened bread) which is representative of the bitterness of slavery or in this contemporary setting of the bitterness of all who are enslaved.
		Next on the plate is the Haroseth or Charoset (a mixture of wine, nuts and apples and cinnamon) which is reddish in colour and sweet in taste and represents the building materials used by the Israelites when slaves.
		*The Karpas* (a vegetable such as parsley or celery) represents the renewed growth of spring. The green colour is representative of hope and renewal.**

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E-mail me at sher@markings.bc.ca

The Cultural Background

The History

The Seder Meal

The Seder Plate