Preparing For Passover

Most Jews all over the world are preparing for Pesach, or Passover, which begins at sundown on April 22 and ends the evening of April 30. It is the Hebrew Year 5784 and commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt to Israel and their transition from slavery to freedom.

The holiday got its name because the Israelites marked their doors with lamb’s blood so the angel of death, sent in the 10th plague, would pass over them and protect their firstborn children from being killed.

The first night of Passover is celebrated with a Seder, a meal with foods that are symbolic of the exodus from Egypt. The foods include shank bone (zeroa), egg (beitzah), bitter herbs (maror), vegetable (karpas) a sweet paste called haroset and, of course, matzah or unleavened bread.

The matzah symbolizes the fleeing of Jews from Egypt who, in their haste, could not let their bread rise and so they brought unleavened bread. Also, throughout the night everyone drinks four glasses of wine representing the four terms of deliverance that God issues to the Jews in the Book of Exodus.

Prayers and the story of the holiday are read aloud from the Haggadah and the youngest person is expected to ask the four questions that starts the discussion, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

Part of the tradition also includes ridding the house of anything that mixes with water and rises, such as wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt.

The holiday ends with a celebration of when the Jews made it to the Red Sea and Moses parted it, allowing them to cross into Israel. When the Egyptians tried to follow, the sea closed, destroying them.