PESACH-Passover 2010 Feast of Passover 5770 (March 30-April 6, 2010)
The Festival of Pesach (Passover or more) falls this year 2010 (5770 in the Jewish calendar) from March 30 to April 6. What
Pesach? The origins of the festival
About 3200 years ago, Jacob and his sons and their families, moved to Egypt to reach his son Joseph who had become viceroy.
The descendants of Jacob became very numerous, but they did not forget the monotheism taught by Abraham. This created what is perhaps we could define the first manifestation of xenophobia, distrust and hatred of different history. Xenophobia that erupted a real persecution. A Pharaoh, probably other than the dynasty of the Pharaoh who had elevated to the position of Viceroy Joseph, initially ordered that the children of Israel were enslaved by their use for free. In a second time because they, despite the hard work, continued to increase in number, ordered that all their sons were killed when birth.
Jocheveth, a Jewish woman from the tribe of Levi, would not submit passively to the order: he took the baby and put him in a basket that gave the current of the Nile in the hope that some miracle to save him from death.
Pharaoh's daughter saw the child, and although he had probably realized that it must have been a jew boy, was taken with great reverence, received him at court and raised him like a son. That child was Moses, as Moses in fact means "saved from the waters.
Moses became an adult she often went to visit and comfort to injure his brother slaves. Once he met an Egyptian who, sure of their impunity, abused an old man: a struggle ensued during which the Egyptian was killed.
E 'very likely that, if he had requested, Moses would have obtained the forgiveness of Pharaoh, which apparently he was very fond. But perhaps he was maturing in the spirit of prophecy that he would inform his entire life: injustice, corruption, immorality that prevailed in Egypt, especially at court, had shocked some and now needed a period of reflection, far from the royal palace, because the conscience required him to realize what was effectively its mission and its role in life.
Through the desert and stopped to Midian where he defended seven cowherd, daughters of Jethro priest of Midian, by the arrogance of some pastors. From the same Jetro was invited to stay to work with him. Moses became a shepherd, and he married a daughter of the priest of Midian, Zipporah.
The two cases, one of the leading figures in the court of Pharaoh and the pastor in touch with people dedicated to the humble work, were instrumental in the formation of his character preparing for his future role as a leader, but also as father and protector of his people.
was during the period when Moses was a shepherd with his father in law that "God heard their cries and saw the children of Israel, and had compassion on them condition "(eg 2, 24-25). Therefore appeared to Moses in a burning bush that burned but not consumed, and ordered him to return to Egypt to "dump" the sons of Israel from the yoke of the Egyptians promised that he would have always been close, and that he would send his side his brother Aaron to help him.
Pharaoh did not take into any consideration the request of Moses to let go of the people of Israel, even though these had warned of the power of the "God of Israel."
is then poured into Egypt with ten plagues devastating effects throughout the country: the Nile waters and all sources of Egypt turned into blood; followed by a plague of frogs, then the one of a number of harmful insects. Then there came an invasion of all kinds of wild beasts that made the massacre of men and cattle.
vain the Egyptian people asked Pharaoh to free the Jewish people to achieve cessation of the plagues Pharaoh at first pressed to obey the divine will, but as soon as the plague ceased, he refused to keep her promise.
The severity of the wounds became more intense: the Egyptians were stricken by the plague, covered with boils, hit by terrible storms, invaded by a host of locusts, and then by a deep darkness covered Egypt for days without ever let space for a glimmer of light.
The last plague was terrible: the angel of death, a livid night of terror, wandered among the houses of the Egyptians hit and kill all the firstborn of Pharaoh that too.
Pharaoh was forced finally to give the Jews permission to leave Egypt.
The children of Israel, after eating the Passover sacrifice - the blood of a lamb which had marked the doorposts of their homes to alert it that the angel of death "passed over" saving their first-born - were quick to abandon ' Egypt as it was commanded them: "And eat it this way: with your loins girded, your sandals on his feet with his stick in his hand. Eat it in haste: it is the Passover of the Lord "(Exodus 12:11).
Before their departure, the Egyptians offered gifts to the Jews in gold and silver, perhaps as compensation for unpaid work performed for many years. The Jews accepted the gifts and, as we shall see, they did wrong.
