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GETTING READY FOR THE HOLIDAY
GETTING READY FOR THE HOLIDAY
The holiday has many commandments and laws written in the Torah. "14Let this be a day of remembrance for you, and celebrate it to the Lord, generation after generation. It is an everlasting ordinance that you should celebrate."
The point of celebrating annually is to remember what happened to us in Egypt, to relive the experience of being set free from slavery. Through the generations, Pesach has given the world the hope of the eternal possibility of redemption.
The very act of preparation helps us settle into the holiday atmosphere. Although the celebration of Passover takes place in homes and synagogues, what happens in the home is the focus for families.One crucial task is to get the children's attention because, "8And you shall say to your sons on that day, 'Because of what the LORD did for us when we came out of Egypt.’”
SHABBAT HAGADOL
The Shabbat before Pesach is called Shabbat HaGadol, or the great Shabbat. There are several explanations. According to one, it was the day on which Moses said:
"3Say to all the congregation of Israel, 'On the tenth day of this month, each man shall buy for himself a lamb for each family, and a lamb for each house.'"
In effect, they took an animal that was an idol to the Egyptians and proved the ineffectiveness of the Egyptian gods. The fact that the Egyptians let this happen was considered a miracle by the rabbis, so they named the Sabbath before the Exodus Sabbath the Great Sabbath.
CHARITY
Charity is also at the core of the holiday, especially as the celebration of Passover costs more money than other holidays because of its particular laws. Kashrut, buying special food, buying dishes...
The poor should also be allowed to celebrate Pesach like everyone else, which is why the practice of Máot Hitim, or flour money, was introduced. Special Pesach funds were also established in many communities.
"15For seven days you shall eat unleavened cakes, but on the preceding day you shall clear away all leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leaven from the first day until the seventh day that soul shall be cut off from Israel. 16And on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation; no work may be performed on them, but what is eaten by any soul that alone may be performed for you. 17And you shall watch over the unleavened cakes, for on this very day I have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt, and you shall observe this day throughout your generations, [as] an everlasting statute. 18In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat unleavened cakes, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 19For seven days, leavening shall not be found in your houses, for whoever eats leavening that soul shall be cut off from the community of Israel, both among the strangers and the native-born of the land. 20You shall not eat any leavening; throughout all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened cakes."
KASHRUTH
The prohibition of chametz, or leavened food, applies to five types of fermented cereals: wheat, barley, oats, rye, and spelt. All foods containing leaven are also prohibited.
Rabbinic practice permitted the consumption of most vegetables except those legumes that ferment. Ashkenazi convention nowadays forbids rice, peas and legumes.Most Jews who observe the commandments do not eat processed foods on Pesach that is not rabbinically permitted.
In these households, they use pots set aside specifically for this purpose, which are taken out only and exclusively on Pesach, and any pots used during the year are subject to the rules of kashruth. The preparation and cleaning for Pesach differ according to the material of which the pot is made.
BDIKÁT CHAMETZ
Search for the last crumbs. On the evening before the holiday, on the 14th of Nisan, after the home has been completely cleaned of leaven, we place pieces of breadcrumbs in a few places in a corner. These are then searched for by the head of the family or even by the whole family with feathers and candles.
The feather is used to sweep the crumbs found into a wooden spoon and put them into some material. At the end of the search, the searcher says: Any leaven still in my possession that I have not seen and so have not removed, I declare non-existent and shall be equal to the dust of the ground.
BIUR CHAMETZ
We are burning the last crumbs. On the morning of the 14th of Nisan, until 10 o'clock after 10 o'clock, we will burn the crumbs we have found.
SALE OF THE CHAMETZ
The rabbis have seen that for those who have a large amount of leaven in their possession, it can be financially very burdensome to remove the leaven. The contract for the sale of chametz was created to deal with this situation.
This is a legally binding contract whereby we sell the leaven we own to a non-Jew. Although no physical transfer takes place, the gentile has the right to take ownership of the leaven.
FASTING OF THE FIRSTBORN
In commemoration of the Eternal skipping over the house of the children of Israel and sparing their firstborn by killing the firstborn in Egypt, the 14th of Nissan is Ta'anit Bechorim, or the Fast of the Firstborn, the fast of the firstborn sons of the family.
pesach Dishes
pesach Dishes
The Pesach Seder was created by the rabbis to commemorate the liberation from slavery, the transition to freedom and God's role in it. The rabbis who created the seder were great educators and psychologists. They knew very well that for Jews not only to remember this historical event, but to make it their own and truly feel it as their own, it was not enough to tell the story, but they had to live it in a certain way. Thus says the Pesach Haggadah: "A person in every generation must regard himself as if he himself had personally come out of Egypt." And how did they achieve this? Expanding the Seder into a whole, multi-sensory event, filling it with images, sounds, tastes and smells.
Food plays a vital role in every Jewish celebration. Of course, the greatest manifestation of this is Pesach, with its distinct prohibitions and commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. The most crucial rule in this regard is that all types of grain (wheat, barley, rye, spelt and oats), or any derivatives or flour thereof, are not fully cooked within 18 minutes of first contact with water, are forbidden. This reminds us that when the Jews left Egypt, they had no time to bake leavened bread.
The various groups of Jews also do not eat many other kinds of produce. The best known of these is the custom of Ashkenazi Jews, whereby several other foods are forbidden, including rice, corn, peas, peanuts, etc. Because of the limited ingredients, Jewish cuisine worldwide has developed unique Pesach dishes.
The most famous and universal of all is, of course the matzah (unleavened bread - מצה), made from flour and water, under specific rules and strict supervision, and baked within 18 minutes of the start of the dough's preparation.
Grains may, therefore, only be used on Pesach if they are used to make bread that is fully baked in 18 minutes and if there is no yeast or other bulking agent in the dough. Therefore, such bread cannot rise and is representative of the bread eaten by the Jews who left Egypt; therefore, it is not considered leavened and is permitted on Pesach.
It should be mentioned that there are different types of matzahs. The Ashkenazi matzah is hard, crisp and firm, unlike the thick, soft matzah made in some Eastern communities. This again shows the diversity of cuisines based on the same traditions.
In addition to the matzah, the Seder table also contains several other symbolically significant dishes that have become an integral part of the Pesach Seder (the first two evenings of the holiday outside Israel). For example, maror (bitter grass, horseradish - מרור), which symbolises the bitterness of life in Egypt, charoset (hrajszesz, "mortar" - חרוסת), which represents the Jews being forced to build in Egypt, and saltwater, which refers to the tears shed by Jewish enslaved people.
In addition to the foods required by the ritual, each community has its customs, which consider the Pesach prohibitions and restrictions of that community.
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