As Jews around the world prepare to mark the week-long holiday of Passover from Monday, AFP examines the meaning attached to one of the Jewish calendar’s most important events.
Liberation
Passover commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, a “celebration of freedom told in the Book of Exodus,” said Pauline Bebe, rabbi of the liberal Jewish community in France’s Ile-de-France region that includes Paris.
Also called Pesach, or “to pass over” in Hebrew, it refers to the 10th plague of Egypt, the death of first-born children, which in the Bible avoided the Israelites’ homes to only affect the Egyptians.
The episode can be viewed as the birth of the people of Israel.
“It’s from this moment, in the desert, that the people became a nation,” said Bebe.
Passover takes place this year from April 22 to 30. In the Jewish calendar, this corresponds to the 14th and 21st days of the month of Nissan in the year 5784.
Along with the holiday of Yom Kippur, Passover is widely observed.
“Even in non-observant families, people gather around a table. It’s a very important holiday which, through its pedagogical aspect, has been passed on through the generations,” said Bebe.
A week of festivities
Passover celebrations last one week: seven days in Israel and eight days for Jews living in the diaspora.
The holiday has two major moments, with the first day commemorating the exodus from Egypt and the final day marking the crossing of the Red Sea.
Both must be observed according to religious guidance.
A ritual meal, the Seder, takes place on the first evening, or the first two evenings for the diaspora, with participants sitting around a tray laden with symbolic food.
Although the composition of the meal varies from country to country, three elements are present everywhere: unleavened bread, bitter herbs such as horseradish, celery, and Romaine lettuce, and a bone.
The bread recalls the haste with which the Israelites had to flee, meaning they could not leaven their bread; the herbs symbolize the harshness of slavery; and the bone represents sacrifice.
A hard-boiled egg tends to feature, representing sacrifice and embodying hope and consolation. Salty water pays homage to the slaves’ tears, and a fruit paste symbolises the mortar with which the Jewish people made bricks.
Hunt for Chametz
Passover is also the occasion to do a big spring clean to chase away food with leavening agents, or Chametz, which could not be taken during the flight from Egypt.
For seven days, Jews abstain from consuming food containing fermented grains, including wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt.
It is also forbidden to possess or profit from them — hence a meticulous cleaning of any rooms potentially containing such products.
Kitchen utensils must be cleaned with fire or boiling water if they are not reserved for use during Passover.
Passover hampers
Passover is also the time when charities hand out parcels, but “there are 1,001 ways to celebrate the holiday,” said rabbi Bebe.
“The ultra-Orthodox will pay close attention to everything, the household starts a month in advance. They change their plates, only consume permitted food… and others will only make a meal symbolically on the first evening,” she said.
But some things remain essential to everyone, she added — recounting the story of the exodus from Egypt, and refraining from eating bread for seven days.