Zevaco The Lord commanded that Passover, the "paschal sacrifice," is worn on the first night of Passover to all future generations, why the events of that time, so full of meaning and teachings were forgotten.
But Jews must have formed during the long stay in the country, column carrier because of the contribution of work, both for the ideas, because once again the Pharaoh regretted his decision: "What have we done to let the free people of Israel who now will not serve us anymore?" (Ex 14 , 5).
At the head of his army pursued them for leading them back to their people what we might call the eleventh plague, one that likely remained the most famous: the opening of the Red Sea through which saved the Jews reached the opposite bank, while the Egyptians, who had tried to cross after them, were swallowed by the waters that are closed and drowned.
The duration of the festival
On 14
Nissan was offered the paschal sacrifice at the Temple. Only in the evening for the Jewish tradition that is already the 15th of Nissan, the real party starts with a special ceremony called the Seder. In Israel, Pesach lasts for seven days, eight out of Israel. This is due to the fact that in ancient times, in the diaspora, it was not easy to reach in time the exact date of recurrence, then, to avoid errors, you did them last a day longer. The use has been maintained, despite today do not miss the opportunity to immediately start date of the festival, to emphasize the difference between those who live in Israel and those who live outside.
The Jewish Calendar (...) Is based on the cycles of the moon, we can not fix a precise date for the holidays in the calendar year.
Reflections on the meaning of "being free"
The feast begins at sunset on the 14th of Nissan, which is roughly equivalent to the month of April.
Pesach, the time when the people of the children of Israel becomes a free people, is for Jews a symbol of freedom.
Freedom: a difficult word that lends itself to multiple interpretations and even more abuse.
Freedom can relate to the individual, or entire peoples, can affect the spirit or the body.
There is also a very individualistic concept of freedom, understood as a chance to do whatever you want with no rules or limits, regardless of the rights and freedoms of others.
How each of us is responsible for his own or other people's freedom? To what extent and how we must fight for our, or the freedom of others, without getting caught by an absurd sense of pride that can turn into arrogant arbiters of the conduct of others, or a sense of resignation that matte , referring to God the responsibility of human behavior, allows us to leave things as they are not personally participate in the liberation of those who are enslaved and oppressed?
Schiavo or oppressed by whom, or from what?
There is a moral freedom that involves our awareness of being created in the image of God "and it requires a total respect for ourselves and for others. But there is also a material freedom, freedom from poverty and want, that provides for the right to a decent life and decent heritage which must be created because each can keep the respect for himself and, consequently, to the neighbor and is This is the basic teaching that we find in the Torah for delivery immediately following the release of the Jewish people from Egypt because of the sudden freedom does not degenerate into misuse or abuse.
begin to dissect the problem into two parts: the freedom of the body and the freedom of the spirit. First, if you do not rely solely on instinct and of reason illuminated by the teaching, and here we refer to its teaching of the Torah, is comparable to the freedom of animals is not illuminated by the "discernment between good and evil," and then only following their instincts and their appetites. But it's also unfortunately
of many men who have made the brute force, indiscriminate imposition of its will on that of others, which is not only abuse, but that is easily lost on the horizon appears a man more powerful and more bully. True freedom
is the second, the spiritual. The man or the people, who have made their own, that has made an integral part of itself, is free forever and no one, ever, will make it more a slave. (...)
Why the word "Pesach" is translated as "Easter" derives
Pesach Pasoah of the Hebrew verb meaning "pass over", and refers to the episode in which the terrifying angel of death during the night the tenth plague, he stopped hitting the homes of all Egyptian first-born, but Pasach, "passed by" the doorposts of Jewish homes as a sign of recognition, was sprinkled sacrificial blood of the lamb.
Around the sixth century before the Christian era in the Middle East spread around the world a new language, Aramaic. Many of the same Jews adopted the Aramaic language as the current, and in Aramaic the word is translated as Pesach Pascha. The relevance between the two words, Pascha and Easter, is obvious.
How do you prepare to welcome the festive Jewish holiday
Each requires careful preparation, involving mostly women, but that requires a commitment to Pesach particular.
