Wed. Shavuoth
Friday: Kashrut / Kosher in
Judaism 101 site.
Online Haggadah:
http://www.davka.org/what/haggad
ah/index.html
Pesach/ Passover
• Historical
=
• Agricultural =
Exodus story
Spring Harvest
Pesach
Begins: evening of April 6, 2004
• 7 days: 8 days outside Israel
– first two, last two, no work
Exodus relived
• Bible: Exodus 1-15
• Haggadah: Story of exodus and ritual
instructions.
Story:
• Israelite Patriarch Jacob ends up in Egypt
with 12 sons.
• Descendants prosper.
• Egyptians get nervous
Slavery
• Israelites enslaved.
• They don’t like it much.
• Pharaoh decides to kill all the Israelite
baby boys.
Moses
• Moses adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter.
• Flees to desert after saving an Israelite
from a beating.
Sinai
Talks to God at a burning bush
“Go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my
people go”.
So Moses does.
“No”
• Says Pharaoh.
• God sends 9 plagues on Egypt.
• Pharaoh still says “No”.
God says to Moses:
• "Speak to all the congregation of Israel,
saying, 'On the tenth of this month they
are each one to take a lamb for
themselves, according to their fathers'
households, a lamb for each household.”
• and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of
this month, when the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in
the evening. Then they shall take some of the
blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the
lintel of the houses in which they eat them.
They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted;
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they
shall eat it. It is the LORD's passover.
I will go through the land of Egypt on that
night, and will strike down all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;
and against all the gods of Egypt I will
execute judgments -- I am the LORD.
• The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the
houses where you are; and when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and no plague
shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I
smite the land of Egypt. "This day shall be for
you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a
feast to the LORD; throughout your
generations you shall observe it as an
ordinance for ever.
• Seven days you shall eat unleavened
bread; on the first day you shall put away
leaven out of your houses, for if any one
eats what is leavened, from the first day
until the seventh day, that person shall be
cut off from Israel.
Exodus 12:17-18
• You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts
out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall
observe this day throughout your generations
as a permanent ordinance. In the first month,
on the fourteenth day of the month at evening,
you shall eat unleavened bread, until the
twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Moses says to the Israelites:
• For the LORD will pass through to slay the
Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on
the lintel and on the two doorposts, the
LORD will pass over the door, and will not
allow the destroyer to enter your houses to
slay you. You shall observe this rite as an
ordinance for you and for your sons for
ever.
• And when your children say to you, `What
do you mean by this service?' you shall
say, `It is the sacrifice of the LORD's
passover, for he passed over the houses
of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he
slew the Egyptians but spared our
houses.'"
Pesach: main themes
• Unleavened bread
• Rescue from Slavery
• Day before Pesach: Firstborn fast.
– Sympathy for Egypt’s dead.
Why no leaven?
• Left Egypt in a hurry, could not wait for
bread to rise.
• Cannot posses Leavened products.
Leaven = Chametz
Grain in contact with water more than 18
minutes before cooking.
– Bread, Grain alcohol,
• Some Jews ban beans, corn rice,.
Chametz
House is thoroughly cleaned.
Chametz must be used up, swept up,
removed, well ahead of time.
May be sold to a non-Jew and kept in a
sealed room in the house (bought back
later).
Search for Chametz
• Evening before Pesach.
• Folk Tradition:
10 little pieces hidden to be found.
• Next morning: Chametz is burned.
Passover Bread
Matzah
• Simple bread
cooked
immediately after
coming in contact
with water.
• Flour and water
Famous exam blooper….
• “Matzah is bread made without any
ingredients”
5 Obligations at SEDER meal
•
•
•
•
•
1) Eating Matzahs
2) Drinking 4 glasses of wine
3) Eating bitter herbs
4) Telling story of the Exodus
5) Psalms of Praise (Hallel)
Matzah
• 3 pieces
SEDER.
Some items eaten, others for display
Symbols of slavery, oppression and
freedom
Ritual foods mostly precede main
meal.
Last bit of Matzah
• Dessert.
• Folk tradition:
• Hidden: kids have to find it, or parents
have to buy it from them…
Seder Plate
1. Zeroah
Roasted shankbone
symbolizes lamb.
Alternative symbols:
Roasted Chicken wing
beet,
2. Beitzah
• Roasted Egg.
• Sacrifices ancient Israelites would take to
the temple.
• New life.
3 Karpas
• Green Vegetable:
– Usually parsely:
new life, spring
4. Maror
• Bitter Herbs: horseradish
–Pain of slavery
• Dipped in salt water: tears.
Hazeret: More bitter herbs
• Romaine lettuce.
Charoset
• Symbolizes mortar
• Sweet mixture Apples, nuts, wine
• From slavery to freedom.
Many blessings, etc. during Seder
over wine
Haggadah:
Questions and answers
• Why is this day different from all other
nights?
• We were slaves…
Grace after the meal
• Prayer
• 3rd glass of wine
Elijah’s cup.
• cup of wine for Elijah
• Future redemption.
Door opened
• Welcome to Elijah
• Show that nothing unseemly was going
on.