Building Humanistic Jewish Congregations Today
Creating Continuity for Our Children for the Future
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Celebrate the Rabbi Sherwin Wine - Humanist Hero of the Year
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What is Passover?
Passover is one of the most popular festivals of the Jewish year. It is an important holiday when we gather with family and friends, to recite our ancient tales, to reflect on the ideals of freedom and leadership, and to examine oppression and tyranny. According to tradition, Passover commemorates the Jewish people's exodus from slavery in Egypt in ancient days. At Passover, we retell the biblical legend of Moses and the children of Israel escaping Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, wandering in the desert, and reaching the promised land. Humanistic Jews add the stories of the twentieth century exoduses of our parents and grandparents. Passover is a serious but joyous holiday, filled with music, good food, stories, and community.
Celebrating Passover Most celebrations reflect the ancient and traditional celebration of the holiday and include new meanings for our own day. Families often retell the ancient stories, share the rich symbols, and connect these with modern concerns and issues.
To celebrate Passover you will need: a) A printed Haggada for every person
i) A hard boiled egg ii) Haroset (an apple, cinnamon, wine, and nut condiment) iii) Bitter herbs (usually horseradish) iv) Parsley, celery, or other green
c) Plenty of matsa d) Bowls of salt water for dipping greens e) Enough grape juice or wine (customarily red) for everyone to have four cups f) A festive meal (beef is usually avoided)
In the Beginning...
In modern times, the Passover Seder (which means "order") was again imbued with fresh meaning. The civil rights struggle in the United States, the period of harsh Soviet imprisonment of "refuse-niks" (Jews who wanted to leave the Soviet Union), the womenıs movement all these modern struggles for freedom from oppression have contributed to make this holiday a more meaningful and powerful community celebration today.
New Symbols
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Passover is one of the most celebrated Jewish holidays. Family and friends usually gather for a symbolic meal called a Passover Seder. (Seder literally means "order," as in the "order of events" at a Passover dinner.) They usually read from a book called a Haggada ("the telling"), which recounts the tale of the Jewish people's struggle for freedom in the mythical story of Exodus.
b) Seder plates (can be decorated, fancy, artful, or homemade), with enough of each symbolic food for everyone to taste:
Later in Jewish history, the story of the Exodus from Egypt, an archetypal struggle for freedom from oppression and slavery, was overlaid onto these older and universal themes of birth, renewal, and sacrifice. Symbols from the older rituals were infused with new meanings connected to the story of Moses and the children of Israel leaving the tyranny of Pharaoh and finding their freedom.
An orange. This is a grand bit of urban folklore. Every community claims this story relates a conversation overheard at a bat mitsva in its biggest shul: A woman rabbi is on the bima (pulpit) and a traditional Jewish man in the congregation is said to have remarked: "a woman belongs on the bima like an orange belongs on a seder plate." Therefore many people place an orange on the Seder plate as a symbol of the sweetness of freedom and equality.
A potato. In 1987 thousands of Ethiopian Jews emigrated to Israel. They came from a land of famine and starvation. Their first meal was boiled potatoes, the fruit of the earth, so that their frail bodies, racked with hunger, would not be subjected to the shock so many victims of the concentration camps suffered when they were fed regular food too soon after liberation.
