Passover

Marc Chagall.

I peeked into our own courtyard and saw all the neighbors washing and scrubbing, scraping and rubbing, making the tables and benches kosher-for-Passover.  They carried huge pots of boiling water, heated irons and red-hot bricks, all of which gave off a white vapor...We had bought our matzohs a long time ago and had them locked in the cupboard over which a white sheet had been hung.  In addition, we had a basketful of eggs, a jar of Passover chicken-fat, two ropes of onions on the wall, and many other delicacies for the holiday.

Sholom Aleichem, "The Passover Eve Vagabonds"

Passover is probably the Jewish holiday that occasions more joyful anticipation than any other.  It is one of the world's oldest continually observed festivals and still, despite intrusions of modernity, retains its ancient charm.

It is celebrated in commemoration of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.  For eight days we do not partake of any leavening agent in our food.  A reading of the Haggadah-narration of the Exodus-is a central part of the first and second night of Passover.

No products made from regular flour and no leavening agents can be eaten at Passover.  Although Sephardim eat all vegetables and some even eat rice, Ashkenazim  eschew such vegetables as corn, string beans, and peas.  They also refrain from lentils, chick peas, and other dried beans.

Conservative and Orthodox families who can afford it have separate sets of dishes, cutlery, and cooking utensils for Passover, which are kept carefully packed away the rest of the year.  The less well-to-do have certain utensils made kosher for Passover.  Dishes, pots,and silverware can be converted for Passover use by being scalded in boiling water.  Metal pans can be passed through fire and broilers heated red hot.

The observance was originally a nature festival celebrated by nomadic desert Jews, with a roasted sheep or goat as the central food.  Centuries later, the peasants of Israel had a spring grain observance, the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 

Later still, the seasonal aspect of the festival was transformed into a freedom holiday respresenting more closely the history and social and spiritual strivings of the Jewish people. 

The meal of the first two nights has been formalized into Seder (order), imbuing the original lamb, bitter herbs, and matzoh with new symbolism.  Additional foods were to recall the historical trials of the Jewish people.  The seder is a family meal, and those sitting at it are reminded, both by narration and by the foods eaten, of the rich heritage of thousands of years and the suffering through those millennia.

Pesah means "passing by" or "passing over," and the holiday was called Passover because God passed over
the Jewish houses when He slew the firstborn of Egypt.  Matzoh, unleavened and quickly baked, now recalls that the Jews fleeing Egypt had no time to leaven their bread and to bake it properly.  Usually two hallahs are served at ceremonial meals; but on Passover, three matzot are placed on the table instead.

Maror, bitter herbs, are served a reminders of the bitterness of enslavement in Egypt.  Haroset, a blend of sweet fruits and nuts, represents the mortar used by Jewish slaves in building for their masters.  A roasted egg (betzah) represents the festival sacrifice brought to the Temple and  thus a symbol of mourning for the destroyed Temple.  Karpas-parsley or other available greens such as celery or romaine-recalls the "sixty myriads" of Israelites oppressed with difficult labor.

Four cups of wine are poured during the service; a fifth cup is left for the prophet Elijah, a harbinger of freedom and the Messiah.  The wine symbolizes the four divine promises of redemption found in the Scripture in connection with Israel's liberation from Egypt:  "I will bring you out.. .  I will deliver you... I will redeem you... I will take you to ME"  (Exodus 6:6-7).

Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., there have been no sacrifices at Passover.  Therefore, for some it is forbidden to eat roast lamb at the Seder meal until the Temple is rebuilt.  Jews usually substitute turkey or chicken as a main Seder dish.

The Jewish Holiday-- Kitchen  Joan Nathan