Pesach is the biggest of the three pilgrim festivals, along with Sukkot and Shavuot and these all commemorate the period in history that the Jews pilgrimed from Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel.
a) Pesach is the biggest of the three pilgrim festivals, along with Sukkot and Shavuot and these all commemorate the period in history that the Jews pilgrimed from Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel.
The first day of Passover is the same day as the commemoration of the destruction of the temple and this is insisted by the Talmud.
The symbolism of the name Passover reminds Jews of the tenth plague, the killing of the first born to the Egyptian families, when the Jews were instructed to put sheep's blood on their homes to identify their homes to God so he could Passover and know to not kill the first born in that house-hold. The history of the celebration of Passover is that it first started at the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and was used to commemorate their release from slavery.
Passover is not only learning and looking back on history but the confirmation of the fact that Jews believe in the future of Judaism and the coming of the Messiah. Passover concentrates not only on the history of Judaism but on the present and future as these times are all equally important in the Jewish faith.
After Joseph, a wise and influential Jewish character, and his brother's died, the children of Israel grew strong in the land of Egypt. The Israelites held important, prosperous positions within Egypt and many Egyptian people grew tired of these, so called, "foreigners" outshining them and having so much say in their country's political, cultural and economic side of life.
In his time Joseph had been very good to the Pharaoh and had done amazing things for Egypt. The old Pharaoh died, the good deeds done by the Israelites were forgotten, and the new Pharaoh, Rameses the second decided to take action against the growing influence and numbers of the children of Israel.
The new Pharaoh's council was called about the situation with the Israelites and they gave him strong advice to enslave the children of Israel so he could gain total control over this foreign race who were becoming too powerful in a land where they were not wanted. Pharaoh limited the freedom of the Hebrews and laid heavy taxes upon them. He then recruited their men into forced labour, slavery, under the supervision of harsh taskmasters.
The children of Israel were now forced to build cities, erect monuments, construct roads, work in the quarries, and hew stones or make bricks and tiles. However, the more the Egyptians oppressed them, and the harder the restrictions imposed upon them became, the more the children of Israel multiplied.
Finally, when King Pharaoh saw that forcing the Hebrews to do hard work did not succeed in suppressing their rapidly growing numbers, he ordered that all newly born male children of the Hebrews to be killed, the midwives disobeyed and so they were made to throw the child into the Nile river. Only daughters were allowed to live.
The Pharaoh grew paranoid, after being told by his personal astrologers, that a new leader of Egypt was to be born from an Israelite. This was taken as a strong danger to the Egyptian nation.
The tribe of Levi, whom Moses was born of, were the only group of Israelites who were spared the slavery and oppression imposed on the rest of the children of Israel.
Levi's Grandson Amram had three children named Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The eldest, Miriam, was later to become a great Prophetess of the Jewish people. The second child, Aaron was the highest priest of God and is famous in Jewish bible stories for his extraordinary love of peace. The most important, and youngest, child in the story of Passover was Moses.
Moses was one of the sons of the Israelites who Pharaoh had commanded was thrown into the river. The daughter of the Pharaoh saw this basket among the reeds and sent her maids to fetch it. Since this child was fit and healthy, she took pity on it. Moses' sister had watched her mother place the basket in the water and brought her mother to see the Pharaoh's daughter, the daughter said to Moses' mother "take this child away and nurse it for me and I shall give you your wages".
Moses grew and his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. Moses grew up with all the wealth of any Egyptian royalty but frowned upon the mistreatment of his people in Israel.
The children of Israel were becoming desperate and could no longer endure the suffering and pain that had been laid upon them for countless years of slavery and their cries for help and their prayers pierced the heavens. God heard these prayers and remembered his covenant that had been formed with Abraham, Isaac and Joseph many years before that he would watch over their descendants because they were good Jews and did as God wanted. He honored his promise by delivering their descendants from the suffering.
