Passover is just around the corner, starting on Monday April 22, at sundown, lasting until Tuesday, April 30, at midnight.
Passover, or Pesach, is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the “Jewish Festival Of Freedom.”
Passover is one of the most widely celebrated of the Jewish holidays. It commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
When the Israelites left Egypt for freedom from their bondage, they didn’t have time when fleeing to bake their breads, but they did flee with their dough and baked it with water, resulting in how the Matzo came into being, and that is why the Jewish people don’t eat leavened bread during Passover.
Matzo is called the “Freedom Bread,” and considered a luxury, because eating Matzo means “we are alive and we have the ability to eat freedom.”
Passover is a reminder not only for the Jewish People, but also for all people by putting ourselves in the shoes of those slaves, and those who experienced the release from bondage.
Passover is also a reminder for all of us that freedom, how sweet it is, is for all people, and it is the time for the Jewish people to revel in both the “bitter and the sweet” aspects of their history.
The Passover Seder is celebrated by a ritual combination of a service and dinner, the dinner having many scrumptious foods.
Happy Passover to one and all, and may you celebrate the meaning of Passover every day of the year and may your freedom be “sweet” and not “bitter.”
Lois Eisenberg
Valencia
