Passover: A festival of freedom

Wow, I had no idea that there was so much to the celebration and observation of Passover. Since I'm not Jewish, it's been a holiday that I was vaguely aware of, mostly because of my Christian association with Passover being when God sent the angel of death to Egypt to take all of the first-born children and the Israelites were spared by obeying God's command to paint (or sprinkle) their doorposts with the blood of a lamb. It was just recently brought to my attention again because we attended a family wedding where the bride was Jewish, so the ceremony was also a traditional Jewish ceremony (which I unfortunately didn't get to see - but that's the life of the mother of a toddler!). While talking about their upcoming wedding, she was explaining different things to me and mentioned that she had chosen the date because it worked out with their schedules and worked around Passover.

This just kind of caught my attention, so I decided to look a little more into it. After finding the site Chabad.org, I think I've found all I need to know on the subject! This site is amazing, although I think it may be a little too much information for someone just looking for the basics!

This group offers an amazing site that fully embraces the technologies available to them via the web. From daily studies and history to recipes and multi-media, they've got it covered. There's even a great kids section where they've got a contest to win a trip for one lucky family to take a trip to Israel.

Unfortunately, there's so much on the site that I keep getting sidetracked from looking into the history and current applications of the Jewish celebration of Passover. The recipes in particular are interesting to me. Since I love food, I had to check them out. Everything listed there has a meaning - which I think is really neat. Just a few snippets from their site:

A hard-boiled egg represents the holiday offering brought in the days of the Holy Temple.
Bitter herbs (maror) remind us of the bitterness of the slavery of our forefathers in Egypt.
A mixture of apples, nuts and wine which resembles the mortar and brick made by the Jews when they toiled for Pharaoh.

And also more about the food, "The special foods we eat on Passover are also food for thought. Every item on the Seder plate abounds in meaning and allusion. The Seder plate has six items on it, arranged in a special order."

This year Passover runs from April 19th to the 27th, and they even have a Passover calendar and a How-to page. There are helps for blessings, a Law and Lore section, a Q&A for Passover, the list just goes on and on. I am far from educated at this point, but this is definitely a place to go for info on the holiday. Especially geared to the Jewish community, if you're trying to get back to your roots, don't miss out on this site!

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Passover: A festival of freedom

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