Friday, April 6, 2012

Passover

Begins sunset of April 6 to nightfall of 13 April / 14 April (7th day).
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.

In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the slaughter of the first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over these homes, hence the name of the holiday[clarification needed]. There is some debate over where the term is actually derived from When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is a symbol of the holiday.

[Wikipedia, Passover]
There are worse ways to spend this Friday evening!

2 comments:

  1. And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever."

    Exodus 14:13

    ReplyDelete
  2. We pour a drop of wine from our cup for each of the ten plagues, as we are diminished by the suffering of the Egyptians.

    "Each drop of wine we pour is hope and prayer that people will cast out the plagues that threaten everyone everywhere they are found, beginning in our own hearts:

    The making of war,
    the teaching of hate and violence,
    despoilation of the earth,
    perversion of justice and of government,
    fomenting of vice and crime,
    oppression of nations and peoples,
    corruption of culture,
    subjugation of science, learning, and human discourse,
    the erosion of freedoms."

    The New Union Haggadah (1974)

    ReplyDelete