E 'wrote: "For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but before the coming of the first day keeps leaven from your homes, then observe this day throughout your generations "(Exodus 12, 15-17).
in time to relive the fateful moment of their liberation from slavery and to free people of their birth, the Jews still eat every year at Passover for seven days (eight outside of Israel), the unleavened bread. It 'easy to understand how the order to eliminate any kind of substance from the house yeast requires the woman should make a careful cleaning of the house. A commitment that women also perform with enthusiasm and extreme dusting, washing every hidden corner furniture, closets, and the whole house, to prepare to introduce the unleavened bread, which is the unleavened bread, which in Hebrew is called matzah.
The reason for Passover Jews eat unleavened bread is to be found in the fact that they went out of Egypt so hurriedly that they had no time to make the bread rise. If we examine the history and customs of the ancient people of Israel, we discover in the unleavened bread much more profound and mystical meanings: the unleavened bread was the one who ate the high priest during the sacrifices on the altar. Centuries later became the bread commonly used by the mystical sect of the Essenes.
Evidently the ancient Jewish civilization was a refusal to yeast, perhaps because, being the result of fermentation of a mixture of flour, the it was losing the characteristics of a pure food, turning it into food unclean: it therefore assumes the Jewish conception of what the symbol should not be, in practice, the symbol of evil. It is interesting to note the relevance between the names hametz, "leavened food, and Hamas," violence "and injustice and immorality. The house will disappear from all kinds of leavened food must therefore be construed as an invitation to clear our mind from all kinds of hametz, or Hamas, of any residue of hatred, resentment, violence, corruption, to introduce free and pure before the Lord, so worthy to offer the pesach Zevaco, the "Passover sacrifice" (but after the destruction of the Second Temple was no longer possible to take shape in concrete).
The Masters of the Mishnah, the oral law that accompanies and completes the written law, shall also provide that during the days of Passover, to avoid any possible doubt or transgression, are used tableware and containers from fire than those of the rest ' years; containers which are carefully kept from year to year in a place where we never chance to come into contact with the forbidden foods of Passover.
For women, particularly those closely observing the preparation of the Passover and then became a commitment rather burdensome and stressful considering the short time elapsing between the yeast and the elimination of exchange for all of Passover dishes. Besides just the accuracy of this exhibition underscores the value of the party.
But it is essential, in our opinion, remember that the observance of the precepts should never be an end in itself at the risk of turning into superstition. His real aim is to recall the crucial importance of what the party tells us.
The Seder
The first night of Passover (the first hard nights outside Israel) Jewish families gather around a table set in a special way to celebrate the Seder, a ceremony during which the Haggadah of the law, the narrative of the Jews from Egypt, enriched midrashim (parabolas) and comments of the Masters, and followed by a dinner that ends with choral singing of hymns and melodies that are passed down from generation to generation, from place to place.
(...) The Seder ceremony is a highly educational in many ways. At every table, to underline the sense of freedom just acquired, is allowed to sit at the table without following the strict rules of etiquette: you can rest your elbows on the table, or lie down comfortably on the chairs, the guests things that adults in general, to old habit, avoid doing, but that makes it extremely happy children who relish in their own way the first sense of freedom.
The table set is placed in basket containing three unleavened bread (matzah), in memory of the unleavened bread eaten in the desert, a leg of lamb (Pesach), in memory of Zevaco Pesach, the Paschal sacrifice made by the people that it was going to come out of bondage, and bitter herb (maror), varies according to the traditions and origins of those who celebrated the Seder in memory of bitterness suffered by the Jews in slavery. The maror
symbolizes perhaps the most important step towards the conquest of liberty. The bitterness of the past, let it ferment, "rise" in the soul and heart, could transform the Jewish people in a cruel and vindictive people, has instead been made into a basic education is necessary to face life with a more conscious and serene view of the relationship between men, it is essential to turn the hearts and soul with deep affection and understanding towards the poor, the oppressed, the suffering.
From the bitterness of slavery has created an unquenchable hatred for slavery, ours and that of any creature, and an equally unquenchable love of liberty to which every human being has the right, and that only, will allow the children of Israel in future to survive to fulfill the mission.
