Passover Begins Tonight

By David Mattis

This year's Jewish festival of Passover begins tonight, April 6, at sunset and lasts seven or eight days, depending on the congregation. 

But the first day of Passover is usually celebrated at home.

The holiday, also called Pesach, is meant to be seven days, but a longstanding tradition exists for Jewish holidays celebrated outside of Israel to add a day.

This is because in ancient times the Jewish year was not set according to a calculated calendar, but rather simply by observing the status of the new moon in the sky; thus, there was some doubt as to when the holidays were.

So Passover outside of Israel is eight days long for many congregations.

The roots of the holiday are found in the biblical Book of Exodus, which tells the story of how God sends Moses to liberate the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt.

Telling and retelling the story is in fact central to the holiday: The Bible itself directs the faithful to “tell your son” (Exodus 13:8) the narrative. 

Over the centuries, that has lead to the development of the beautiful and widely practiced ritual of the Passover Seder. For the first two nights of Passover (one night in Israel), Jews will gather with family and friends for the seder where they will share dinner, and in a highly choreographed way retell the story of the exodus. During the Seder, participants read from the haggadah—a booklet that contains a digest of the liberation story.

Words are not everything. In addition to the narration, Seder-goers also taste bitter herbs to represent the bitterness of slavery to Pharaoh. Jews also eat matzah—or unleavened bread. 

It is a reminder of the hurriedness with which the Israelites had to flee Pharaoh’s army and could not stay long enough to wait for the bread to rise; the Bible describes it as eating with “shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand.” 

In these ways, people of all ages can learn about the Passover story through texts, songs and even tastes.

Speaking of food, the Bible is clear that for the whole week, yeast or leaven should not even be found in your home (Exodus 12:19). For that reason, Jews take to spring cleaning with a vengeance before Passover, scrubbing and vacuuming until everyone in the house has lost their mind.

The care to avoid leaven has led to the whole range of products labeled “kosher for Passover” in the supermarket.

Why the name "Passover?" It is another biblical allusion: in Exodus chapter 12, God orchestrates a terrible punishment for the Egyptian oppressors, slaying their first-born humans and animals, but instructs the Israelites that God’s avenging angel will “pass them over.” 

Thus Passover is a remembrance of signs and the wonder of the original Israelite freedom from Egypt, but its message has echoed throughout different generations and societies. It is even common at American Passover seders to hear the refrain of the African American spiritual "Go Down, Moses." 

In sum, Passover is a great Jewish festival of freedom that points to our universal longing for a better, freer and more just world.

David Mattis is a student at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles.