Pesach and Chag
ha-Matzot in the Bible
Deuteronomy 16:1-8
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the
Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out
of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from
your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened
bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the
days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no
yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let
any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until
morning.
You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town
the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for
his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun
goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it
at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your
tents. For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold
an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.
Leviticus 23:5-8
The LORD's Passover begins at twilight on the
fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD's
Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without
yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For
seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire. And on the seventh day
hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.' "
See the
Scriptures for the Passover and Feast of
Unleavened Bread collection for more verses related to this
Feast time.
Pesach and Chag ha-Matzot in the
1st Century
The Hebrew word Pesach,
usually translated "Passover" in English, is used in Judaism to
refer to the first celebration of the sacred year. In the first
century AD, when the Temple was still standing in Jerusalem,
families from all over the small nation of Israel would have
traveled if possible to the central worship site in Jerusalem.
Each family would have sacrificed a lamb at the Temple on the
fourteenth day of the first month of that year. They would have
eaten the lamb in a special meal that evening along with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. The next day there would have been a
national assembly with special rites at the Temple. And for
seven days the people would have continued to eat unleavened
bread, with a closing assembly on the seventh day. (See the
article What is Leaven? elsewhere on
this Times of Refreshing website for an explanation of
the terms "leavened" and "unleavened.")
This whole seven-day celebration
was often referred to in Jewish circles as Pesach,
although technically that is the name of the sacrifice and the
meal at the beginning of the observance. The seven days during
which leavened bread is not eaten is technically referred to as
Chag ha-Matzot. (Chag=festival
Matzot=unleavened bread). But to this day it is common to refer
to this whole feast time of seven days as "Passover."
Pesach and Chag ha-Matzot in the 21st Century
In modern times, this season
begins early in the first month of the spring (Abib on
the Hebrew Calendar) when families begin the process of removing
all leaven from their homes, and preparing or buying unleavened
baked products for use during the Feast.
The cleaning process comes to a
culmination on the evening ending the 13th day of the month, when a
special symbolic family "hunt" through the home verifies that
every last bit of leavening or leavened products have been
removed. A candle is used to shine light in every nook and
cranny, and a feather used to carefully sweep up any last
crumbs. (Parents usually hide a few crumbs in obvious places so
there is always a final flourish to be done.)
This removal of leaven from the
home is a memorial of the fact that the ancient Israelites left
Egypt in such haste when God set them free from their bondage
there that they had no time to let their bread leaven. But many
Jews take note that there are also "spiritual lessons" to
this hunt for leaven. "It is also a symbolic way of removing the
'puffiness' (arrogance, pride) from our souls." (from the
Judaism 101 website
Pesach article)
After this, final preparations
begin for the official Passover meal, called a seder, to
be served the following evening. This meal, and the customs
connected with it, follow a time-honored script that is
contained in a book called a Haggadah, a Hebrew word
meaning "telling."
Although each generation develops
a variety of contemporary looks for editions of the Haggadah,
the basic content has stayed the same for centuries. The
Haggadah provides a summary of the events of the original
Passover, when the Israelites were brought by God out of bondage
in Egypt, as described in the book of Exodus. At that time,
the blood of a lamb over the doors of Israelite homes indicated
to God to "pass over" that home on the night when the plague on
the first born of the Egyptians was sent by Him.
Each family member or guest at
the Passover seder will have their own copy of the Haggadah, to
follow along in as the evening progresses. The leader of the
evening's activities (the father in most homes) reads the
majority of the passages in the Haggadah, with the youngest
child present asking prescribed questions at various points. A
vivid and useful description by a Jewish writer of the "script"
contained in the Haggadah, the traditional understanding of the
symbolism of each detail, and commentary on a variety of moral
and spiritual lessons that can be derived from the customs, can
be seen online at:
http://www.aish.com/passinsight/passinsightdefault/Seder_Plate_-_15_Steps.asp
The table will be set with a
Seder Plate, a centerpiece that holds a variety of symbolic
objects related to the story of the evening. Some Seder Plates
are simple and contemporary, with pictures and labels in English
of the objects that are to be placed on them:
Others are ornate and elegant,
and engraved with Hebrew lettering, perhaps even silver family
antiques passed from generation to generation:
Also on the table will be a stack
of three matzos (pieces of bread that have been made with
no leaven), separated from one another by napkins and
covered with a napkin or a special Matzah Cover specifically
made for the purpose, that often comes with a matching "Afikomen
Bag" to be used later in the seder. (See details regarding the
term afikomen below.)
On the Seder Plate are placed the
following items:
A roasted shank bone of lamb, or
roasted chicken wing or neck.