Before the destruction of the Temple, every family who went to pilgrimage to Jerusalem bearing his lamb of sacrifice, which was then roasted and eaten. But because the Temple was destroyed and the sacrifices stopped, the Masters have decided that, to remember the severe loss during the Seder dinner is not served any kind of roasted meat.
addition to these three symbols of Passover (Pesach, matzah, maror), the basket is a hard-boiled egg, the charoseth, also a mixture prepared according to recipes that vary according to the traditions of the various places of origin, and to symbolize the mortar that the Jews were slaves in Egypt had to prepare to manufacture the bricks with which they built the city of Pharaoh. For the Seder, however, the mortar becomes a sweet mixture of fruit, dates, walnuts, almonds, and another to mark the end of slavery. Then there is the celery (Carpasio), which must be dipped in water and salt or vinegar and water, probably a kind of drink with a view to dinner.
is placed on the table, in addition to the glass for the Kiddush, the sanctification of the festival through the wine and bread, another silver cup filled with wine for the prophet Elijah. The tradition holds that the Prophet, during the first night of Passover, wanders among the houses of the Jews to bring their good wishes to the families that celebrate the Seder, and everyone hopes to be part of the privileged ones who will receive his visit.
The visit is all the more expected because the tradition says that it will be just the prophet Elijah to proclaim to the world reach the Age messianic. And every jew alive the hope that the messianic era, the era of peace, harmony and love among all peoples, is right there behind the door, which leads in fact, during the Seder, is left open because it is said: "Who wants to come in, eat and celebrate Passover."
Perhaps use also is linked to the Talmud in which wrote: "In the month of Nissan we were redeemed, and the month of Nissan we are destined to be redeemed (Rosh ha-Shanah 11).
It is worth dwelling a moment on the significance of the egg hard. For Judaism, it has a value all its own. The egg is the first food that is offered to those who are mourning the loss of a close relative, as is the symbol of life that is about to be born, in opposition to the death. So when our soul is in despair and we seem unable to find neither comfort nor consolation to an irretrievable loss, it teaches us that life that lives in us is a gift that God has granted us, and that this gift, we must find the strength to continue our work.
addition, the egg has no corners, so it has neither a start nor an end point. So its roundness, just as which it seems that death is all over, reminding us that life is a cycle that, as the egg has no beginning and no end: from loved ones who received the life and teachings, who leaves behind the pain of the children to whom they have sent the life and teachings continue to live through them.
And this is a humane way to conquer eternity.
The sign of mourning that we add to the festive basket of the Seder, and that tradition is being consumed by all the firstborn males (but also other guests will want to join can do so) is a sad reminder of the innocent first-born sons of the Egyptians, who are victims of blind obstinacy of Pharaoh. Precisely for this reason it is the firstborn who jew, to show their grief at the death of the Egyptian brothers, used to eat hard-boiled egg.
For the same reason the first-born males, the day before Pesach, are fasting.
We said that the Seder is very important from a pedagogical point of view: the Kiddush after the first surgery is reserved for the younger diners, or in chorus, the youngest, is the nishtannah Mah: "How is this night different from all other nights. " The song consists of four questions that the children refer to adults: "Because all other nights we eat bread, and unleavened tonight? Because all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables, and tonight bitter herb? Because all other non-dipping night (referring to celery dipped in salt water or vinegar) not once, twice, and this evening? Because all other nights we eat sitting, and lying down tonight? ".
questions give way to the answers given by reading the Haggadah which tells the miraculous events related exit from Egypt.
During the Seder we have four glasses of wine in memory of the four expressions used by God to Moses what promises to be the next release of the people "will subtract" from the suffering in Egypt, "" I will bring them out "from the place of slavery;" redeem them and take them as my people. " They represent different stages of newly regained freedom that are rising to increasingly higher levels up to the sanctity of "take them as my people" (Exodus 6:7).
The Torah adds a fifth expression, and "I will bring them into the land promised to their fathers" (Exodus 6:8). There can not be in effect a complete moral freedom if it is not tied to a freedom of action, possible only in a proper and independent stage.
