The term pesah is used in the Bible solely with respect to the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, which took place on the eve of the Exodus, the 14th of Nisan (Exodus Ch. 12).

Pesah (Passover) is also called the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Hag ha-Matzot); matzah is eaten throughout the holiday in remembrance of the bread baked in haste by the Israelites as they left Egypt; Jewish law prescribes that no leavened bread may be owned or consumed throughout the holiday.

Beginning on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan, Passover is the second of the three major pilgrimage festivals when the Israelites were enjoined to make to offer as a sacrifice a tithe of their produce, which was to be eaten in Jerusalem. The agricultural aspect of the festival is connected with the spring season (Pesah is also called the Holiday of Spring) and the beginning of the barley harvest.

The celebration of the barley harvest found expression in ancient times in the offering of the omer — a sheaf of newly harvested barley - in the Temple on the second day of the festival. Only after offering the omer and the appropriate accompanying sacrifice were the pilgrims permitted to eat the grain of the new harvest (Lev. 23:10-14).

The story of Israel's enslavement and subsequent liberation is retold annually at the ritual meal known as the seder (order), with the central narrative and liturgy found in a text called the haggadah (recounting).

The injunction to retell the tale of the Exodus appears in Exodus 13:8 and makes use of the verb "v'higgade-ta" (and you shall tell) on which the word haggadah (literally the "telling" of the Passover story) is based. The term haggadah has come to refer, by extension, to the manuscript or book which contains the liturgical and literary content of the seder.

In the Diaspora, the seder is held at home on the first two nights of Pesah, while in Israel only on the first night. The seder began as a rabbinic version of the 1st-century Greco-Roman ritualized meals called symposia, and gradually developed a larger and larger narrative accompaniment, which became fixed in the haggadah.

While the haggadah, one of the most frequently illustrated and reproduced Jewish texts from the Middle Ages, consistently conveys the message of freedom and liberation, many editions have been altered over time to reflect contemporary issues.

Orthodox haggadot today contain the entire text as tradition has preserved it, while liberal Jews, particularly Reform, have adapted the text, replacing some of the older readings with other material. The Kibbutz movement has produced haggadot with socialist/secular themes, Freedom haggadot from the cold war period strengthened solidarity with Soviet Jewry, and women's haggadot, more recently, have incorporated feminist ideals in a Jewish literary context.

The bread we eat on Passover is unleavened either because our forefathers, when under divine guidance they were starting on their migration, were so intensely hurried that they brought the lumps of dough unleavened; or else because at that season, namely the springtime, when the [springtime] feast is held, the fruit of the corn has not reached its perfection, for the fields are in the early stage and not yet mature for harvest. It was the imperfection of this fruit (which belonged to the future, though it was to reach its perfection very shortly) that God considered might be paralleled by the unleavened food, which is also imperfect. This serves to remind us of the comforting hope that nature, possessing as she does a superabundant wealth of things needful, is already preparing her yearly gifts to the human race.

Another suggestion made by the interpreters of the holy scriptures is that food, when unleavened, is a gift of nature, whereas leavened food is a work of art. For men, in their eagerness to temper the barely necessary with the pleasant, have learned through practice to soften by art what nature has made hard. Since, then, the springtime feast, as I have laid down, is a reminder of the creation of the world (its earliest inhabitants, children of earth in the first or second generations, must have used the gifts of the universe in their unperverted state before pleasure had got the mastery). G-d ordained for use on this occasion the food most fully in accordance with the season [so as to] to rekindle the embers of the serious and ascetic mode of faring... to confer admiration and honor on the old-time life of frugality and economy, and as far as possible to assimilate our present-day life to that of the distant past....

