Passover (Pesach)

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) begins on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. The first month of the Hebrew year is called Nisan and usually coincides with the Gregorian months of March or April. This year Passover begins at sunset on Thursday, March 29.

Although Passover is only the 14th day of Nisan, it is sometimes used interchangeably with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Feast of Matzah). The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven festival starting on the 15th of Nisan and ending on the 21st of Nisan. The first day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15) is a day in which no ordinary work should be done (a shabbat). The last day (Nisan 21) of Unleavened Bread is also a shabbat (Leviticus 23:7-8). During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, there is a regular shabbat from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. The day after the regular shabbat (on Sunday) during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, there is the Feast of First Fruits. So, Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits all happen during an eight day time frame and are often used interchangeably for one another.

(Side note: There are seven appointed times (moedim) mentioned in the Bible, but of these, only three of them are feast days. (Note: moed is the singular form of moedim.) In the spring, there is Passover (moed), Feast of Unleavened Bread (moed and feast), Feast of First Fruits (moed), and Feast of Weeks (moed and feast). In the fall, there is the Feast of Trumpets (moed), Day of Atonement (moed) and Feast of Booths (moed and feast). The days appointed as feast days are also the festivals which the LORD commands to be observed at the temple/tabernacle. ("Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed." Deuteronomy 16:16)

The day of Passover is different from most of the other moedim. It is not a commanded day of rest. Rather, the day is often used as a time to prepare for the Passover meal. Additionally, it is the only moed which is to be celebrated during a specific time of the day. ("In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover" Leviticus 23:5.) The whole day is technically not the moed of Passover, only the meal eaten at the end of the day is the actual Passover.

In the description of killing the Passover lamb, it is to be killed at twilight (Exodus 12:5). Unfortunately, "twilight" is a poor English translation of the Hebrew text. The literal Hebrew reads "between the evenings". In the Mid-East, the evening began when the sun started to descend from it highest point (i.e., noon). The evening ended when the sun disappeared below the horizon (i.e., sunset). So, the Passover lamb had to be killed between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. After the lamb was killed, it had to be roasted, which took several hours. The Passover meal began around sunset and continued into the night, which would begin the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). ("They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire." Exodus 12:8-10)


Passover and Exodus
Passover is first mentioned in the Bible in the book of Exodus in chapter 12. The Israelites have been slaves in Egypt and cried out to God. God raises up Moses to deliver the Israelites from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses and his brother Aaron perform many signs and wonders for Pharaoh and his magicians. Pharaoh, being hard-hearted, refuses to let the Israelites go. God sends plague after plague on the Egyptians. Yet, Pharaoh still refuses to allow the Israelites to hold a sacrifice to God. In one last plague, God kills all the first born in the land including babies, women, children, men and animals. One provision is made. Anyone trusting in the LORD can slaughter a lamb on the 14th of Nisan and smear the blood on the door posts of their house. "The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" Exodus 12:13.

A few interesting things to note about this story. Since all the firstborn were killed during the plague, this means that the successor to Pharaoh's throne, his firstborn son, would have been killed. Also, Pharaoh is not killed during the plague, which means he was not the firstborn in his family. Additionally, ALL people in the land of Egypt could partake in the slaughtering of the lamb. It seems many Egyptians and other minorities in the land (who were also probably slaves to Pharaoh) participated in the first Passover. This can be seen in Exodus 12:37-38, "Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock." Lastly, smearing the lamb's blood on the right and left doorpost and also the crossbeam creates the Hebrew letter chet. According to Jewish mystics, chet is the letter of life, since chayim means life and chayah meaning living. Chet is the eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet; the number 8 in Scripture means grace. "Grace" in Hebrew is chen. These words all begin with the letter chet. So when the blood was smeared on the doorpost, the people were saying that they wanted to choose life and receive God's grace.


Can we biblically observe Passover?
The answer is no. God commands for the Passover sacrifice to be killed at His appointed place, which would be the Temple in Jerusalem. Since the Temple no longer exists, we cannot observe the actual Passover. "You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt" (Deuteronomy 16:5-6).

There seem to be three requirements to keep Passover. 1. The Passover must be observed in Jerusalem ("The place where he will choose as a dwelling place for his name"). 2. The Passover sacrifice must be slaughtered at the Temple. 3. The priesthood is needed to administer the sacrifices.

Since we cannot biblically observe Passover, we instead commemorate the meal with a memorial. This memorial meal is called the Passover Seder.


