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Festivals
Passover
Celebration
and Solemn Observance
Passover, as
the Jewish festival Pesach is popularly known, begins on the 15th day of
the Jewish month of Nissan, the start of the spring season. It has both
historical and agricultural significance. Agriculturally, it represents
the commencement of harvest in Israel. However, the primary observances of
Passover are related to the Jewish Exodus from Egypt, and consequent
redemption from slavery. The various rituals and observances associated
with Pesach help us to understand this crucial narrative of collective
Jewish memory.
The term ‘Passover’ refers to the fact that God instructed the Great
Plague to ‘pass over’ the houses of the Jewish people, while afflicting
all the firstborn of Egypt, as a punishment to the Pharaoh. The festival
is also referred to as Chag he-Aviv (the Spring Festival) or
Zeman Herutenu (the Time of Our Freedom). The Passover lasts for seven
days (eight days outside of Israel). No work is permitted on the first and
last days of the holiday (first two and last two days outside Israel).
The most significant observance related to Passover involves the removal
of chametz (leavened bread/food) from Jewish homes. This
commemorates the fact that the Jews leaving Egypt were in a hurry, and did
not have time to let their bread rise. It also symbolizes the act of
‘cleansing the soul’ of arrogance and pride. The grain product eaten
during Passover is called matzoh – the unleavened bread made from
flour and water and cooked very quickly so that the dough does not rise.
The matzoh is a symbol of the hardships of exile and the speed of
redemption.
The day before the Passover is the fast of the firstborn, commemorating
the fact that the firstborn Jewish males in Egypt were not killed during
the final plague. On the first night of Passover (first two nights for
traditional Jews outside Israel), a special family meal called seder,
interspersed with rituals, is held to remind the Jewish people of the
significance of the festival.
The entire seder ceremony is allegorical. The Jews drink four cups of wine
to represent four Biblical expressions of redemption. They eat bitter
herbs to remind themselves of their harsh days of slavery. They also eat
other symbolic foods that portray their Egyptian bondage – salt water to
remember tears, and charoses, a mixture of apples, nuts and wine
that looks like mortar, as a reminder of their hardships in Egypt.
For the Jewish people, Passover is not just an event in history, dead and
buried; its significance lies in its timelessness. Jewish Exodus from
Egypt is considered the paradigm for ‘redemption’. The Russian Jews often
refer to their immigration to Israel in recent years as Exodus. Denied of
their Jewish roots by the hostile government of the former Soviet Union,
Israel for them once again represents freedom from persecution and
degradation. Similarly, as the Ethiopian Jews’ struggle to build a new
life in Israel, their yearning for the Promised Land and God’s promise of
freedom and dignity seem to have been fulfilled.
Passover also reminds us that freedom is the basis of dignified existence;
redemption is God’s promise to all people. Each year the Jewish family
gathers on this occasion to relive the Exodus from Egypt, spiritually. The
Jewish people also remind themselves that freedom is an universal
aspiration and to deny this to any people would be incur God’s wrath, as
the pharaoh did when he enslaved them.
– Sujata Ashwarya Cheema
May 1, 2005
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Festivals of India
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