It was within this period in history that Moses was chosen by God to be his prophet and help end the suffering of the children of Israel. Moses was a shepherd and worked for his father-in-law, Jethro. One day Moses had lead his flock far into the desert and had lost a lamb and went looking for it. As he returned with the found lamb, he saw an unusual sight. He saw a thornbush burst into flame and, although the bush continued to bush, it did not turn to ashes. Moses stepped closer to the thornbush, and as he did so, he heard the voice of God.
God began to tell Moses that he had heard the cried of suffering and distress from the children of Israel; and that he would deliver them from the hands of the Egyptian oppressors to the promised land. He, Moses was to go to the Pharaoh and lead the Jewish people out of Egypt.
Moses had doubts whether he was strong enough in the mind to carry out such a great mission and said "Who am I, that I should go to pharaoh, and that I shall lead forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
God ...
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God began to tell Moses that he had heard the cried of suffering and distress from the children of Israel; and that he would deliver them from the hands of the Egyptian oppressors to the promised land. He, Moses was to go to the Pharaoh and lead the Jewish people out of Egypt.
Moses had doubts whether he was strong enough in the mind to carry out such a great mission and said "Who am I, that I should go to pharaoh, and that I shall lead forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
God then replied "Certainly I will be with you."
Moses was not sure that the children of Israel would recognise and accept his authority and continued to beg that God would relieve him of this task. God then told Moses to identify this God as the god of their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Moses was granted permission by his father-in-law, Jethro, to return to his bretheren in Egypt. Moses told his brother Aaron of the great Divine mission they were to carry out. Moses and Aaron then decided they would go together and visit the Pharaoh face to face.
Fearlessly they went past the heavy guard of men and wild animals that surrounded the inner chambers. Nobody had ever been able to see the King of Egypt in person, and speak to him, except for his astrologers and counsellers. Shocked by their sudden appearance, Pharaoh asked what they wanted and they replied; "Thus has the Lord God of Israel said, 'Let my people go, that they may feast to me in the desert.' "
Pharaoh promptly refused saying that he had never heard of this God of the Israelites and that his name wasn't in his list of Gods of all the nations. He then accused Moses and Aaron of a conspiracy against the Egyptian government, and of interference with the work of the Hebrew slaves.
Moses and Aaron had an idea that they could have God's help in performing 'magic' tricks to prove God's presence. These miracles did not greatly impress him, however, as his magicians could do almost as well.
After the Pharaoh completely refused to let the children of Israel go Moses and Aaron warned him that God would punish both him and his people.
God decided a suitable punishment for the Pharaoh and his people would be, what turned into, 'the 10 plagues'. These were; all the water in Egypt turned to blood, swarms of frogs, swarms of gnats, swarms of flies, disease in livestock, bodily boils, torrential hail, locusts, darkness and the death of each firstborn child of the Egyptian families. These plagues were only inflicted upon non-Israelite people. Throughout these ten plagues the Pharaoh would keep saying to Moses and Aaron that if they stopped the plague he would fee the Israelites- and every time he did so he would go back on his word.
Five days before the final plague, God told Moses to have every Jewish family acquire a sheep, which they would later slaughter. The sheep was the idol of the Egyptians, and God wanted the Jewish people to publicly sacrifice them. It required a lot of courage for the Jews to bring the sacrifice and defy their Egyptian neighbours. They were told to put the blood of the sheep on the door-posts of their houses and that at midnight the angel of death would pass over the houses and kill the first-born of every household which did not have the blood of a sheep on the doorposts. This is the part on Jewish history in which Passover acquired its name.
This was the last straw for Pharaoh and he finally agreed to freedom for the Jews. The Israelites left their homes so quickly that there wasn't even time to bake their breads so they had to pack the raw dough to take with them on their journey. As they fled through the desert, they would quickly bake the dough in the hot sun into hard crackers called Matzoh.