Passover Seder
The word Seder means "order". The Seder meal is an "order" of steps that are performed at different points in the Passover meal. These steps were supposedly established by the ancient rabbis in the Talmudic period from about the year zero to about 200 A.D. But where is the Seder supper in the Scriptures? For the most part it is not in the Bible. Seder meals consist of lamb, bitter herbs, unleavened bread, apples, nuts, parsley, spices and an egg. The Passover meal mentioned in the Bible is far simpler. "They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it" (Exodus 12:8). Moreover, in Scripture, there is no specific mention of the order of the meal in which it is to be eaten. It is believed by some that the Seder meal began when the Israelites were exiled to Babylon. Unable to sacrifice the Passover lamb, the Israelites are believed to have developed the Seder meal as a way to commemorate the Passover and to remember God redeeming them from Egypt.

So, is it wrong to partake in a Seder meal? Absolutely not. The Seder meal is filled with the Exodus story and can greatly enhance one's understanding and appreciation of this event. But we must understand that the Seder is just a tradition and not the actual Passover meal mentioned in the Bible.


Seder Meal
The Seder is a feast which includes reading, drinking wine, telling stories, eating special foods, singing and other Passover traditions. During the evening there are four cups of wine, flat cracker-like bread called matzah, veggies dipped in saltwater, bitter herbs dipped into a sweet paste and a festive meal that may contain time-honored favorites such as chicken soup and gefilte fish. Ceremonial foods are arranged on a platter called a ka'arah or Seder plate.

Seder Plate
Technically, this can be any plate on which you place the key symbolic foods of the Seder. However, most people use a plate made specifically for the Seder. You only need one plate per Seder meal. If the Seder meal is a large gathering, several plates may be used.

Does it matter where the foods on the plate are placed?
There are differing opinions about where each item should be placed. And there is even debate about how many items should be on a plate. Since the Seder plate is generally labelled as to where each food should go, most people just put each item in the designated spot on the Seder plate.

What goes on a Seder plate?
There are at least five foods that go on the Seder plate: shank bone (zeroa), egg (beitzah), bitter herbs (maror), vegetable (karpas) and a sweet paste (haroset). Many Seder plates also have room for a sixth element hazeret (another form of the bitter herbs). All the items are to be a reminder of the primary theme of Passover--the Jewish people's transition from slavery to freedom. There is generally only a small symbolic amount of food on the Seder plate, with additional dishes of karpas, maror and haroset set out for people to eat during the Seder.

1. Shank bone (zeroa)
This is a roasted bone with some meat on it. Although zeroa is often described as the shank bone of the lamb, other bones work too such as a roasted chicken wing, chicken leg or part of the chicken neck. Because the Temple is no longer standing and the ability for one to offer a sacrificial lamb at the Temple cannot be completed, many Jews often refrain from using a lamb shank bone. The emphasis of the zeroa is less on the exact body part and more on the commemoration of the sacrificial lamb, which was the most important part of celebrating Passover during the time of the Tabernacle/Temple.

2. Egg (beitzah)
The egg commemorates the Hagigah sacrifice (festival offering) that was eaten with the lamb sacrifice during the Tabernacle/Temple times. However it was animals, and not eggs, which were brought to the Temple. One reason commonly suggested for using an egg to represent the sacrifice is that eggs are a typical mourners' food. Eggs represent the cycle of life and are generally given as the first food to those who are in mourning. Thus, eggs are a reminder that Seder meal partakers should be mourning the Temple destruction. The egg is traditionally boiled and then roasted to give the appearance of a charred, sacrificial look.

3. Vegetable (karpas)
 Just about any vegetable may be used for the karpas, as long as it is not one that can be used for bitter herbs. It can be served either cooked or raw. Vegetables commonly used are parsley, celery and potatoes. During the Seder, the karpas is dipped into salt water, reminding the eater of the the tears shed while being slaves in Egypt.

4. Bitter herbs (maror and hazeret)
Mar means bitter, and the maror is meant to reminder the eater of the bitterness of slavery. The two main foods customarily used for the maror are lettuce and grated horseradish. Some Seder plates have a place for each of these items. Horseradish has become a popular choice for maror because it was easier to obtain than lettuce in Germany and Eastern Europe.

5. Haroset
The word is thought to come from the Hebrew word heres, which means clay. The sweet reddish or brown paste (the color depends upon what foods are used to make it) is meant to symbolize the clay the Israelite slaves used to make the bricks and mortar for their Egyptian taskmasters. The sweetness also offsets the taste of the bitter herbs, much as freedom offsets the taste of remembered slavery. There are many different recipes for haroset. The classic Ashkenazi version involves apples, walnuts and red wine. The Sephardic recipes call for dates and other dried frutit.



