Hi Peter,
Great carton ! Chang Pesach Sameach to you and yours!
We are having family over too. Only 12 of us this year.
All the cooking and cleaning make me tired but it is all well worth the results!
I found this short article explaining the passover I hope those that are not Jewish will enjoy it and get a better understanding of the passover and why it is so important to us.
Shalom,
Geketa
Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is one of the three major
pilgrimage festivals of ancient Israel. Originally a combination of a
couple of different spring festivals, it is a commemoration of the
Exodus from Egypt--especially the night when God "passed over" the
houses of the Israelites during the tenth plague--and of the following
day, when the Israelites had to leave Egypt hurriedly. Centered on the
family or communal celebration of the seder (ritual meal), Passover is
one of the most beloved of all Jewish holidays.
History:
The origins of Passover lie in pre-Israelite spring celebrations of the
first grain harvest and the births of the first lambs of the season.
Within a Jewish context, however, it celebrates God's great redemptive
act at the time of the Exodus, leading the Israelites out from slavery
in Egypt to freedom. Together with Shavout (the Festival of Weeks) and Sukkot
(The Festival of Booths), Pesach is one of the ancient Israelite
pilgrimage festivals, during which adult males journeyed to the Temple
in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and bask in the divine presence. Since
the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the focus of Pesach
celebration shifted to the ritual meal, called the seder, that takes
place either in the home or in the community.
At Home:
In anticipation of Pesach, it is traditional to engage in a thorough
spring cleaning. During the holiday, Jews' food reflects the major
theme of Passover, reliving God's great redemptive act, albeit in a
vicarious manner. Because the Israelites had no time to let their bread
rise, Jewish law forbids eating (or even possessing) any food that can
contain leaven.Therefore, a major part of the preparations for Pesach
consists of removing all traces of leavened foods from the home and
replacing them with unleavened foods (though many Jews prefer to "sell"
their unused leaven products to a non-Jew for the duration of the
holiday). This necessitates both a massive cleanup and the replacement
of one's ordinary dishes with special Pesach ones. It also requires a
shopping expedition to stock the kitchen with special Passover-kosher
foods.
Seder: The central ritual of Pesach is the
seder, a carefully choreographed ritual meal that takes place either in
the home or in the community. A number of symbolic foods are laid out
on the table, of which the most important are the matzah, the
unleavened "bread of affliction," and the shankbone, which commemorates
the Pesach sacrifice in the Temple. The seder follows a script laid out
in the Haggadah, a book that tells the story of the redemption from
Egypt and thanks God for it. Although the Haggadah is a traditional
text, many people--particularly in the modern world--add to it and
revise it in accord with their theology and understanding of God's
redemptive actions in the world.
In the Community:
Although the focus of Passover observance is on the home, it should not
be forgotten that Pesach is a holiday, on the first and last days of
which traditional Judaism prohibits working. There are special
synagogue services, including special biblical readings, among which
one finds Shir ha-Shirim, "The Song of Songs" and Hallel,
Psalms of praise and thanksgiving for God's saving act in history. The
last day of Passover is one of the four times a year that the Yizkor service of remembrance is recited.
Theology and Themes:
The overarching theme of Passover is redemption. After all, this is the
holiday that celebrates God's intervention in history to lead the
Israelites from slavery to freedom. It is a time to celebrate God as
the great liberator of humanity. The divine redemption of the
Israelites thus becomes the blueprint for the Jewish understanding of
God and divine morality and ethics, which can be seen in Jewish
participation at the forefront of movements for social justice