During Passover Jewish families carefully rid their houses of all leaven, food containing yeast, to honour and remember this period in time and to celebrate their freedom and independence from the Egyptians.
The Jews were now free but they had a long hard walk back to the Promised Land, over countless miles of desert. Pharaoh had begun to regret his decision to let the Israelites go and he ordered his army to chase them through the desert towards the Red Sea. Pharaoh knew that when they reached the Red Sea they would be trapped.
The pharaoh was right, the Israelites were trapped. As they realised this, they panicked and thought they would die because they could see the Egyptians coming for them.
God saw this happening to the Israelites and helped them in the way of a miracle. He commanded Moses to ask His people to calm down and told him "You most lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry land through the middle of the sea. And you shall see that I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow you. Then I shall show my power over the Pharaoh and over all his armies, his chariots and his horsemen."
Just as good as God's word, the waves of the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were able to cross to the other side. The Pharaoh's army had tried to follow but as soon as the Israelites had all made it across the sea, the waves closed upon the armies. The Jews were now free to make the Journey back to the Promised Land and the Exodus was complete.
Seder is the highlight of the Passover, the word Seder means order or organisation and the Passover Seder is a festive meal conducted in an organised way so that all the Mitzvot of Pesach are forfilled. The Torah commands that during the Seder meal and all of Passover, Exodus is highly spoken of.
Passover in a Jewish household, the youngest child at the table asks four questions to do with the food eaten at the table during this festival. All the questions are to do with the fact that things are different during Passover compared to a normal Jewish person's year.
The first question is, "Why do we eat such unusual foods as Matzoh, the unleavened bread?" The answer given to the child to that question is that Matzoh reminds Jews that when the Jews left the slavery of Egypt they had no time to bake their bread. They took the raw dough on their journey and baked it in the hot desert sun into hard crackers called Matzoh.
On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread
The second question is "On all other nights we eat many kinds of vegetables and herbs. Why do we eat bitter herbs, maror, at our Seder?" Maror is eaten because it reminds Jews of the bitter and cruel way the Pharaoh treated the Jewish people when they were slaves in Egypt.
The third question is, "Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip even once, but on this night we dip twice?" On all other nights, Jews don't usually dip one food into another. At the Seder meal, Jews dip the parsley in salt water and the bitter herbs in Charoset. This is because it reminds Jews how hard the Jewish slaves worked in Egypt.
The fourth question is "Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?" The people at the table have a relaxed evening to celebrate their freedom and to celebrate the fact that they can, and they have the opportunity to be able to be comfortable.
In the Seder plate there's also haroset made with grated apples, cinnamon, honey, chopped nuts and wine or grape juice which are there to symbolise mortar which was used by the Israelites to make the bricks used in building the Pharaoh's buildings when they were enslaved.
Jews use eat a roasted egg during the Seder meal, this is traditionally a symbol of mourning, and this reminds Jews of the destruction of the Temple.
The last thing to be eaten during the Seder meal is the roasted shankbone and it represents a Pascal Lamb that was brought to the temple in Jerusalem on the eve of Passover. A lamb was the last thing eaten during the seder meal at Passover during the Exodus.
Often Passover meals are very large and have 3 or 4 generations and friends at the meal and this could be explained by the fact that in the Talmud it says that the bigger group that eat the Pascal Lamb together, the better.
Wine is also very symbolic during meals in the festival of Passover. Jews are told not to rejoice in their enemies suffering so after each of the ten plagues are mentioned a drop of wine is spilt so they can show that their joy is suppressed when they remember the pain of the Egyptians.
An extra cup of wine is poured and at some point during the Seder meal the door is opened, this is to welcome Elijah in because he, according to the bible, is going to herald the arrival of the Messiah. The household would sing an inviting hymn at the door and then peer into the wine cup to see if any wine was sipped. This is a good example of Jewish people looking to the future of their religion positively.