During the reading of the Haggadah are named the ten plagues that hit Egypt and for each it makes a bit 'of wine in the glass in a container: this both hope that these misfortunes are always far away from us and our families is a reminder that no joy can be complete if it has cost grief and pain to others, and finally, to hope that we never repeat a situation where a people deserve to be hit by so many plagues.
A particularly interesting, psychologically and pedagogically very valuable, is dedicated to the reading of the passage concerning the "four sons": the wise, the simple, one who is unable even to ask, and the bad son.
The four children representing various types of which humanity is made and the text of the Haggadah provides us with important insights on kind of a response to each of them.
the essay, that is the one who asks a question sharp and complex, it must provide an adequate response, scholarly and thorough, that does not disappoint nor underestimate the intelligence and learning ability of an applicant. At
simple answers need to be clear and understandable to enable him to understand fully the significance of what he is saying, inspiring them to make new applications possible.
Particularly important is the teaching that is given to a child who is unable to ask questions, the Haggadah tells us: "To him who knows to ask, you Aprigliano mouth." Important to note that the phrase "open you", the "you" is expressed in the feminine, "open" to the male. The first teacher is the mother of the child, then touches her particularly, since the beginning, follow carefully his mental development, but is the father who must assist and support his wife in this work. It is concluded that only the collaboration between father and herds allows a normal, peaceful character development in children.
addition, if a child shows himself totally disinterested in the world around him, no questions and also raises questions, if any sign of isolation and not in any way participate in the life around him, far from pleased with the "good character "of the child that does not disturb," Aprigliano mouth " urges that his curiosity, coinvolgilo in events that take place to make it alive, interested and involved, thus helping them to grow and get smarter and in society.
intriguing and ironic is the answer to that intended son in the Haggadah is named for the second: the son of "evil", perhaps longer falls into the category of young protesters in that of real bad guys.
He asks, "What does this ceremony (the Seder) for you?" Demand that states: "For you, and not for me."
arises in this way, with a certain arrogant superiority, completely outside of group.
suggests the Haggadah: "You hit reply (literally" let him grind his teeth ")," If you had been present at the time of salvation, you would not be saved. " A seemingly merciless
response.
But we reflect on the reasons why young people so many times, and sometimes rightly, to challenge certain attitudes, certain uses inherited and perhaps not sufficiently or logically explained. Our task is to clarify to enable them to understand. Well, with the soundbite "you would not have been saved," the Haggadah calls the young man to revive a personal responsibility in making him the first person, today, the dramatic moment of slavery. Here, the Haggadah says, if you, now sit down with us free, and you can talk freely of the era of slavery, which you now waste your responsibilities and contexts of the past, you had been with our firstborn to choose between slavery and freedom, with all the responsibilities that such a choice involved, maybe you cowardly chose to continue to serve Pharaoh. In this way you would not have merited the salvation and you'd still be slaves today.
The Haggadah does not mention, however, the existence of a fifth child, what is not there because it is detached from any form of tradition is lost. A
any questions, including that of the protester may be answered, a response that can be discussed, which can enrich those who do and who receives it with new interpretations that are not necessarily at odds or in conflict with earlier ones, but even innovative and progressive.
But the child that is not present is lost.
The Seder ends with a long line of traditional choral songs composed many verses, whose outstanding characteristic is that of repetition, the end of each verse, a phrase that all the guests to the best knowledge of tradition, and then sing a loud voice with great enthusiasm.
Finally the song is sung all next year in Jerusalem, rebuilt, and is distributed in the afikomen, prepared in the beginning of the Seder, which symbolizes the Passover sacrifice and that must be consumed when it is already full.
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I have to admit to myself before others. The thing I was a bit 'out of hand. With the recent transplants, the last sowing, transplantation experiments with substrates of home-made, in various concentrations, etc., the quantity of flasks me is a bit 'exploded. In Plexiglas boxes and then there were more, thanks to the summer that slowly progresses, the longer days and mild temperatures, I scattered Home. These photos are the ones that I have amassed in front of the window of the room, facing northwest. A late afternoon I have to pull the curtains to avoid direct exposure. Others are on the furniture of other rooms with different exposures. Some hope to forget what the expectation of the germination of sown now made back in November, is unnerving. Something really seems to move in a flask of Phalaenopsis cornu deer, but look for good luck to talk about it. 
