The traditions of Passover mainly came from the point of that the Angel of Death “passed” over the homes to when Moses walks up Mount Sinai and acquires the commandments, though I will only be discussing the major traditions of Passover, specifically the ones that occur on the first day, such as the reading of the story and the correlation of the 5 food items to the story, and the involvement of Matzah in the holiday.
This holiday is where the food called "Matzah" originated from, hence why markets start selling an increased stock of that. Though they do that regardless of which Jewish holiday it is, but we’ll just roll with this. Anyway, the bread that is normally eaten in Judaism or by people who have a good taste in bread is Challah. The food called Matzah came from Challah; because the bread called Challah didn't have enough time to be prepared, the Israelites took the unrisen and unspiced dough into the desert and when it was exposed to the desert air, it formed into Matzah. This also factors into the tradition during Passover which is where people aren’t allowed to consume bread at all to simulate the experiences that the Israelites felt going through the desert. Though this particular tradition is practiced for the entire week, whereas the other traditions are celebrated only on the first.
Now onto the other aspects of Passover. A majority of the customs are celebrated on only the first night, such as the 5 foods that are presented on the plate: a hardboiled egg, a lamb's leg, parsley, charoset(honeyed apple) and maror(horseradish) and the reading of the story t. They all represent a certain aspect of passover, specifically different points in the story of Exodus from Egypt. The parsley's and maror's bitterness symbolizes the bitterness of slavery, because of their very bitter taste. On the first night everybody eating is required to dip the parsley in a cup of salt water twice and the eat part of it, whereas on all other nights dipping the parsley isn’t required at all, which I will address later in the 4 questions. The charoset represents the opposite, the sweetness of freedom from slavery, or by extension symbolizes the fact that Israel is referred to as the “Land of Milk and Honey”. The lamb, specifically a lamb leg, owes its role to the plague 10, the Angel of Death. In part one I discusses the involvement of lambs as a marking for the tenth plague to identify as friend/foe. Lastly the egg represents an event that occurred a long time after the Exodus. It stands for repentance in the destruction of the Temple located in Jerusalem which the Romans destroyed at around 70 AD, which is separate from Passover, but I am not going to judge why they make us celebrate both on the same occasion. However these foods segway into the 4 questions which are asked with regard to the story.
Even though I already discuss several of the purposes of the four questions, I will still name them, and their relevancy. They are as follows: “Why do we dip the parsley twice in the salt water bowl?”, “Why do we only eat unrisen bread for a week”, “Why do we recline on a pillow exclusively?”, and “Why are only bitter herbs consumed?” The only question which I haven’t address, is the reclining one. The use of a pillow is meant to be celebratory of the fact that the Israelites are freed from slavery, and basically reclining on the pillow is relaxing on behalf of their efforts.
So that basically sums it all up, thank you for reading this, or just clicking here. It just shows me that you at least gave me a time of day for this work, and if you have more questions look below for a story on the Temple or more info about Passover.
This is a great post into the traditions of the holiday. One thing that I found interesting, especially during discussions at my family's seder was the more modern additions to the seder plate.
ReplyDeleteSome of these are completely new editions. For instance, a story goes that years ago in the 1900s an orthodox rabbi made a speech against women's rights saying that "a woman rabbi belongs in Judaism like an orange belongs on a seder plate." In response, many reformed Jews began the practice of putting an orange on the plate.
Other changes are modifications of traditions. Law describes "maror," which means bitter. Traditionally, this means horseradish, but people have begun to get inventive and put everything from radicchio to Anaheim peppers.
Hey David, I would love to read your post, but the text is black! I suggest you edit your text to have white text and black highlight in the blogger editor. This happens to me sometimes as well.
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