ly binding. He will buy it back at the same price
at the end of the holiday.

Two commandments
Do you have to eat matzah every day? You may
be relieved to learn that the answer is no. There
are two mitzvot, or commandments, about matzah
and chametz that are often confused.
It is a mitzvah to eat matzah during the first
two days of Pesach. How much is enough? The
ancient rabbis determined the minimum amount
is an olive's bulk.
It is a mitzvah to refrain from eating chametz
during the entire holiday.

Parents and children
Pesach is a family affair. During the seder,
children ask their parents questions about the
holiday. In one of the readings on Shabbat be-
fore Passover, the prophet Malachi recalls the
often rocky relationship between parents and
child.
Just before "the great and terrible day of the
Lord" he predicted that Elijah "will turn the
hearts of the parents to their children and the
hearts of the children to their parents."

The seder
The seder, Hebrew for "order
volves drinking four cups of wine
cussing and then eating ri a
and recalling the early history o
Jews, culminating in the Exodus. Si
blessings and hymns of praise roue
the meal.
The seder is based on the symposi
formalized meal developed by th
and Romans in which food is accolv.
nied by discussion and four toas
wine.

Fast, then feast
First-born children have a unique role in the
Passover story. During the night before the Ex-
odus, God slew the first-born Egyptians and
saved the first-born Israelites.
In recognition and thanks, first-born Jews
(sons in the most traditional Jewish circles) fast
on the day before Pesach. An early morning cus-
tom developed in which the firstborn gather to
study. On completion of the study session, they
celebrate with a feast, thereby ending the fast
early but in a way that agrees with Jewish tra-
dition.

Pesach as birth time
As the Jewish spring holiday, Passover cele-
brates birth on several levels:
* the annual rebirth of the natural world
* the birth of the Jewish,peo
the Exodus
* spiritual birth and renew

Elijah and the messiah
The end of the seder shifts
calling the past to imagining
In traditional Judaism;
messianic age. The
of wine, belongs to
who, it is said, will return
the messiah's arriv e

Food for all
"Let all who are hungry come and eat." With
this as an admonition, many Jews give to funds
that help feed the hungry.

4ligssda edall
book for the seder is the
ah, which means "the telling."
(1, are numerous haggadot, which
as a springboard to free dis-
"*S0-10 of the holiday and its themes.
missing from the Hag-
, isthe man at the center of the
- 6<g ItOry --Moses. He isn't men-
t all, a planned omission to
7,7-iir*size God's role in the Exodus
k eep Moses from becoming
of worship.

Song of Songs
On each of the major holidays, a book from the
writings portion of the Tanach, (which also in-
cludes the Torah and the Prophets) is read. On
Pesach, it is the Song of Songs (Shin Hashirim),
a pastoral love poem set in the springtime.
On the surface, the work speaks of earthly love.
But the rabbis who decided which books would
be included in the Tanach read the Song of Songs
as an allegory. The lovers, they said, were God
and Israel.

Don't get stuck in the desert
Pesach is only part of the story. If you stop there
you just end up wandering in the desert. Keep
going and you arrive, in 50 days, at Mount Sinai.
Shavuot is the holiday that celebrates giving the
Torah at Mount Sinai, the culmination of Pesach.
Linking the two is the omer period, a remnant
from Israel's agricultural past when the farmers
counted the days between the spring barley and
wheat harvest. Jews still count the days in prepa-
ration for Shavuot.
It is said that all Jewish souls were present at
Mount Sinai. See you there.

month checkup
Chametz is seen as a metaphor
the ego, the part of us that
drives us to accomplishment,
but that also can become puffed
and haughty. Coming six
onths after the High Holi-
ys, Pesach is a time to look
rid ourselves and to even
the ego.
matzah, the poor person's
can reconnect with the en-
h*eless, the forgotten.

-crl

Knowing more
If you feel dazed by all the details of Pesach,
you are not alone. Synagogues can give you in-
formation on kashering your kitchen for the hol-
iday, on which foods are permissible and how to
sell chametz.
Following the Haggadah's dictum, many Jews
of all knowledge levels read up on the holiday
in preparation for the seder. ❑