March 29, 2010, - 6:16 pm
Passover – Celebration of Our Freedom – 2010
To my friends and readers:
Tonight is the start of Passover (“Pesach,” in Hebrew), the Jewish celebration of our freedom from slavery in Egypt, so many years ago.
Passover Seder Plate
If you are Jewish, a Happy and Kosher Passover to you. If you are not, please note that because, at sundown tonight, Passover begins, I’ll be out of blog commission until Wednesday Night. No worries, though, because I’ve prepared some stuff I think is good, timely, and interesting, which will be up during the next couple of days in my absence.
On Passover, for eight days, we don’t eat leavened bread, and instead, eat a flat, cracker-like bread (of which the dough doesn’t have time to rise), called “matzoh.” (It’s not a low-carb holiday.) For the first two nights, we hold a special ceremonial dinner, called the “Seder” (which means “order”) during which we tell the story of the Jews’ enslavement and how G-d performed miracles and freed them from Egypt, taking them to the land of Israel (yes, Jews have been in Israel since then, not just after the Holocaust as the Muslims would have you believe). We eat certain foods, such as bitter herbs and vegetables dipped in salt water, to remember the bitterness and tears of slavery.
This cute music video that explains the basics:
Passover Matzoh
I’ve written about Passover many times in years past (see also here), and you can read even more details here, here, and here.
But for now, please note that the holiday has special meaning, especially at this time. The Jews beat their Middle Eastern oppressors then and every enemy since. We’ve always survived. And I hope and pray we will survive our Mid-Eastern enemies now–including those now in our midst on U.S. shores (and throughout Europe). The Jews’ Egyptian slavers then are no longer around (the current Egyptians are not of the same people). But these contemporary replacements give them a run for their money.
One other note: a lot of companies, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, make special Kosher for Passover versions of some of their products. I especially like the kosher for Passover Coke because, since corn syrup is not kosher, it’s made with a purer form of sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. Can’t stand the ketchup, though. It’s never quite as good as the non-Passover kind, in my opinion.
See you back on Wednesday Night. And until then, please stay tuned to the stuff I’ve written for you in my absence.
Thanks for your continued readership. Although I always joke that “these Jewish holidays are killing me,” this holiday is truly the time of my freedom because I will be away from my computer and reading and relaxing. (Right now, I’m reading the true story of a woman who finds out her parents were in the Mafia, and I’ll be reviewing it, I’m sure, at some point.) Thanks for sticking and staying while I’m away.
Here’s a hilarious “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Passover video from the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch movement, brought to my attention by my brilliant friend and great blogster, Vicious Babushka. I posted it, last year, but it’s funny, so twice is nice. But please ignore the dates and days of Passover in the video, since they’re from 2009.
Tags: 2010, bitter herbs, Egypt, freedom, Jewish, Jewish Holidays, leavened bread, matzoh, Passover, Pesach, seder, seder plate, slavery, unleavened bread
Happy Pesach!
I certainly think that there are many similarities between the situation of the Jewish people today, and that of Biblical times.
As you suggested, It is almost as if all of us were enslaved on an international basis by an anti-Semitic elite (Obama and most of his Republican counterparts, European leaders, Muslims, etc., etc.; and Israel is a small oasis under siege). There is an international anti-semitic movement that has control of virtually all major countries, the UN, the press, and so on, so there is certainly a deep meaning to Pesach today.
Little Al on March 29, 2010 at 6:31 pm