Leaven bread is forbidden because of the rising which it produces. Here again we have a symbol of the truth, that none as he approaches the altar should be uplifted or puffed up by arrogance; ...even though he may be superior to others in prosperity...let him reduce the overweening exaltation of his pride by laying low that pestilent enemy, conceit. For if the Creator and Maker of the universe, though needing nothing of all that He has begotten, has regard to your weakness and not to the vastness of His might and sovereignty, makes you a partaker in His gracious power and fills up the deficiencies that belong to your life, how ought you to treat other men, your natural kinfolk, seedlings from the same elements as yourself, you who brought nothing into the world, not even yourself? For naked you came into the world, worthy sir, and naked will you again depart, and the span of time between your birth and death is a loan to you from God. During this span what can be meet for you to do but to study fellow-feeling and goodwill and equity and humanity and what else belongs to virtue, and to cast away the inequitable, unrighteous and unforgiving viciousness which turns man, naturally the most civilized of creatures, into a wild and ferocious animal!

Why does He say (Exodus 12:8) that they shall offer unleavened bread on bitter herbs together with the above-mentioned sacrifice?

Unleavened bread is [a sign] of great haste and speed while the bitter herbs [are a sign] of the life of bitterness and struggle which they endure as slaves. That is the literal meaning. But as for the deeper meaning, this is worth noting: bread that which is leavened and fermented rises, while that which is unleavened is low. Each of these is a symbol of types of soul, one being haughty and swollen with arrogance, the other being unchangeable and prudent, choosing the middle way rather than extreme....

The bitter herbs are a manifestation of a psychic migration, through which one moves from...wickedness to virtue. For those who naturally and genuinely repent become bitter toward their former way of life and are vexed with their wretched life.... We, who desire repentance, eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs, that is, we eat [bitter herbs representing] bitterness over our old and unendurable life, and then [we eat unleavened bread representing] the opposite of overboastful arrogance through meditation on humility, which is called reverence.

A special "seder plate" contains symbolic reminders of the sacrificial service in the Temple (roasted shankbone and roasted egg), foods that remained uneaten. Also on the plate are symbolic foods which are eaten as part of the ritual meal: haroset, a sweet paste made from wine, fruits, and nuts, symbolizing the mortar from which the Israelites made bricks; karpas, greens dipped in salt water, symbolizing the green of new life mixed with tears of slavery; and potatoes, harvested from the earth like greens and introduced in countries where spring was late and/or greens were unavailable.

Also part of the ritual meal are eggs, signifying rebirth and eternal life, a final piece of matzah (afikoman) which concludes the meal, and four cups of wine, indicating God's saving presence four times in Jewish history. A talmudic dispute regarding a fifth cup, symbolizing deliverance at the end of time, led to the custom of filling — but not drinking — a fifth cup, subsequently called "Elijah's cup."

Elijah is, according to tradition, the mevasser (announcer, heralder), he who will announce the coming of the Messiah. The door is thus opened to welcome the harbinger of salvation and consolation.

The dietary laws requiring the eating of matzah on the first night, also forbid the eating of any hametz (leaven) throughout the holiday. The rabbis added extra stringency to these regulations, forbidding the presence of the smallest amount of leaven in a particular food, and requiring the use of special utensils which never came into contact with leaven. The house is therefore scrubbed and special care is taken to remove all bread items from the home; special Passover dishes and pots are removed from storage to replace the usual sets during the course of the festival.

A pre-Pesah ceremony, bedikat hametz (checking for leaven) and bi'ur hametz (burning the hametz) is performed in the home to ensure that all hametz has been removed.

To make sure that "there be no leaven found in your houses" (Exodus 12:15), the rabbis instituted a ceremonial search (bedikat hametz) for leavened substances, which takes place after dark on the eve of 14 Nisan. All nooks and crannies are examined (sometimes by candlelight) and swept out with a feather. As this is a formal religious ceremony, a blessing is recited as part of the ritual.

So that the blessing not be in vain, it has become customary in many communities to hide small pieces of bread, for which the children then search. The following morning, the ceremony is concluded with bi'ur hametz (burning the hametz), also accompanied by a blessing. The appropriate prayers and blessings may be found in any standard siddur (prayerbook).

The first two nights (one in Israel) and the last two nights (one in Israel) of the festival are welcomed with lighting of festival candles and the recitation of the appropriate blessing.