Passover: Take Two
Passover is the only moedim in which the observer is given a second chance to observe the meal if he was not able to observe it on the fourteenth of Nisan. One of two specific requirements must be meet. 1. The person was unclean because they came in contact with a dead body. 2. The person was away traveling on a trip. "But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day and said to Moses, 'We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the LORD'S offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?' Moses answered them, 'Wait until I find out what the LORD commands concerning you.' Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Tell the Israelites: "When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate the LORD'S Passover. They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations"'" (Numbers 9:6-12).


Why should we celebrate Passover?
"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance" (Exodus 12:14). "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come" (Exodus 12:17). "Then Moses said to the people, 'Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought your out of it with a mighty hand..." (Exodus 13:3).

These passages as well as many others are a reminder of God delivering His people from the land of Egypt and deliverance from slavery. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are memorials of these important events. The verses quoted above are not only for the Israelites to observe these days but for everyone. Notice "a lasting ordinance for the generations to come" and again "a lasting ordinance". These observances are to be observed through all generations. And remember, it was not only Israelites who came up from Egypt. Folks from many other backgrounds also accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt. "Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock" (Exodus 12:37-38).


Jesus is our Passover Lamb
Another important reason to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to honor Jesus. "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Simply stated, we have added reason to celebrate these two moedim. Jesus was our Passover lamb which freed us from slavery from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death came as a result of the disobedience to God. "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD you God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). "...because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me from from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). It is in Jesus we have been freed from sin. We have been freed from our bondage just at the Israelites were freed from their Egyptian bondage.


The Last Supper
When Jesus had the "Last Supper" with his disciples, this was a Passover a meal. There are many things which are very significant which happen before, during and after the meal.


The man with the pitcher of water
Reading through Scripture, we can easily pass over some important details. For example, when Jesus tells His disciples to make ready a place to have the Passover meal, He tells them to look for a man with a pitcher of water.

"Then came the first day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.' They said to Him, 'Where do You want us to prepare it?' And He said, 'When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, "Teacher says to you, 'Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"' And he will show you a large. furnished upper room; prepare it there.' And they left and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover" (Luke 22:7-13).

In Jesus' time, only women went to the watering place to collect the water needed for the day and carried it back to her dwelling place. So, seeing a man carrying a jug of water would have been a very unusual sight, as it should be, otherwise the disciples could have easily followed the wrong person.

So why would a man be carrying a jar of water in Jerusalem? The only group of Jewish men that traditionally did carry water jars were Essenes. The Essenes were a sect of Second Temple Judaism that flourished from the 2nd Century BC to the 1st Century AD. Being much fewer in number than the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the two other major sects at the time, the Essenes lives in various cities, but congregated in communal life dedicated to asceticism, voluntary poverty and daily mikvahs (ritual washings). According to the historical writer, Josephus, the Essenes existed in large numbers, and thousands lived throughout Judaea. The Essenes have gained fame in recent times as a result of the discovery the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are commonly believed to have been the Essenes' library. These documents preserve multiple copies of parts of the Bible untouched from possibly as early as 300 BC until their discovery in 1946.

One of Jerusalem's gates was called "The Gate of the Essenes". It was through this gate that they entered their community. When Jesus told His disciples that they would see a man carrying a jug of water, He knew they would enter through the Essenes' gate. Entering through this gate was critical to finding a room for the Passover meal. The Essenes' calendar was different than the regular Jewish one. Thus, in the Essenes' quarter of Jerusalem, they would still have available banquet rooms to hold a Passover meal since the Essenes would be celebrating Passover on a different day.


The Seating Arrangement
Most of us, when we think about the Last Supper, have the image of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. Jesus is seated in the middle of the picture, with his disciples all around him, eating at one large, long table. This painting is a very inaccurate portrayal of the meal.

The Roman style banquet room was called a triclinium. Banqueters gathered around a U-shaped dining arrangement consisting of three tables. The banqueters reclined on couches which radiated out from the banquet table. The banqueters ate reclined, leaning on their left arm while using their right arm to eat. The host always occupied the Lectus imus, the table to the left of the inverted U. This is where Bible scholars believe Jesus would have sat at the Last Supper, taking the position as host of the gathering. According to Scripture, Judas Iscariot would have been in the place of locus consularis (chief counselor). As the honored guest was the first to receive the "sop". He would have been seated on Jesus' left. ("Jesus then answered, 'That is the one for whom I shall dip the sop and give it to him.' So when He had dipped the sop, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" John 13:26.) John would have been seated on Jesus' right, as he reclined against Jesus' chest. ("There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, 'Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking. ' He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to Him, 'Lord, who is it?'" John 13:23-25).