April 12, 2006, - 3:50 pm
In Observance of Passover: To My Friends & Readers
By
To my Jewish friends and readers, Happy Passover. To my Christian friends and readers, Happy Easter.
In observance of the first two days of Passover, I will be out of blog commission. I will try to have some new items for my webmaster to post in the interim, but otherwise, I’ll be back on Monday.
The holiday of Passover begins at sundown tonight and lasts eight days (on the first two and last two of which it’s forbidden to blog or work). We celebrate Passover, one of the major Jewish holidays, to commemorate Jewish slavery in Egypt and our exodus and freedom from it. This is especially meaningful at this time, as Islamists from Egypt and around greater Arabia want to do us harm and re-enslave not just Jews but Christians, non-believers, and anyone who is not as extreme as they are.
We must celebrate our freedom while we still have it.
On the first two nights of Passover, we conduct a ceremony around dinner that is called a “Seder” (literally means “order” in Hebrew). We eat various foods that symbolize various aspects of slavery in Egypt, freedom from it, and the exodus to Israel. (At that time, the only Palestinians were Jews.) During the entire eight days, we do not eat bread or anything leavened, and instead eat a flatbread, called, “matzoh.” We do so because the Jews had to leave Egypt to freedom so quickly, the dough was on their backs and did not have time to rise. Also, the flat bread is considered the bread of affliction and poverty that Jews ate as slaves. (Because of this, during Passover, we also do not eat foods with various ingredients like corn syrup, etc.)
There is so much more to the holiday. It is a great educational experience for both kids AND adults. For more details read about it here, here, and here.
Tags: Debbie Schlussel, Easter, Egypt, Israel, Passover, webmaster
Enjoy a Happy and Healthy Holiday for you and your family.
P. Aaron on April 12, 2006 at 4:42 pm