I came across the following article, written by Nathan Green, and felt it was quite appropriate to share with you.  Please receive it with the blessings of this season.

Pesach, of Passover, following biblical law, is observed seven days, beginning on the eve of the 15^th and ending on the 21^st of Nisan.  The first and last days are holy days on which divine services are held in the synagogues.  The intervening days, known as Hol Hamoed, are half-holy days.  The holiday celebrates the emancipation of the Jewish people to freedom from the Egyptians.  It was an event that was one of the most important events in the history of the Jewish nation, one that defined it and its people ever since.  The name Pesach means “passing over,” or sparing and delivering, referring to when G-d killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, sparing the Israelites.  Its observance came to be interpreted as a memorial of G-d’s appearance as the avenger of Israel’s wrongs.  It is also a feast in celebration of the birth of Israel as a holy nation and the belief in G-d’s choice of Israel as His chosen people.

And in the centuries that followed, Passover became a holiday of hope, as the Egyptian bondage was followed by the rule of the Romans, and since the Jewish Diaspora, tyranny by countless nations as the Haggadah notes: “in many other lands, have we groaned under the burden of affliction and suffered as victims of malice, ignorance and fanaticism.”  Through the celebration of the Passover festival the Jewish people defied their ever new Pharaohs and Caesars.  Its observance was a perennial source of hope, as it declared, “This year we are slaves; next year may we be free men.”  At the same time, it is a reminder of the true nature of freedom.  Freedom is not just a political and civil condition; it is one of the spirit.  As much of the history of the Jewish people has been one of the oppressed, Passover also celebrates inner moral and spiritual liberty.  For it is only in observance of the Law of G-d, that one is truly free and lives up to the responsibility of being Jewish.

Celebrating Passover is an essential part of being Jewish.  No matter what language or country, it connects the Jewish people in a bond that stretches back into the shadows of history.  With each Passover, its celebrations relive the moment of freedom.  With each spring, that memory is resurrected as a reminder of what was and what will be.  As the great German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote, G-d through Moses created a “holy people, a people of G-d, destined to outlive the centuries, and to serve as a pattern to all other nations, even as a prototype to the whole of mankind.”

Return to Events Page