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80 Friday, March 28, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Passover — The Relevance of the Festival of Freedom

By DVORA WAYSMAN

World Zionist Organization

Why do we celebrate
Passover? We are told that
each one of us is to regard
himself as if he personally
had gone out of Egypt.
Egypt — in Hebrew "Mit-
zrayim" — stems from the
root word "tzar" meaning
narrow and constrained. To
say that we must leave
Egypt is to say that each one
of us must struggle to break
out of his narrowness, free
himself to attain his full
potential . . . spiritual, emo-
tional and psychological.
Even after leaving Egypt,
the Jews wandered for 40
years in the desert before
reaching the promised land.
The Seder feast is cen-
tral to the celebration of
Passover. The entire ex-
tended family partici-
_pates, and this very com-
ing together of all — men,
women and children —
sets the scene for the
whole event. Each of us at
the Seder has a role to ful-
fill. All of us are to ex-
perience the Exodus our-
selves at this time; thus
the symbolism of the

Seder must reach both the Sabbath — you shall
adults and children. count off seven weeks. They
Great care and concern must be complete."
should thus be taken to (Leviticus 23:15).
make sure that the chil-
For "Kabalists" and mys-
dren participate fully tics there are further levels
and receive proper ex- of meaning in this ritual.
planations.
Seven is an extremely pow-
It is customary to invite erful number — represent-
others who have no Seder, ing the days of creation.
particularly the poor in the Seven times seven is even
community. The words: more so. Beyond this, the
"Let all who are hungry word "sefira" (counting) is
come and eat" should be also the word for the 10
taken seriously. This is the levels of divine emanation
night when the prophet ("sefirot"). Each day takes
Elijah is to visit each house. on the character of the com-
Legend relates that Elijah bined power of one "sefira"
dresses as a beggar to see if within another (hesed —
he will be received — and to love; gevura — power;
see if the world is yet ready tiferet — beauty; netza —
and worthy of the Messiah.
victory; hod — majesty;
On the second night of yesod — foundation; Mal-
Passover, wp begin count- kut — Queen.) Thus, the
ing the Omer for 49 days 19th day of counting the
(seven full weeks — that is, Omer is "hod-she-be-
seven times seven), ending tiferet" majesty which is in
with Shavuot. This links beauty.
the Exodus and rebirth of
However, the main lesson
the people with the of Passover is freedom. It is
encounter between the so important that it is re-
people and God (the giving ferred to in the very first of
of the Law):
the Ten Commandments:
"And from the day on
"/ am the Lord thy God,
which you bring the sheaf of who brought thee out of the
wave offering —the day after Land of Egypt, out of the

house of bondage."
Liberty, man's birthright,
is the first of the Divine
Commandments.
Congregated at tables in
every Israeli home celebrat-
ing the Seder are Jews who
can easily identify with the
command to regard them-
selves as if they personally
had gone out of Egypt.
Many of them actually did
so.
Many more came from
other Arab countries,
where today their breth-
ren are still being op-
pressed as well as sur-
vivors of the Holocaust,
and Soviet Jews whose
families are still impris-
oned behind the Iron
Curtain.
For all of us, the message
of Passover remains relev-
ant and universal.
"Next year in Jerusalem"
means the beginning of the
prophecy of Ezekiel: For I
will take you from among
the nations, and gather you
out of all the countries, and
will bring you into your own
land."
Jews in Israel add a word
to the original, and say

Jerusalem's Centrality in Judaism, Passover

By JANET MENDELSOHN

World Zionist Organization

Called the "dwelling
place of the Lord" and the
very essence of the Jewish
people, Jerusalem is central
to the Jewish nation.
Throughout the ages, this
ethereal yet earthly capital
_has attracted the muse and
martyr as well as modern
man.
into
Incorporated
prayers, hearts and devo-
tions are directed towards
this eternal city. Remem-
bered every Passover with
the vow "Next Year in
Jerusalem!," the hope that
the People of Israel will re-
build the Temple has re-
mained firm.
With a history of 4,000
years, Jerusalem, which
has been revered and ad-
mired throughout her his-
tory, has also been de-
stroyed and reduced to
ruins. Perhaps the greatest
destruction was in 70 CE,
when the Second Temple
was rampaged by the Ro-
mans during the Passover
pilgrimage.
"The whole nation had
been shut up by fate as in a
prison, and when war
encompassed the city, it was
packed with inhabitants,"
wrote First Century histo-
rian Josephus Fla-
vius. In his "Jewish Wars,"
Flavius also reports that
over a million Jews were
killed and close to 100,000
imprisoned in this massive
destruction.

