Passover

The story behind the day

Passover, Pesach, begins on the 15th of Nisan in spring and commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, as the Book of Exodus tells it. For its whole length Jews avoid leavened grain, chametz, and eat matzah. The evening seder retells the Exodus from the Haggadah, with four cups of wine and symbolic foods. The festival lasts seven days in Israel and eight elsewhere, and it is the Jewish festival kept most widely in the home.^[1–5]

Origins

Exodus 12 presents the rite: each family takes a lamb, keeps it until the fourteenth day, and puts its blood on the doorposts, and God promises to pass over the houses so marked. The name Pesach is tied to that passing over, and the lamb. Unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days, and the Torah calls the festival one to be kept throughout the ages. The critical scholarly view is that Pesach, a shepherds' spring rite, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, tied to the barley harvest, began as two festivals that were later combined, with the Exodus giving both a historical meaning.^{[1, 6–7, 9]}

How it is kept

Chametz, leavened grain, is avoided for the whole festival, and matzah, a flat unleavened bread, is eaten in its place. At the seder, four cups of wine stand for four expressions of redemption. Jews outside Israel hold seders on the first two nights. On the seventh day the Torah reading recounts the crossing of the Sea of Reeds.^{[3–4, 8, 15–16]}