Wine is also used as all four Mitzvot during the Seder meal are performed. The four Mitzvot are; Kiddush, Maggid (the telling of the Exodus story), Birkat Hamazon (Grace After Meals), and the Conclusion of Hallel.
Jews are expected to drink four cups of wine (or grape juice for children or people who prefer not to drink so much). The reason behind this is not clear but it may be that these symbolise the four redemption speeches made by God in which he promised to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt or that wine symbolises the four stages of Exodus. These four stages are freedom, deliverance, redemption and release.
b) The most obvious way that Passover would affect a Jew as an individual or as a family is that enormous amounts of time and effort are required to adequately prepare for this festival, it's the biggest festival in the Jewish calendar. Passover is incredibly disruptive within a Jewish adult's life, in that they would have to spend most of their free time that they have available after work preparing food, shopping, organising or observantly purify the house of any leavened food.
Leavened food is food that contains any yeast that makes baking products rise, this is completely banned during the week of Passover because, during Exodus when the Jews were eventually freed from enslavement by the Pharaoh of Egypt, they had to escape quickly so did not have time to let their dough rise and had to take this unleavened dough rise under the heat of the sun to make hard crackers, or Matzoh.
It is seen in Jewish community that the more effort spent on preparing for Passover, the better and often Chassidic communities adopt the 'Sky's the limit' theory. This means that the more money you have, the better your Passover festival could be. Some Jewish households may start preparing for Passover a few months before it, but equally, some may not celebrate it at all, it very much depends on the religiousness of the individual.
Another effect on a Jew's life may be that a family as a whole may save up money just to make the festival special for their children and this requires time, patience and effort. Passover is still Passover whatever the amount of effort put in but it is a Jew's duty to help their children be proud of and enjoy being Jewish so they will carry it on to their children and the faith will multiply and stay strong.
Not only are there many individual things to remember to prepare for Passover but many of the dishes are time-consuming and difficult. The food has to be very strictly chosen and need to be not only Kosher but 'Kosher for Passover' because not only in leaven prohibited, barley, wheat, rye, oats are not considered chometz either. This certain care in the food being perfectly right to consume during this festival can lead to enormous expense. Most of this expense comes from the fact that Jewish families have to stock their pantries from scratch and that there's a minimum of ten festival meals during the week of Passover- and a lot of these meals have company as, like a Christian Christmas is, Passover is very social.
The kitchen is where most of the cleaning work during Passover lies, for the entire kitchen must become fit for Passover, Pesachdik. The utensils that have been used all year for non-Chometz foods must be put away or kashered, made Chometz by a sterilising method involving covering the items with boiling water. Where the utensils cannot be kashered new ones should be bought. Even ovens and electric stoves must be scoured and cleaned thoroughly.
Many families take cleaning their house of chometz very seriously and will vacuum every corner, empty every draw, handbag and briefcase and will put in every effort they can to be sure the house is spotless of chometz.
Although Passover requires a lot of effort for the whole family, it's important that everything about the festival is regarded as significant, Each step should be taken as a meaningful and truly spiritual experience.
Younger children would be intrigued by this exciting festival which involves giving up but also receiving new stories and special foods. The youngest child in the family would feel especially excited about the Passover as they would have been practising the four questions which are asked as a ritual at meal time during the festival, this gives the child something to be proud of and remember as an adult.
Older people, especially grandparents would very much enjoy Passover spent with their family because it would be their turn to be able to celebrate without the effort of all the cooking! They would feel spiritually very happy because, I can imagine, comparing with my Christian Christmas, that you feel closer to God during religious festivals. It also gives a person of any age, apart from a small child, to reflect the year gone by and look back on the past Passovers.
A parent, especially a woman, who's job it was to cook, clean and prepare would feel under great pressure but would, after the hectic part of the week, very much enjoy the togetherness of Passover and would probably also feel closer to God during the festival.
