Pesach – Nissan 15-22, the Hebrew Calendar dates (27 March – 04 April)

Featuring contributions from: Raf Salkie, Rebecca Graber, Josh Newman, Fiona MacNeill

Pesach is almost certainly the most celebrated festival in the Jewish calendar – and celebrated almost entirely at home.

Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪsəx /, English Passover) is a Jewish holiday which celebrates the escape of the Hebrew slaves from ancient Egypt.  The highlight is the evening Seder (SAY-duh, meaning ‘order’), which is a combination of a religious service and a celebratory meal.  The service retells the story of the Exodus from Egypt over several obligatory glasses of wine.  The Seder is a family event, centred round children.

During the Seder various symbolic items are assembled on a plate.  The pictures included below show a traditional Seder Plate with explanations, and a similar plate with some extra new traditions.

Descriptive text in this image: The traditional seder plate includes: a roasted egg representing a new life after Egypt. Parsley, a spring vegetable and sign of new life. Charoset (a mix of apples cinnamon, nuts and wine), the mortar used making bricks as slaves. Salt water, the tears of the slaves. Lamb bone, the sacrifice on the last night. Matzah (unleavened bread), as there was no time in the escape to let it rise.

As a point of clarity in relation to the illustration above. The lamb, as the source of the lamb bone, would traditionally have been slaughtered before Passover begins. In the story, the blood of the lamb was daubed on the doorways of the Hebrews’ homes to let the Angel of Death know to ‘pass over’ these homes while enacting the 10th plague, the death of first born sons. The 10 plagues are key to the Judeo-Christian story of Moses or Moshe. For a brief refresh read this article (Gill, 2021; SEE also Shemōt the second book of the Torah, known as the Book of Exodus in the Christian Old Testament).

Descriptive text in this image: What’s on your Seder plate? Bitter herb, often romaine lettuce. Bitter herb, often horseradish. Shank bone. Hard-boiled egg, often roasted. For vegans flower or seed replaces the egg. For vegetarians and vegans, roasted beetroot, replaces the shank bone. Charoset (mixture of chopped nuts and apples, wine and cinnamon). Parsley or boiled potato for dipping in salt water. New traditions: some celebrants have introduced additions to their Seder plates: orange in support of LGBT inclusion; olive in support of peace between Israelis and Palestinians; artichoke in support of interfaith families; tomato in support of farmworker’s rights.

Practices and observances

The story of Pesach is the foundation story of Judaism and is absolutely central to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Torah): the divinely driven escape from slavery that takes the Hebrews into the desert and to the revelation on Mount Sinai where Torah is handed to Moses*. This is officially marked 50 days later on Shavuot (on 17/18th May in 2021).

The story told at the Seder is in the first person: Jews say we were slaves in Egypt – and explain the story to the children. It is common, as illustrated by the ‘new traditions’ of the illustrated Seder plate above, to discuss oppression in current society and to think about how to fight against slavery – real and metaphorical – in the world today.

For the eseven or eight days of Passover, observant Jews eat matzah (a crisp, unleavened bread), and do not eat bread or anything made with a number of grains other than matzah.  Fortunately, meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, nuts, crisps and chocolate are allowed.  There is a tradition of making biscuits and cakes out of ground almonds, potato flour or desiccated coconut.

Pesach is one of the three festivals that even many non-observant Jews celebrate (the other two are Rosh Hashanah [New year] and Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], which fall close to each other in the Autumn).  Pesach is celebrated in Spring: this year Seder is on Saturday 27 March and Passover ends on 4 April.

First-born males traditionally fast on the day before the Seder meal.  Since fasting on Saturday, the Sabbath, is not permitted, this year the Fast of the First Born is held on Thursday 25 March.

Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Israeli Jewish customs

Key points about differences in observances:

• Passover is a seven day festival, although in the diaspora (outside Israel) most Jews observe an extra day – and celebrate a second Seder on the second night.
• Observances of which foods are permitted on Passover differ slightly with Ashkenazi (European) Jews refraining from eating nuts, beans and rice, and Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews being permitted these foods.
• It is considered a mitzvah (good deed) to welcome strangers to a Passover seder.

How to respectfully recognise Passover/Pesach as someone who is not Jewish

If you have friends or colleagues who you know are practicing Jews you can wish them a Happy Passover. It is respectful to do this in a one-to-one or via a private written message (during the current lockdown). This year you may wish to do this earlier as the Fast of the First Born, as noted above, starts on 25th March, otherwise the 27th March is fine. If you wish to say ‘Good Holiday’ in Hebrew you can say the phrase: Chag Sameach (pronounced: Chag Sa-May-ach, the ch is like the end of the word loch, this phrase in Hebrew: חג שמח). You can also post a message on social media in a general way, but it is important not to tag people as practice and beliefs can be private and this should always be considered. Also, if you are selecting an image for your social media post, keep it simple with a text-based greeting and visual reference to the Seder. There are some nice examples at this site (although there are also some to avoid on this site too!). If you are invited to a Passover Seder, this is an honour and it is important to listen and learn from the stories shared as part of the meal and to thank your hosts for their trust and hospitality.

Comparative Theology

The foundation story festival of Passover occurs at the same time as the foundation story festival of Easter in Christianity. In the ‘Synoptic Gospels‘ (2021) the Last Supper is traditionally thought to be a Seder. This may explain why in the Western churches the bread shared at the eucharist is unleavened. In John’s gospel Jesus dies at the same time that the Pascal Lamb (from the word Pesach) is slaughtered.

Further reading

In Nazi Concentration Camps, some Jews tried hard to observe Pesach despite the terrible conditions.  Two moving stories are told here:

The Story of a Prayer: A Seder in Bergen-Belsen

A Seder in Dachau: How a “Rebbe” Created Hope in the Most Dire of Circumstances

Passover resources and event

Helpful resources for Pesach from Chabad.org

The British Shalom-Salaam Trust is hosting an event on Tuesday, 30th March at 7.00pm which is open to all. This event will be held on Zoom and for more details please visit the BSST’s Facebook page.

OneTable provides advice for celebrating Passover solo if you are in a situation where you need to self-isolate or cannot be with family and friends.

References

Gill, N.S. (2021, January 26). The 10 Egyptian Plagues. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/plagues-of-egypt-ancient-jewish-history-118238 (Accessed: 14 March 2021).

‘Synoptic gospels’ (2021) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synoptic_Gospels (Accessed: 14 March 2021).

*Interestingly, Moses is not mentioned in the Seder — it says repeatedly says that God led Jews out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and that God gave the Ten Commandments on Sinai, but Moses is never mentioned by name.  Why Moses is absent, in some versions of the Seder he gets one passing mention, has been a topic of much discussion. For one discussion see this web page.