Shown is a map made in 1580 showing Jerusalem
as the center of the world.
Attracted to the city on season approaches. They
Passover, one of three pil- are witness to the early days
grimage festivals to of spring that earmark the
Jerusalem, Jews from all holiday as well as the in-
over the Land of Israel, as numerable holiday prep-
as well as the Diaspora; arations.
Free historical tours of
were killed, by the Roman
the city are offered, and
Legion led by Titus.
Today, the festival of hotels, - synagogues,
Passover is celebrated the yeshivot and private homes
world over. After the de- welcome tourists to celeb-
struction of the Temple, the rate the traditional Seder
holiday became an interna- meal. Before the festival
tional festival recalling the begins, houses are scrubbed
deliverance of the Children and polished to remove all
of Israel from slavery. A traces of leavened foods, and
regular order of prayers was the city itself sparkles.
The aroma of a special
devised and the Haggada
was written to tell the story type of hand-baked matzot
of the Jews' delivery into wafts out of Jerusalem's
freedom, the story that was side streets, as the carefully
once told on the Temple baked round matzot are
prepared for use the world
Mount.
Visitors to Jerusalem still over. In nearby kibutzim
stream into the city in the the counting of the omer, or
thousands as the Passover reaping of the first sheaves

of barley, is reminiscent of
the days of the Temple when
these contributions were of-
fered to the Temple priests
until the Feast of Weeks, or
Shavout, 49 days later.
Not far from Jerusalem,
the small sect of Samaritans
still perform the ancient
paschal sacrifice, as in the
First Century. The few
hundred members of this
dwindling group claim to be
the surviving remnant of
the House of Israel, who
never left the ancestral soil
of the Bible. Following the
ancient traditions, the
entire community makes a
pilgrimage to Mt. Grizim
with an offering of sacrifi-
cial sheep, and they spend
the week of Passover in
canvas tents.
Passover recalls the
stormy paths of Jewish his-
tory, but it is the spirit of
freedom which primarily
characterizes the festival.
Jewish history may be
spattered with blood spilled
by our enemies, but it also
projects for, all to see the
faith and freedom to which
Jewry has clung for cen-
turies, and the eternal long-
ing for Zion. Until Jews the
world over can live in ac-
cordance with their Jewish
heritage, faith and culture
in the place of their choice,
it is appropriate to recall the
cry of Moses to "Let my
people go" and the words of
Rabbi Jacob Emden, writ-
ten in the year 1745:
"So hear me, brothers and
friends, remember
Jerusalem . . . and do not,
Heaven forbid, think of set-
tling outside the Land. It
seems to us that as soon as
we enjoy some tranquillity
outside the Land of Israel, it
is as though we have found
another Land of Israel and
another Jerusalem, and that
is why all these evils have
come upon us."

Shown is a Passover matza holder for the Seder
table. It was crafted by Jerusalem silversmith
Michael Ende, an eighth generation Sabra.
"Next year in Jerusalem the liberation from oppression
Rebuilt," referring to the and of national and reli-
gious independence, as
Messianic belief: "And I will
put my spirit within you, passed down from genera-
and cause you to work in My tion to generation through
statutes" in a society the Passover festival in
founded on social justice, on general, and the Seder in
truth and on peace.
particular, has lost not a
Three thousand years whit of its beauty, its au-
have passed since the thenticity and its timeless-
Exodus. Yet the message of ness.

All Kinds of Passover Matza

By DR SHUMEL
HIME LSTE IN

World Zionist Ortanization

A freethinker who visited
Israel during Passover
wouldn't find a Jewish store
or bakery willing to sell him
bread, cake or any other
leavened product. , In fact
this is the time of year that
all bakeries take their an-
nual vacation.
Cookies and crackers
suddenly disappear off the
supermarket shelves, or
else are covered by long
rolls of paper. Some 80 per-
cent of all Israelis do not eat
bread during Passover.
The choices of matza
available are remarkable.
In addition to the normal
machine-made matza, to
which most of us are accus-
tomed, there is hand-made
matza produced in little
bakeries, each group or sect
having its own bakery.
Then again, there is the
special shmura matza, in
which the wheat has been
guarded at every single
stage, to be sure that it has
not come into contact with
water (ordinary matza is
only "guarded" from the
time it is kneaded).
Finally, to top them all

off, we have the most dif-
ficult matza of all to produce
— the so-called matzat
mitzva, which is matza
baked on the day before the
Seder, or just a few short
hours before the Seder be-
gins. There are, of course,
very limited quantities of
this available, because of
the short time span in which
it can be baked.
(Incidentally, because of
the seven-hour difference
between Israel and the U.S.,
there is matzat mitzva
which is baked on the day
before Passover in Israel,
flown to the United States,
taken off by waiting cars,
and distributed before the
Seder in New York!)
While matza is eaten dur-
ing the entire seven days of
the festival, there are those
poor souls who can hardly
wait to savor the taste of
bread. The Arab bakers,
knowing this, prepare for
the end of the festival by
baking large quantities of
pita bread. Thus, through-
out Israel, little signs are
put up by the rabbinate in-
forming Jews as to the ear-
liest opportunity that one
may buy bread after the fes-
tival.

Shown is matza being made at a factory in
Jerusalem.