lose

Don't Itnow Much About
Pesach?

No worry, just make sure to ask more than four questions.

PHIL JACOBS
Contributing Editor

"Why is this night different from all
other nights?"

"In every generation, a man is oblig-
ated to regard himself as if he personally
was liberated from Egypt."

K, tonight is the blessed
event. Some of us have got-
ten every last crumb of
chametz out of the house.
Many of us have spent hundreds of
dollars on products that seem to be a
tad more expensive this year than in
past years.
Tonight, we'll get together and do
what more Jews observe than any other
holiday, the seder. We'll read the
ancient texts, eat some great soup and
chicken, ask The Four Questions, sing
some songs, drink four cups of wine,
open the door for Elijah, and some of
us ... well some of us ... will wonder
what we're doing beyond eating and
having a good time.
That's OK.
Just in case you wanted to know
some basics about Passover, something
you can take to the table with you,
here goes. For information on how to
put together a seder, what should go
on a seder plate, how to find Haggadot,
there are so many sources local to you.
There are Passover Web sites on the
Internet. Just type in as a keyword,
Passover, and you won't believe the
resources at your fingertips. The best
resource are your family members,
teachers, rabbis and friends. The worst
thing all of us can do is to not ask a
question. Passover has its famous Four
Questions. .You should not hold it to
four. Ask anything. Do not be embar-
rassed. Perhaps the best thing a child
can see is when a parent asks a ques-
tion.
The name of our holiday, Passover,
comes from the Hebrew Pesach, which
means to skip or pass over. You proba-
bly know the rest. Don't be embar-
rassed if you don't. The 10th plague of
the Passover story involves the killing
of the first-born Egyptian sons. To dis-

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tinguish the Jewish sons from the
Egyptians, blood of the lamb was
smeared on the doorposts.
Chametz, chametz, so much about
chametz. What is chametz? Its literal
translation means "sour." OK, before
we go much further, you should know
that matzah, the "bread of affliction"
wasn't just made by Jews when they
were in a hurry to get out of town. It
also was used in the Temple during
sacrifices. Anything leavened was con-
sidered impure in the temple. Matzah
has such an important meaning for the
Passover story, because the Jews had
little or no time to await the rising of
their bread prior to the Exodus.
Seder — it means order. It's simply
the order_of this remarkable story of
freedom that we read in the Hagad-
dah. Oh, there's another word. Hag-
gadah is a book of instruction. The
word Haggadah
means to tell. There
are tons of these
books around to fit
one's taste, level of
knowledge and
feelings about this
holiday. Let's get
back to the seder. It
is described in the
Torah in Exodus.
Families would
come together,
slaughter a lamb
and share. Those
not fortunate
enough to have a
lamb were invited
to eat. We offer the
same invitation this
day to those less
fortunate.
Speaking of that, you might see or
hear the term maot chittim. It means
money for wheat or, literally, money for
the wheat needed to bake matzos for
Passover. Local groups in cities such as
Baltimore and Detroit raise thousands
of dollars to make sure that everyone
has an opportunity for a seder. Let's not
forget that Passover has got to be the
most expensive holiday to observe, so
for some, the help is greatly appreciated.
And speaking of money, how about

two zuzim? What is a zuzim? Money
well spent, according to the seder. In
the song, "Had Gadya," the verses tell
of a man who buys a goat for these
two zuzim. Then the goat is eaten by a
cat. The dog bites the cat, a stick hits
the dog, a fire burns the stick, water
puts out the fire, an ox drinks the
water, a slaughterer kills the ox, and
then the Angel of Death comes along (.±\
and takes the slaughterer. Then God
comes along and slays the Angel of
Death. Symbolism? Oy. You've got the
Jewish people. The message is that
anyone who seeks to harm the Jewish
people will be destroyed.
Talking about songs, how about
everybody's favorite, "Dayenu." It
means, it would have been enough.
Each miracle that God performed for c/
the Jews would have been "Dayenu"?
But dayenu with that.
What's a seder
plate? A plate
containing sever-
al separate seg-
ments. It
includes: three
matzahs, a roast-
ed shank bone,
an egg, bitter
herbs, charoset, a
vegetable such as
parsley and a sec-
ond portion of
bitter herbs.
Why four
cups of wine?
They reflect the
four parts of
redemption
expressed in the
Hagaddah, "I
removed you," "I
rescued you," "I redeemed you," and
"I took you."
Here's an observation to have. If
you look at Passover and the seder as
being about an event that happened
thousands of years ago, and that you
have no association with that event,
you've missed the point. Passover is
about freedom. How can you relate to
the freedom of a Jew leaving Egypt?
You can do so through self-examina-
tion. When one looks in the figurative