Two kinds of "bitter
herbs"--often horseradish and Romaine lettuce.
A non-bitter vegetable such as
celery, onion, parsley, or boiled potato.
A sweet, pasty mixture called
charoset, made of fruit, nuts, and wine.
A roasted egg.
There are traditional
explanations for the inclusion of each of these items, although
various Jewish reference works may vary widely on the exact
meaning of each one. It is also difficult to trace the history
of the details of the seder meal, including the seder plate. It is doubtful if
many of the specific customs go back
to the time before the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70 AD.
Some of the items seem to have been "substitutes" for what would
have originally been part of the Passover meal in the time when
Passover lambs were still sacrificed and used in the meal. The
only biblical command regarding the meal was to sacrifice a Passover
lamb and eat it in a meal with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
The seder begins with a blessing
over a cup of wine for each participant. (Children will have
perhaps a few drops of wine in their cup.) Everyone drinks their
cup, and another cup is poured for a later portion of the meal.
Each participant then does a
symbolic "hand washing," and then all eat a piece of parsley or
similar vegetable dipped in salt water to represent the "tears"
of the ancient Israelites in bondage.
The center matzo is broken, a
large piece--the afikomen (Hebrew word meaning "dessert")--is placed in a napkin or in a
special Afikomen Bag that may have come as a set with the
Matzah Bag, as shown above, and the rest returned to the stack.
Next is the story of the Exodus.
The youngest person at the gathering will ask, "Why
is this night different from all other nights?"
And then he or
she will go on to ask the specific
"four
questions" regarding why this night is different from all other
nights.
- Why is it that on all
other nights during the year we eat either bread or
matzo, but on this night we eat only matzo?
- Why is it that on all
other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this
night we eat only bitter herbs?
- Why is it that on all
other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on
this night we dip them twice?
- 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 participants will then work
their way through the retelling of the Exodus story as it is
found in the Haggadah, complete with traditional commentary
which includes an explanation of the answers to the four
questions and much more.
This is followed by a blessing
over the second cup of wine and its drinking.
Hands are washed again, a
blessing over the matzo is recited, and each person eats a bit
of matzo.
A blessing is recited over the
"bitter herbs." Each person takes some (often a piece of
horseradish) and dips it in the charoset, the sweet mixture of
apples, nuts, cinnamon and wine.
Next each person takes a piece of
a different type of bitter herb, and eats it on a piece of matzo.
After this the main meal is
eaten, accompanied by lively conversation. The meal is often
roast chicken, turkey, or beef.
The afikomen was set aside at the
beginning of the seder. At the end of the meal, it is brought
out again as the symbolic "dessert" that will close the meal.
After this, no more food will be eaten until the next day. Most
Jewish families follow a custom in which the afikomen is hidden
early in the evening, and at the end of the dinner, the children
present search for it. Since it is needed to end the meal, they
demand a "ransom" for it before they will return it for that
purpose. This usually takes the form of goodies like gold
foil-wrapped chocolate coins. It is often noted in Jewish
commentaries that the practice of hiding the afikomen began a couple
of centuries ago as a way to keep the children awake and alert
and enthusiastic so that they will listen to the ceremonial
parts of the evening.
After the afikomen procedure, the
third cup of wine is poured and the birkat ha-mazon (grace after
meals) is offered. A blessing on the wine is added at the end,
and the third cup is drunk.
A fourth cup is poured, and an
extra cup is poured and set aside symbolically for the Prophet
Elijah. Jewish tradition expects Elijah might come on Passover
and herald the coming of the Messiah. So a cup is poured for his
hoped arrival, and often a child is sent to open the door to the
outside, and leave it open for a while at this point in the
seder, to see if tonight could be the night. In many families, a
special, ornate "Elijah's Cup" is bought just for this purpose.
At this point in the evening,
several Psalms are recited, perhaps accompanied by singing one
or more traditional songs, the blessing is pronounced over the
fourth cup of wine, and it is drunk.
A simple statement is then made
that the seder is over, and a wish offered that next year
all will celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. In other words, the hope
is that the Messiah will come some time during the following
year.
The evening is completed with
singing psalms and telling stories related to the themes of the
Passover.
For an extensive and detailed
exposition regarding the Seder, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder
Chag ha-Matzot:
The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread
"Days" in the Bible begin in the
evening, and go from evening to evening. The evening of the
Passover seder is the beginning of the first "Holy Day" of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. And this Holy Day is the first one of
the whole year.
The first and seventh day of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread are "full holy days" (Hebrew: Yom
Tov), on which no one performs regular work, and on which
there are special services, with extra prayers and scripture
readings, held at synagogues. The prohibition against eating any
baked goods with leaven continues throughout the whole Feast
time.
