 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
Pesach, known as Passover in English, is a major Jewish spring festival, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago. The ritual observance of this holiday centers around a special home service called the seder (meaning "order") and a festive meal; the prohibition of chametz (leaven); and the eating of matzah (an unleavened bread). On the eve of the fifteenth day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, we read from a book called the Haggadah, meaning "telling," which contains the order of prayers, rituals, readings and songs for the Pesach seder. The Pesach seder is the only ritual meal in the Jewish calendar year for which such an order is prescribed, hence its name.
This year, to help you and your family better prepare for Pesach and the seder we have created a digital resource centre we're calling “The Pesach Project” which is filled with ideas, activities and recipes designed to make you celebration as memorable and meaningful as it can be!
Family Seder: Second Night of Pesach - Sold Out!
Irmas Campus
Tuesday, April 19, 5:00 p.m.
Pesach (Passover) Yizkor Service
Irmas Campus
Tuesday, April 26, 9:00 a.m.
“The Pesach Project” is divided into eight distinct areas. Feel free to explore any or all that interest you!
Pesach is one of the most celebrated holidays on the Jewish calendar. The holiday involves the Seder, a meal in which eating and discussing topics related to Passover is done in a designated order, guided by the Passover Haggadah.
Music helps to tell stories, speaking louder than mere words.
It is becoming increasing common for families to personalize their seder by supplementing the traditional text of the Haggadah in creative and poignant ways.
The Seder nights is one of the most memorable of the Jewish calendar.
While the main meal of the Pesach Seder often varies from country to country – and family to family – there are several specific ingredients to a Seder that are part of every celebration, whether it is held in Jerusalem, Sydney or New York City.
In Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, it says, “You shall count… from the day that you brought the Omer as a wave offering” (23:15). Between Pesach and Shavuot we count off 49 days (seven weeks plus one more day) of spiritual preparation for the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot. The seven weeks between Passover (Pesach) and the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) are an especially meaningful time to do personal spiritual work. During this period, called the Omer (“sheaf offering”), we focus internally as we allow ourselves to parallel the story of our people wandering in the desert. Their journey becomes our spiritual journey. This is known as the period of “Counting the Omer.”
Symbols are a powerful way of making ideas tangible; they have an immediacy which the spoken word alone lacks. The significance of the Seder meal is, as our Sages tell us, that we should experience the retelling of the story in order to see ourselves as though we personally had left Egypt. There are, of course, many kinds of ‘Egypts’; material, psychological and spiritual, and ultimately we must break out of all of them. It is the visual and tactile force of the symbol which helps us come closer to our ancient roots, so that we can draw inspiration from them to break out of our own personal Egypt, whatever form it might take.
