Chag Kasher Ve'Sameach!!
(Passover/Pesach 2010/5770)
The embedded midi is of "Mah Nishtanah" from the Passover Haggadah. This is the song of the "four questions" asked at the Seder, usually by the youngest participant, and asks "Why is this night different from all other nights?" The answers are: On this night we eat Matza instead of bread, we eat bitter herbs to commemorate the bitter times in Egypt, we dip our foods in various condiments (a sign of freedom) and we lean back on cushions, again a sign of freedom and luxurious living, after the slavery in Egypt.
What IS Passover?
Passover, or Pesach (pronounced Pess-ach with the Scottish ch as in Loch) as it is more commonly known, an 8 day festival, falls on the 15th Nissan, which is usually around Easter time, although on some years it can be up to a month difference.
Passover, in the Jewish calendar, is the festival which holds most workload for the family. It is anticipated both with joy and some degree of dread for all the spring cleaning it involves! I will explain why, but first, the Pesach story.
The Egyptians had made slaves of the Israelites. (this was soon
after the time of the Patriarchs.) Their lot was bitter, their
work savagely difficult, their taskmasters cruel and merciless.
Pharoah's stargazers had predicted that the saviour of the Israelites would soon be born in Egypt. In order to prevent this birth, he ordered that every Jewish male child born, should be drowned in the river Nile. When baby Moses was born, his mother Yocheved, hid him for three months, then, to save his life, put him in a basket in the bullrushes, where he was found by Pharoah's daughter who brought him up as her son.
Moses always knew he was a Jew and was intensely distressed when he grew old enough to witness his kinsmen's sufferings. After his "meeting" with God at the Burning Bush, Moses knew his mission would be to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. I am cutting the story short here, but God sent Ten Plagues, the final and most devastating being the Slaying of the Firstborn sons. God told the Israelites to daub their doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial Pascal lamb, so that He would Pass Over their houses. After this final plague, Pharoah was persuaded to let the Israelites free. In their rush to leave before the Egyptians changed their minds, the Israelites took unbaked dough on their backs; there being no time to allow the dough to rise. This "unleavened bread" or Matza forms the cornerstone of Passover food, along with the sacrificial Pascal lamb, no longer observed.The night of the Exodus is the first night of Passover (15th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan). And the seventh day of Passover is the day that God split the Red Sea.
To celebrate our passage from slavery to freedom, we are instructed to spring- clean our houses of all "chametz" - (pronunced "hum-etz" with the Scottish ch like in Loch) leaven (ie bread and grain-based products), cooking and eating for Pesach is done in completely separate pots and utensils; and we eat matza instead of bread for the week-long festival.
The first two nights of Pesach are called "Seder nights". (or one
night in Israel.)
Seder means "order" in Hebrew, and the Seder night
has a defined order. We tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt,
the children ask four questions (the "Ma Nishtanah", a midi
of which is background music to this page); we have a Seder plate on
which are symbolic foods to do with Pesach; and we
eat Matza and bitter herbs (the latter to remind us
of the bitter times in Egypt), before the festive meal is served.
We sometimes wonder about the slavery-to- freedom bit, when we are scrubbing out our cupboards of crumbs, and scouring cookers free of grime and crumbs!!
The ultimate luxury for a Jewish houswife is to have a "Pesach kitchen"... somewhere that is kosher for Passover all year round; so that she doesn't have to do all her Pesach cooking last minute after "koshering" her kitchen, but can cook ahead. This also means that her normal kitchen can just be spring-cleaned of "leaven" and closed up until after Pesach. I should point out that only a minority of very fortunate families have the luxury of a Pesach kitchen; most manage with "koshering" their existing one.
Pesach 5770 (2010) begins on Monday night 29th March and ends Tuesday 6th April.
Pesach has always been extremely busy in my household as all my married kids living in Israel have always come home for the duration, but this year Avigayil and family are making Pesach for the first time, albeit in our Jerusalem house as it is more suited than their own rather cramped rented place and it also has a Pesach kitchen which will be used for the first time ever!. We are also, for the first time ever, invited out for BOTH seder nights and one daytime meal of the first half, leaving only one meal for me to make out of the four, so a much easier time than usual! Yeshaya Ryfki and Ahuva, my youngest son and his family, will be coming home but that's just two adults and a baby of one and a bit instead of a family of nine big people!
So I will cook, bake and shop as I always do, but try to tone down the amounts. It's hard, when I have been used to cooking for an army but I guess this is my future so I'll have to get used to it!