PASSOVER; THEN AND NOW

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

This year, on Wednesday night, April 5, 2023, Jews all over the world will begin to celebrate the festival of Passover with a ritualized meal called Seder, a Hebrew word meaning “order” that refers to the order of the prayers that are recited and the symbolic foods that are eaten prior to a fancy meal. The purpose of the Seder is to tell the story of the liberation of the Israelites from the Egyptian slavery in biblical times.

Passover is a popular family holiday, primarily observed in the home. Its history, however, is complicated and its celebration varies around the Jewish world.

Here are some facts about Passover:

1.The festival appears to be a combination of two different holidays: Hag ha-Pesah (“Pascal Offering” Ex.34:25), reflecting a nomadic life-style, and Hag Ha-Matzot (“The Festival of Unleavened Bread” Lev. 23:5), representing a sedentary society. After these two were combined, it was historicized and celebrated as the exodus from ancient Egypt. In Biblical times, Passover was one of the three pilgrimage festivals (to Jerusalem); after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, it became a home festival.

2. Jewish lore also reflects two different traditions, one that knows of Egypt as a place where Israelites were mainly “sojourners” (gerim, in Hebrew, Ex.22:20), living the good life, and another that stresses the liberation from the Egyptian slavery (Ex.20:2).

3. It is not clear how the Israelites got out of Egypt. Some say all Israelites left as a group, others say that the exodus took place over a long period of time. Furthermore, it is impossible that a group of 70 individuals who entered Egypt with the patriarch Jacob (Gen.46:27), would end up , in about four generations, as a group numbering millions (Ex.12:37).

4. During the recitation of the story at home (Hagaddah), Moses, the great liberator, is mentioned only once.  Maybe because of the fear that Moses could be given all the glory, and even deified, whereas in Jewish tradition only God is viewed as being responsible for the redemption of the people.

5. One of the prohibitions during Passover is not to eat hametz (“leaven”) for seven days . Instead, one must consume Matzah, unleavened bread. The biblical rationale is that the Israelites left Egypt in haste and prepared unleavened cakes instead (Ex. 12: 19). In reality, this type of unleavened bread was consumed by the farmers who are in the field during the spring harvest.

In addition to this prohibition, there is the custom among many eastern European Jews not to eat rice or eat different types of legumes (kitniyot), or grains that can ferment ,such as wheat, oats, rye, barley or spelt. On the other hand, Sefardic Jews, like me,  have no problem eating these food items during Passover. Now, there are a number of rabbinic responsa that allow Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jews to eat all types of legumes.

6. In Israel, Passover is celebrated, as the Bible commands, for seven days (Ex. 23:14); outside of Israel, following the rabbinic teaching, it is kept for eight days. In Reform Judaism, however, the practice is to follow Israeli custom and keep Passover for seven days

7. Finally, it must be stressed that the “last supper” of Jesus (Mark, 14:25), though taking place during Passover, was not a Passover Seder, because the Seder, as it is celebrated today, is a Rabbinic creation that did not exist during the life of Jesus.

Have a great Passover

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