Wed. ShavuothFriday: Kashrut / Kosher in

Judaism 101 site. Online Haggadah:

http://www.davka.org/what/haggadah/index.html

Pesach/ Passover

• Historical = Exodus story

• Agricultural = 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 wingbeet,

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 Sederover 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.