Trutharchivist

All right. Another random ramble! This time, my excuse for avoiding the forum is low traffic - there aren't many people following it. The again, what I mean to tell here is mainly exposition to Judaism - and at least three of my followers are Jews themselves, while I think at least one of the others already knows what I meant to say. Which make this ramble's point a tad more moot than it would be otherwise.

Anyway, tomorrow's Pesach, AKA Passover, and since there isn't much Jeish knowledge floating around this forum, I thought I'll explain about it a little. Depending on the interest, I might go on to start a series of essays I'm actually capable of writing with no farther research - simple essays, about Jewish holidays and their meaning. So, if you're interested in that - do say so. To the Jews I'll say: do check to see if I forgot something important.

Anyway, let's begin.

Pesach (as it will be referred to in this essay, wording explanation later) is the first holiday in the Hebrew calendar of the Tanakh (=Old Testament, for Christians), in which the first month of the spring is also the first month of the year. Nowadays, the Hebrew calendar year is considered to start six months earlier - hopefully we'll get to that in another day. Anyway, random interesting fact: the ancient Roman calendar, an ancestor of the modern Gregorian calendar, also used to start at spring in March - January and February apparently didn't exist. Which I'm still having trouble understanding, but it works with December being the 10th month.

But that's just about the time. Why, and how, do we celebrate Pesach?

Well, according to the Tanakh, the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt - our nation becoming a nation and gaining its freedom - happened on the 15th day of the first month. Nowadays, this month is known by the name "Nissan" - a name from Messopotamia. This was the conclusion of the Ten Plagues with the Plague of the Firstborn - at exactly midnight the night before, all the Egyptian firstborns died, leading to the Pharaoh of the time deciding to let the Israelites go. During the day before, the Israelites were required to sacrifice a lamb for each family and spread its blood on their lintels. G-d promised them that if they'd do that - He will pass over their houses and protect then from the Plague. Or that He'll step on their houses, figuratively - both interepretations of the word are possible. The sacrificial lamb was known as the Pesach sacrifice, and was observed for generations as long as the Temple (or the Tabernacle before it) stood.

There are a lot of rules about the Pesach sacrifice. Some of them differred between the original first sacrifice and how it was observed later, but most don't. Either way, nowadays it's not practiced, so we'll go on to the things that are practiced.

During this day, and the week following it (starting from sunset the day before and ending after the stars come out on the seventh), it is forbidden for Jews to eat anything leavened. Or, well, anything leavened that is made from one of specific five kinds of grains. Either way, that ends up being very limiting to one's diet. One is not allowed to hold leaven during this week, too - we burn it the day before. The 1st and 7th day are also Yamim Tovim (lit. "good days"), which means all work is forbidden except for things required to make food. And during the first evening, at the night we were supposed to eat the Pesach lamb (oh, yeah, it's the kind of sacrifice you eat, forgot to mention that), we make a Seder.

What is a Seder? The literal translation of the word is "order", and it's kind of what this is: an organized evening plan, that includes mostly a retelling of the Exodus, along with eating certain foods as reminders for specific things: Carpas, which can be any one of a myriad of vegetables, is mostly an appetizer (eaten a very long time before the feast); Matzah, unleavened bread, to remind us how our ancestors didn't have time to let their bread be leavened before exiting Egypt, and as a "food of the poor", that was probably all our ancestors cold afford during their slavery time (that last part of the explanation is a tad more iffy); and Maror, a bitter vegetable - most people eat lettuce, some eat Horseradish or other vegetables - this one is to remind us of how bitter and hard it was for our ancestors in slavery. We also eat some sort of sandwich of the two last ones together, because when the temple existed we were to do so with those and the sacrificial lamb. In addition, we drink four glasses of wine throughout the Seder, each at a different point - some, myself included, drink non-alcoholic, natural grape juice (I can't stand wine). We pour another glass that is supposedly for Eliyahu (Elijah) the Prophet. This part is... kind of a long story. Suffice it to say there's a specific reason why we drink four glasses, and the same reason could indicate on five instead of four.

That's it for the basic practices of the holiday, I think - I'm a bit tired when I write this, so I might've forgotten something important, but I rather think I only left out non-obligatory practices (not talking about legumes, or the Hallel, or... IDK). Something else that is important in relatio to the Seder: it's all centered around the telling of the story of Exodus, especially to one's children to keep the traditions going. Due to that, there are many practices that are mostly to keep the children awake and to make them ask questions.

Honestly, I planned to write here about the importance of questions in Judaism, but it's getting late and this status update is already long. So, suffice it to say I think questions are very important and encouraged in Judaism.

Anyway, that has just been a try at randomly explaning Pesach to gentiles. Honestly, it's kind of the most central holiday in Judaism - though Hannukah is somewhat more known, probably due to it often conciding with Christmas. As a matter of fact, Hannukah is one of the lesser holidays.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and have a good day.