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha'olam, asher kid-shanu be'mitzvotav ve'tzivanu le-hadlik ner shel Yom Tov (when the festival falls on Shabbat, the concluding words are "ner shel Shabbat v'Yom Tov").

(Praised are You, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your mitzvot and has commanded us to kindle light for the festival.)

The Shehe'heyanu prayer, thanking God for the gift of life and having brought us to this season, is recited on the first night.

Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha'olam, she'hecheyanu v'kiymanu v'higiyanu laz-mahn ha-zeh.

(Praised are You, Sovereign of the Universe, for granting us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day.

A prayer for dew is recited on the first day of the festival, marking the end of the winter season and the beginning of spring. On Sabbath which falls on Pesah, Song of Songs is recited in Ashkenazi synagogues; the rabbis read this romantic book as an allegorical expression of the bond established at the Exodus between G-d and the children of Israel. The special Hallel (Psalms of praise) prayers are also read in the synagogue.

The concept of hametz (leavened food) forbidden on Pesah, includes food made of the grains wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt. Thus such foods as cookies, crackers, cakes, cereals, breads, cereals and liquids made from these grains or their liquid are forbidden. Permitted are meat, fish, fowls, and all fruits and vegetables, fresh packages of coffee, tea, sugar and salt. In different communities, recipes making use of special matzah meal/flour or potato flour have produced very special festive dishes.

Somethings you didn't know

The festival of Passover is known by several names, each with a distinctive significance:

Hag ha-Matzot, Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Exodus 23:15), is the biblical designation in commemoration of the physical exodus.

Hag ha-Pesah, Festival of the Paschal Offering (Exodus 34:25), refers both to the paschal lamb and to G-d's "passing over" (pasah) or protecting, the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt during the plagues (Exodus 12:23).[1]

The seasonal nature of the festival is indicated by the name, Hag ha-Aviv, Festival of the Spring.

Zeman Herutenu, Season of our freedom, is the term found in the liturgy, marking the establishment of the children of Israel as a free and independent people.

Philo calls Passover the "crossing-feast" as he traces the name not to the passing over of the Israelites by the destroying angel (Exodus 12:23,27), "but to the crossing of Israel itself from Egypt... and no doubt also the crossing of the Red Sea."[2]

The many rituals of Pesah are linked to the symbolism of redemption from evil. The pascal lamb was slaughtered in ancient times and eaten on the holiday. A vestige of this practice, which was abandoned after the destruction of the second Temple, can be found in the roasted shankbone that is placed on a special plate at the seder table. Jewish mystics describe this is a theurgic ritual that destroys the power of evil. They explain that the Egyptians worshipped lambs as deities. Thus, the sacrifice or burning of a slaughtered lamb is an act of destruction in which the demonic power of the Egyptian deities is annihilated. It is interesting to note that Jewish mystics acknowledged the reality of other deities, yet they viewed them as satanic and evil powers that threaten and attack the holiness of the sefirot. The slaughter of the lamb is the first ritual performed on the holiday and indicates that the "husks" must be destroyed in order for the sefirot to escape from their dominion. The lamb is eaten at night, the time when the evil power is ascendant, to vanquish is at the moment of its greatest strength.

Matzah, which is described in the seder ritual as the bread of poverty (lehem oni, usually translated as the bread of affliction) refers to the bread that was prepared hurriedly in the last hours of the Israelites' enslavement as they hastened to depart. In Jewish mysticism, the bread of poverty refers to the Shekhinah in exile, which is impoverished due to her separation from Tiferet.

Leavened break (hametz), which is absolutely forbidden on Pesah, symbolizes the powers of evil. The mystics explain that leavened bread is an allegory for the power of demonic forces over good. Even a small amount of leavening resembles fermentation and causes the food to lose its original flavor. Likewise, even a little evil can cause the total corruption of a good person. Leaven is outlawed because just as it causes the breakdown of the natural essence of food products, it connotes the destruction of divine goodness.

Footnotes:

Gates of the Seasons --The Passover Anthology A Guide to the Jewish Year. (CCAR, 1983).