Jews began to celebrate Passover: 18 interesting facts about the holiday

From March 27 to April 4, all Jews in the world celebrate Passover. What kind of holiday it is, where did the name come from, how traditions were born and how it differs from Easter, the newspaper said. UJew.

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Holiday Name

Translated from Hebrew, this word literally means “jumped over”, “jumped over”. It means that the Almighty passed - "jumped over" - the houses of the Jews when he punished Egypt during the tenth execution. The sign that the house must be bypassed was the blood on the doorframe from a lamb ordered to be sacrificed. The word "Pesach" in the Torah is what this sacrifice is called - and it is in honor of this sacrifice that the holiday itself is named.

Other names

The holiday has other names, each of which reflects its own special facet of understanding its essence: "Passover", "Hag ha-Kherut" (holiday of freedom), "Hag ha-Aviv" (holiday of spring), "Hag ha-Matsot" ( holiday of unleavened bread).

You can't eat chametz

For the entire period of the holiday (in Israel - 7, and in the Diaspora - 8 days), it is forbidden to consume chametz - these are derived products from one of five cereals: wheat, rye, barley, oats or spelled, the flour of which has been in contact with water for more than 18 minutes ... Examples of chametz: bread, buns, pasta, vodka, beer, cookies.

You can not not only eat, but also keep in the house

The ban on chametz is so total that it is forbidden not only to eat it, but also to keep it in your possession. Therefore, a week or two before the holiday, they begin a thorough cleaning of the house, on the eve of Passover they perform a special ceremony of searching for a chametz and canceling it, as well as refusal of any chametz that was not found.

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Chametz can be sold

There is the option of selling chametz to a non-Jew (there is no ban on chametz on Pesach for him) for the period of the holiday, if it is impossible or a pity to destroy your entire chametz (what if you have a pasta factory or a collection of whiskey); after the holiday, the deal is canceled and the chametz is yours again. This is not a fiction, but a real deal, for details - to the rabbi.

National sale of chamets

Every year on the eve of Passover, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel draws up a deal to sell the entire chametz of the State of Israel to a non-Jew. For more than twenty years, this is Hussein Jabar, a 54-year-old Arab from Abu Gosh (a village near Jerusalem that has been famous for its Jewish loyalty since the Revolutionary War). The deal is worth about $ 140 billion.

New dishes

Since it is believed that the dishes, which were used for a whole year, absorbed the chametz, then before Passover they kosher it or buy a new one. During the holiday, only kosher dishes are bought and prepared. Of the pastries, only matzo is allowed - unleavened bread baked until the moment the dough can be fermented.

What else cannot be eaten

Ashkenazim have a tradition of refraining from eating kitniyot. This collective term means rice, buckwheat, legumes - peas, beans, soy; corn, seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, as well as hemp, flax, mustard and peanuts.

Passover and Purim

Purim is celebrated a month before Passover. The Purim miracle happened chronologically during the Passover holiday. It was on the first days of Pesach that Esther and the entire Jewish people were fasting, and on the second day of Pesach, Esther gave her famous feast, after which Haman was hanged.

Seder

The night of the Passover holiday has its own special name - "Leil Ha-Seder", when they arrange "Seder" (from Hebrew - "order") - a ritual family meal, which takes place in a certain order, a kind of scenario, accompanied by special actions and a story about the Exodus from Egypt. On the table there should be "keara" - a special Easter dish with the attributes of Seder and matzah - a symbol of slavery and at the same time freedom. In Eretz Yisrael, one Seder is made, in the Diaspora - two, on the first and second days of the holiday.

The Seder's Purpose

Sedera is designed to evoke not so much a memory as the experience of the Exodus from slavery to freedom. The Seder commandments are to talk about the Exodus, drink four glasses of wine or grape juice, eat matzo (unleavened bread) and bitter greens.

Easter Haggadah

The Passover Haggadah is the description of the order in which the Seder should pass. It contains a collection of prayers, blessings, Bible interpretations and liturgical works related to the theme of the Exodus from Egypt and the ritual of the Passover holiday. The word "Hagada" (more correctly in this case - hagada) can be translated as "story", "narration".

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Directly the Seder order of 15 steps-stages was formed approximately in the XNUMXth century. in southern France and then spread throughout the world. This is one of the options for the order of a ritual meal, but it was he who became generally accepted.

Four glasses of wine

Four glasses of wine, which are prescribed to drink in the Seder, symbolize "arba leshonot Geula" - four promises of freedom given by the Almighty to the Jewish people: "And I will lead you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians ..."; "And I will deliver you ..."; "And I will save you ..."; "And I will accept you ..."

Poured but not drunk

There is also a fifth phrase: "And I will bring you into this land ...". The sages did not come to a consensus on whether to drink the fifth glass, so the Jews pour it, but do not drink it. This fifth "dubious" glass is called "Kos Eliyahu".

Leaning slightly to the left and back, reclining, leaning on the left hand

As a sign that all Jews today are free people, each of the four glasses is drunk, eating matzo leaning slightly to the left and back, reclining, leaning on the left hand - this pose copies the pose of free people of ancient times, when the ritual was created.

Piece of matzo

At the end of the Seder, you need to eat Afikoman - a piece of matzo, broken off at the very beginning of Seder Pesach. Afikoman is a substitute for the Passover sacrifice, the meat of which was the last eaten during the Passover meal during the existence of the Temple. The Talmud says that after the Afikoman it is forbidden to eat any other food so that the taste of matzo remains on the lips.

"Next year - in Jerusalem!"

"Next year - in Jerusalem!" - with such traditional words, the Seder ends, as well as the Yom Kippur prayers. In Soviet times, this phrase, spoken publicly, could have had a lot of troubles.

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Egypt and the USSR are equal

Mass emigration from the USSR in the 90s. XX century very often compared with the Exodus from Egypt. And it is not unreasonable: it is interesting that the gematria (numerical values) of the words Mitsraim (Hebrew: Egypt) and the USSR are equal.

How Easter and Passover are different

Passover and Easter are two completely different holidays with similar names. In the first case, God freed the Jewish people, and in the second, the Son of God sacrificed himself in the name of salvation from the slavery of sin of all mankind, writes News Vtomske.

Christian Easter is connected with the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt only symbolically - in the form of the corresponding biblical texts read during the Christian Easter service.

An exact date has been set for Passover - every 14th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, and Passover is celebrated on different dates every year.

Passover is celebrated for seven to eight days. Easter is longer: Orthodox Christians celebrate it for 40 days, and in Western Christianity - 50 days.

Also an important feature of Pesach is the complete absence of flour dishes on the table, during the preparation of which the fermentation process took place. In Christianity, yeast cakes are used during the Easter period.

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