As for the days between the two holy days:
From the Wikipedia.com
Passover article:
Like the holiday
of
Sukkot, the intermediary days of
Passover are known as
Chol HaMoed (festival weekdays) and are
imbued with a semi-festive status. It is a
time for family outings and picnic lunches
of matzo, hardboiled eggs, fruits and
vegetables and Passover treats such as
macaroons and homemade candies.
The prohibition
against eating leavened food products and
regular flour during Passover results in the
increased consumption of potatoes, eggs and
oil in addition to fresh milk and cheeses,
fresh meat and chicken, and fresh fruit and
vegetables. To make a "Passover cake,"
recipes call for
potato starch or "Passover cake flour"
(made from finely granulated matzo) instead
of regular flour, and a large amount of eggs
(8 and over) to achieve fluffiness. Cookie
recipes use
matzo farfel (broken bits of matzo) or
ground nuts as the base. For families with
Eastern European backgrounds,
borsht, a soup made with
beets, is a Passover tradition.
Some
hotels,
resorts, and even
cruise ships across
America,
Europe and
Israel also undergo a thorough
housecleaning and import of Passover
foodstuffs to make their premises "kosher
for Pesach", with the goal of attracting
families for a week-long vacation. Besides
their regular accommodations and on-site
recreational facilities, these hotels
assemble a package of lectures given by a "rabbi
in residence," children's activities, and
tours to entertain Passover guests. Each
meal is a demonstration of the chefs'
talents in turning the basic foodstuffs of
Passover into a culinary feast.
There is one other distinctive
custom that begins during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the
"Counting of the Omer":
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayb.htm
According to the Torah (Lev.
23:15), we are obligated to count the days from
Passover
to Shavu'ot.
This period is known as the Counting of the Omer. An omer is
a unit of measure. On the second day of Passover, in the
days of the
Temple, an omer of barley was cut down and brought to
the Temple as an offering.
This grain offering was referred to as the Omer.
Every night, from the second
night of Passover to the night before Shavu'ot, we recite a blessing
and state the count of the omer in both weeks and days. So
on the 16th day, you would say "Today is sixteen days, which
is two weeks and two days of the Omer." The Orthodox
Union has a chart that provides the transliterated
Hebrew and English text of the counting day-by-day.
The counting is intended to
remind us of the link between Passover, which commemorates
the Exodus, and Shavu'ot, which commemorates the giving of
the Torah. It reminds us that the redemption from slavery
was not complete until we received the Torah.
So this custom of counting the
omer continues after the Feast of Unleavened Bread is over, and
continues right up until the next biblical Feast,
Shavuot--The Feast of
Pentecost.
Transliteration note:
The appearance of the Hebrew
alphabet has nothing in common with the English alphabet. A
number of Hebrew letters have sounds that are not distinctly
connected to separate sounds in English. And even Hebrew
itself is spoken in a wide variety of dialects depending on
the cultural background of the speaker. Therefore attempts
to transliterate (reproduce the sounds of a word or phrase
in letters from one language to another) are always
speculative at best. Even within the English-speaking
community of Jews, there are wide variations in the way that
Hebrew words are transliterated into English, with no
central standard to draw from. In the articles in this
series on Jewish Feast and Holy Day Customs, as well
as throughout this Times of Refreshing website in
general, in order to follow some sort of systematic way of
transliterating, an attempt has been made to choose those
transliterations that are most typical on the Internet. For
instance, the Hebrew term for the Feast of Tabernacles is
transliterated on some websites as Sukkot (1,160,000),
others as Sukkos (119,000), others as Sukkoth (76,600),
still others as Succot (128,000) or Succoth (162,000). In
this case, the most typical choice is obvious, so Sukkot
is the spelling of choice on this site. In other cases, the
variations in spelling are much closer in numbers, and an
arbitrary decision has had to be made.
Links
The following are the Hebrew
names of each of the biblical Feasts or Holy Days. Use the links
to go to separate articles about the Jewish customs connected to
each of these various observances.
Shabbat
The weekly Sabbath
Pesach and Chag Ha-Matzot:
Passover and the
Feast of
Unleavened Bread
Shavuot:
Pentecost
Yom Teruah:
The Day of Trumpets
(Also called Rosh Hashana)
Yom Kippur:
The Day of Atonement
Sukkot:
The Feast of Tabernacles/Booths
Shemini Atzeret:
The Assembly of
the Eighth Day
Shemeni Atzereet painting:
Simchat Torah, 1996:
Boris Arenghauz, Tzafon Gallery, Haifa, Israel
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Times
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Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
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www.youall.com/oasis
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Pesach
