This day stands as a very auspicious and important holiday for all the Jews in a different part of the world. They commemorate the Israelites’ liberation against the enslavement that took place in ancient Egypt.
As the days go by and spring starts showing its beautiful color at full pace, Jews all over the world get ready to indulge in the special period for Passover programs. It will be a weeklong holiday and you can see that in Judaism it has been most widely celebrated and presents the most important observances.
Another name by which you might have heard it is Pesach which is Hebrew derived. Passover shows a wide combination between millennia of religious traditions and if you think that it is revolving around matzoh and gefilte fish then you are wrong.
The Passover Story
You can look up to the Passover story in the book of exodus in the Hebrew bible. It consists of all the stories regarding the facts on the enslavement of the Israelites and their subsequent escape seen from ancient Egypt. Ancient Israelites ha gone through tough time when they were save of Egyptian monarch pharaoh. Pharaoh used to kill the first born baby of ancient Israelites and force them to do construction work in Egypt.
Since there was a fear that the Israelites will outnumber his people, the then pharaoh of Egypt enslaved them all and passed an order where every new jew born son will be murdered instantly. One such son is Moses, whose birth has been foreshadowed as to emerge being a savior of the Israelites. That son was saved and further raised by the own daughter of Pharaoh.
When Moses reached his adulthood, the god spoke to him and urged him to ask Pharaoh to let go of his people. In return, there was a refusal from the pharaoh which made god bring ten consecutive plagues down on Egypt one after another in a short span, but the Israelites were immune to it.
During the period of the final plague, an avenging angel appeared from one door to the next in Egypt and smiting every household’s firstborn son. While God planned something else for the Israelites, Moses was instructed to slaughter a lamb, brush its blood on the sides and tops of the given doorframes so that the avenging angel came there can “pass over”.
After that, they are allowed to eat the sacrificial lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread without yeast. This is considered to be the last straw for Pharaoh who then later freed the Israelites and banished them from Egypt.
Passover in the Modern Period
With the new period, the Passover program celebrations still see that it commemorates and at times reenact a few of the biblical events. The Seder or order, which is the ritual meal stands tall as the centerpiece of Passover celebrations. The food items included also represent an element of the story.
Lettuce and horseradish are bitter herbs that represent the bitterness of slavery. Roasted shank bone commemorates the lamb that was sacrificed. The egg holds various elements, in some stories it represents the beginning of a new life whereas some see it as the mourning of Jewish people over the struggles they have faced in exile. The saltwater represents the tears of the enslaved Israelites.
The Traditional Seder
During this time, participants consume unleavened bread, or matzoh thrice, and sips on the wine four times. They read from a Haggadah that is a guide to the rite, listen to the story of Passover and respond to the four questions about the purpose of their meal. There are few differences in every Seder and the nearby community or family governs it.
The observances of the Passover programs vary in and outside of Israel. The duration of the holiday is a week in Israel and eight days for the rest of the world, as a commemoration of the period where the Israelites were pursued by the Egyptians followed by the crucial exile. These days, many Jews look to avoid eating leavened bread.
What Passover Seder Represent
The Passover celebrations represent a strong and powerful theme of hope, triumph over adversity, strength, and anti-Semitism. But this year, Seders will be taking place with a lot of restrictions given that there is an effect of this pandemic.
With the new norms of social distancing and closed synagogues, individuals will be asked to bring certain changes in the previously followed traditions. Although the environment will not be much happening, people will still remember the sacrifice and fight of that period.
Jews celebrate Passover to commemorate the freedom of ancient Israelites from the slavery of monarch pharaoh. They retell the story of Exodus from Egypt. Exodus had helped the Jews to fled Egypt. After that Jews wandered here and there to search a land where they can live freely. Finally they have found Israel
