Passover, also called “Pesakh”, is a time of balance. Historically, it recalls the freeing of the Israelites (biblical name for the Jews) from slavery after centuries of poverty and oppression under the reign of a cruel Pharaoh. Today, we reflect on the slavery that persists in modernity, ranging from psychological imprisonment, to political and financial inequities, to worldwide genocide.

focus on food rituals

Passover is a holiday with tremendous focus on preparation -- of the foods and for the rituals associated with them. Each piece of preparation reminds us that we were once slaves in Egypt, under the control of a ruler who did not recognize our need to worship our own G-d.

At the very same time, Judaism asks us to celebrate with family and friends, remembering our heritage through the retelling of our history at the Seder.

Seder

As we clean our homes for Passover, we purify our souls, too.

As we pay great attention to the foods we eat during the holiday, we examine our relationships as well.

As we enjoy the passage to freedom, we recall our painful history.

Most importantly, as we wish each other ”L’Shahnah Hah-Ba’ah B’Yerushahlayeem” (Next Year, in Jerusalem!) we hope for a time when we can rid the world of slavery, persecution and oppression.

Approximately 1300 years before the Common Era, the Israelites traveled to Egypt, where food was plentiful during time of famine elsewhere. As families rooted themselves, generations of Israelites adopted the cultural ways of the Egyptians while maintaining their ties to their own God.

Time passed, and Pharaohs who once knew the Israelites’ religious and cultural ways passed on. As new kings who were fearful of the Israelite religion came into power, the Israelites gradually found themselves at the mercy of these harsh rulers; they eventually became enslaved to a Pharaoh “who did not know the Israelites,” the Bible tell us.

Seeking to destroy the Israelite population, the Pharaoh ordered the Jews into slavery. When this approach did not bring the end to this strong people quickly enough, he decreed that all males born to Israelite families were to be thrown into the Nile. In a desperate effort to save her child, one Israelite woman named Yocheved sent her child down the Nile in a reed-woven basket, timing his departure with the Pharaohs’ daughter’s daily bathing at a shore further downstream. In fact, Pharaoh’s daughter saw the unknown child and retrieved him from the perils of the Nile. Moses, meaning “drawn from the water,” was then raised in the Pharaoh’s palace, along side the heir to the Egyptian throne. His lineage was unknown to the Egyptian family that had become his own.

After years of life as an Egyptian, Moses had witnessed countless tortures of Israelites slaves. One day, he faced am enigma that left him questioning his faith in the Egyptian royalty as well as his own heritage. In an unprecedented reaction, Moses killed a taskmaster who had beaten an Israelite. Realizing the severity and implication of his actions, Moses fled to the wilderness. There, he heard a voice in a Burning Bush, an ignited but not consumed shrub, through which God commanded Moses to overcome his fear of the Egyptian family and save the Jews from destruction.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts at convincing Pharaoh (who happened to be Moses’ step brother) to “let [his] people go,” Moses fulfilled God’s words and freed the Israelites, leaving them little time to prepare for their departure from Egypt. In their haste, they grabbed the one food which they had time to prepare: the plainly-flavored matzah (flatbread) whose taste they had come to know in their years in slavery.

As such, the most-observed custom of Passover is that of eating matzah instead of bread (or other leavened products) for the duration of the eight-day holiday.

For more information about the trials, tribulations and victories that the Israelites experienced, please visit: http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/historyofpassover.html

How Did We Go From Building Pyramids for Pharaoh to Building Faith in G-d?

The Israelites were a people whose ancestors had believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, as servitude to Pharaoh clouded their minds Israelites began to forget about their heritage, as a survival tool more than one of convenience.

When Moses was approached by God and asked to redeem the people from Egypt, he admitted to his Creator that this task was a daunting one: the people neither trusted in this God nor in the leader Moses, whose Israelites heritage was as much in question as was his loyalty to his Egyptian family. Knowing that convincing the Israelites to trust in God would be a hefty job, God assigned Moses to use his persuasive powers to both woo the faith of the people of Israel and break Pharaoh’s tight grasp on them.

In a lengthy dual, Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians faced off in attempts to out-miracle each other. As Moses quickly pulled into the lead by performing more than ten miracles at God’s hands, the Israelites came to learn that their fate was also in God’s mercy. The Ten Plagues had won over the Chosen People by a show of force that freed them -- and future generations -- from the stronghold of Pharaoh sending them into God’s outstretched arms.