This presentation will look at the Jewish Festival - Pesach

1. This presentation will look at the Jewish Festival - Pesach • Introduction • History of Pesach • Preparing for Pesach • The Seder Meal

2. INTRODUCTION • Pesach is a major Jewish festival which falls in spring (15 Nisan); • The festival lasts for eight days; • Pesach is also known as Passover; • Pesach is a celebration of freedom; • The story connected with Pesach concerns the rescue of the Jews from Egyptian slavery.

3. History of Passover • Jews regained their freedom from slavery when Moses became their leader. Moses asked God for assistance and, God helped them by sending ten horrific plagues on the Egyptians, each worse than the last. The tenth plague - The Slaying of the First-Born is the worst of the plagues. • The festival was called Pesach/Passover because that night the angel of death passed over the Jew’s houses marked with blood but went into the houses of the Egyptians who had not marked their door posts. As a result the eldest son in every Egyptian house was killed, and the distraught Egyptians kicked the Jews out of the country. • Without God’s intervention, Jews believed they would have never escaped.

4. History continued…... • God commanded them: “You must celebrate this day as a religious festival to remind you of what I, the Lord have done. Celebrate it for all time to come”.(Exodus 12:14) • This is the most important Jewish story, which many Jews see as the beginning of their history, when they became a free people. • Jews are sad about the Egyptians who did, because they themselves were not to blame, and because there is good and bad in everyone. • At the Passover supper, Jews call out the ten plagues. For each one, they spill some of their wine because they cannot be happy about their freedom when other people died.

5. The weeks and days leading up to it are the busiest time in the Jewish year. Jews need to feel that they are reliving the story of their ancestors in their own lives and that they themselves are also slaves who were freed by God. When the Israelites left Egypt they did so in a hurry. They did not have time to take any leaven with them for cooking. To remind them of their deliverance Jews only eat food which is ‘unleavened’ during Pesach. Preparing for Pesach

6. A thorough spring clean of the whole house is an important element of preparation. The reason for this is the need to remove anything that is leaven (chametz) from the homes. Besides bread, foods containing flour, like cakes biscuits, pasta, crisp, cereals, and even drinks like beer and whisky which have yeast in are removed from the house for the eight days.

7. Young children learn about the removal of yeast in the form of a game. • They carry out ‘bedikat chametz’. This makes sure that no chametz was overlooked while the house was being cleaned. • Their father usually hides ten pieces of bread around the house. The children will look for the chametz using a candle and a feather, and if they find any, they collect it in a paper bag. • After the search a declaration is said giving up ownership of any chametz that might have been missed. • On the following morning, the bag with its ten pieces of bread are burned and in the afternoon, preparations for the Seder, the Pesach meal begin.

8. The Seder Meal • Seder means ‘order’ for the meal follows a fixed pattern which is reflected in the layout of the table. • The first night of Pesach is the most important one. It is celebrated by ritual meal at home called the Seder meal. Everyone makes a big effort to return home for this family meal, even if they live away from home. • This is the family event of they year. Men attend evening prayers at the synagogue whilst the women in the family lay the Seder table with great care. • During the Seder, Jewish people retell the story of the Exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt more than 3.000 years ago. The story of the Exodus can be found in the Bible and it gives Jewish people the commandment to teach their children the story. Today this story and its order is known as the Haggadah.

9. The Seder Table

10. Candles: As on every Sabbath and festival candles grace the table. Cup of Elijah: Because Jewish Tradition says that the prophet Elijah will one day bring peace to the world, Jews set a goblet for him on the table, open the door and ‘welcome him in’ What is found on the Seder Table?

11. Four cups of wine: Everyone at the Seder table drinks them, in the order mentioned in the Haggadah. There are four because of God’s four expressions of promise to free the Israelites from slavery. The Haggadah: “You shall tell it to your son”, says the Torah. The Haggadah recounts the Passover story.

12. Matzah: Three matzot. Two of these are symbols of the two loaves of bread over which Sabbath and festival blessings are said. The third emphasises the role of matzos in Passover ritual, where it is a sign of the bread of poverty the Jews ate, while slaves. It is also a sign of the haste of departure when there was no time for the dough to rise. Bowl of Salt water: This is a reminder of the tears shed in slavery.

13. The Seder Plate • This is the focal point of the table and contains: • Zeroa - a roasted meatbone; • Betzah - a roasted egg; • Maror -Bitter herbs; • Haroset - mixture of apples, nuts and wine; • Karpas - celery, lettuce or parsley to be dipped in salt water.

14. Zeroa This is a roasted lamb bone which is not eaten. It reminds Jews of the ancient sacrifice in the temple and the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the houses which saved them from the Angel of Death in Egypt. Karpas This is dipped in salt water to recall the sweat, tears and pain of the slaves in Egypt.

15. Betzah: This is a roasted Egg. It is a reminder of sacrifices made in the Temple. The egg is used in the Seder because it is a Jewish symbol of mourning, and also the egg is a universal symbol of birth and new life. The egg is not eaten. Maror: These are bitter herbs (usually horseradish), which remind Jews of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. Haroset: A paste made from chopped nuts, apple, wine and cinnamon. It is a symbol fo the mortar used in the building works of Egypt

16. The Four Questions recited by the youngest child • On all other nights, we eat either leavened or unleavened bread. Why on this night do we eat only unleavened bread? Matzah reminds us that when the Jews left Egypt, they had no time to bake bread for their journey. They put raw dough on their backs, and the sun baked it into hard crackers called matzah. • On all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs. Why on this night do we eat only bitter herbs? They remind us of the bitterness and cruel way Pharaoh treated the Jewish people when they were slaves in Egypt. • On all other nights we eat in a sitting or a reclining position. Why on this night do we all recline? We lean to remind us that once the Jewish people were slaves, but now they are free. 4.On all other nights we do not dip the vegetables even once. Why on this night do we dip them twice?

17. The hunt for the Afikoman Near the beginning of the meal, an adult hides a piece of matzah, which is called the Afikoman. Later the children go off to look for it. The meal cannot end until the afikoman has been found so whoever finds it gets a prize! Everyone at the table will then eat the piece of matzah which they mat aside earlier. As they eat the afikoman, they remember the Passover lamb which wish Jewish people used to eat at the seder.

18. Complete the following questions: • What does Pesach celebrate? (2) • Why do Jews celebrate Pesach? (2) • How does a Jewish family prepare for Pesach? (4) • Why don’t Jews eat leaven during the festival? (2) • What does the word ‘seder’ mean? (1) • What food is found on the seder plate? (6) • What do these foods symbolise? (6) • What would you say to someone who thought that on Pesach Jews just stop eating bread for a week? (5)

19. The End