Jews are celebrating the most spiritual thing about Passover together and as a unit and this is freedom. Every weekend, during the Sabbath, Jews stop and rest to appreciate their freedom and Passover is a week devoted to the same thing. Jews are taught through many of the festivals that occur annually not to take freedom for granted. Although there are no Jews enslaved today, and little persecution goes on in the world, especially Europe, against Jews, freedom still means something to them.
All over the world, the dates for Passover are the same for every Jew; this gives every Jew a sense of spirituality because you know you are celebrating the same thing as millions of other people. I can imagine that if I were a Jew and I had no other reason to commemorate Passover but the history I shared with people in nearly every town in the world and the freedom we were celebrating, it would be enough to give me, or anyone, a great feeling of unity and pride to have faith in such a strong religion. Although there was the Diaspora thousands of years ago, the religion still has a sense of comfort and loyalty to every other Jew within Judaism.
c) c) "Festivals are the best way to learn about your faith"
I strongly agree with this comment. Especially for a young child, learning Jewish history and customs in a fun and enjoyable way will make them enjoy and be proud of being a Jew. Most customs that occur during a festival have symbolism behind them and a child will be slowly introduced and encouraged to learn the history behind what they are doing. It's important that a child starts learning about their religion young so they can enjoy themselves while not realising they're learning. Many festivals have customs that are aimed at children and I have tried to fin as many as I can.
During the festival of Passover, at the main Seder of Passover, the youngest child in the family asks the 'four questions'. The four questions are, "Why do we eat such unusual foods as Matzoh, the unleavened bread?", "On all other nights we eat many kinds of vegetables and herbs. Why do we eat bitter herbs, maror, at our Seder?", "Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip even once, but on this night we dip twice?" and "Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?" The answers to these questions all refer to the origins of the Jewish faith and helps a child understand why they eat and act out the things they do during the festival.
Also during Passover, at the very just before the very beginning of the week of the festival, it is a tradition that the parents will hide 10 pieces of chometz (food that's non-kosher for Passover) around the house and the children have to find it as quickly as they can and get as many as they can and win a prize if they found the most. Not only can this make sure there's no chometz lying around the house, but the children learn in a fun way about Jewish history (the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt when they did not have time to bake their bread so had unleavened bread, or Matzohs).
During the festival of Chanukah, a child may help their mother cook the food that is eaten at meal times. Food eaten during this festival is traditionally fried in oil and a child would learn the symbolism of this. During Jewish history Judas lit a lamp with a day's oil in it and it lasted eight days, which was a miracle, and this is the symbolism of the oil.
Purim is a very enjoyable festival for young children because it includes a fancy dress party for children but involves learning a lot about their religion as the characters that children dress up as are King Ahashverosh, Vashti, Queen Esther, Mordechai, and the evil Haman, these characters are all included in the story of Purim. Costumes and masks are worn to disguise the wearers' identity. Mistaken identity plays an important role in Purim, possibility originating from Esther's concealment of her Jewish heritage or in Haman's mistaken belief that the King's reward was meant for him in the story of Purim.
Sukkot is another festival in which children may learn a lot about their faith through having fun and being creative. Sukkot means booths, and refers to the temporary dwellings that the Israelites built to sleep in as they walked through the desert after their exodus from Egypt. Children are often encouraged to make crude Sukkah's as a fun and creative way to learn more about their ancestors.
Even though you may not be able to teach a child the whole Jewish history you can help them enjoy learning so that in later life they will want to share the faith with their children, remembering the good times that they had. Judaism very much encourages multiplication within the faith to make it as big and as strong a faith as possible.
Adults will learn all through life, after each festival, a little more complex information and will slowly build up an all-round knowledge of Jewish history and this I a very good reason to start teaching a child at a young age.
Although I say that I strongly agree with the quote, "Festivals are the best
way to learn about your faith"; I'm not trying to say that festivals make you learn
everything about your faith, learning about festivals give someone a good grasp
of their faith or someone else's.