Passover, also known as Pesach, is a highly important and well-known Jewish festival. The event celebrates a particular event of Jewish history – the liberation of the Jewish people from the Egypt of the Pharaohs, after a 3.300 years’ slavery and their constitution as a nation under the leadership of Moses. The liberation and fleeing of Egypt is depicted in the Book of Exodus.

This celebration begins on the 15^th of the month of Nisan (of the Hebrew calendar)and is supposed to last for a different amount of days depending on the place of celebration: if it is celebrated in Israel it will last for seven days, but if it is celebrated abroad it is likely to last for eight days. Also, the moment in which this celebration begins is highly important, as in Judaism, a day spreads between dusk and the following dusk – this means that Passover begins on the 14^th after dusk and lasts until the dusk on the 15^th of Nisan. It is on the dusk of the 15^th of Nisan that the Passover Seder takes place marking thus the beginning of the holiday. Usually, this holiday takes place in spring, as commanded by the texts of the Torah in the verses of the Exodus 23:15. Thus, the month of Nisan is settled either in March or April, and the 15^th of the respective month often occurs on the full moon night immediately after the equinox. In ancient Israel, in the absence of a more precise calendar, the first day of Nisan would not occur until the barley was ripe (this being a sign that spring had settled in). In the case in which the barley was not ripe, an intermediate month had to be inserted, known as the month of Adar II. Since the 4^th century, the establishment of the date was done through recourse to mathematical procedures.

The symbolism of the holiday stems from the facts described in the Exodus. This book tells the story of the Israelites who received God’s help in getting out of Israel.As the Pharaoh did not want to release them from slavery, God inflicted ten plagues over the Egyptians. The last one was the worst as it meant that all the Egyptian first-borns would have to die. However, to prevent the spirit of the Lord from killing also the Israelites’ first-borns, the latter were instructed to draw a sign on their doorposts with the blood of a spring lamb. In this way, all their children had been saved from death, by the spirit passing over their houses – ergo the name of the holiday.

But this is not the only tradition of Passover. After the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, they left Egypt in such a hurry that they did not wait for the bread dough to rise and be baked, so they left behind leavened bread. Consequently, one of the traditions of Passover is not to have leavened bread around the house during this holiday. Based on this custom, the holiday is also called the feast of unleavened bread in the Torah. Instead of the leavened bread, Jews eat traditionally Matzo, which is exactly the opposite – flat unleavened bread.

The importance of Passover also comes from it being one of the three occasions on which Jews would embark in a pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem. The other two holidays are Shavuot (or Pentecost) and Sukkot (or the Tabernacles). Nowadays, only few Jews take these pilgrimages, and in the absence of the Temple, they are directed to Mount Gerizim.

In Israel, Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is highly regarded as a holiday with the first and last days considered to be legal holidays at the same time as being holy days. This means that people are not going to work, and perform special prayers and eat special foods. The in-between remaining days are called Chol HaMoed (translated as ”Weekdays of the Festival”). In the diaspora, Jews used to and still observe this holiday for eight days. However, the Reform and Reconstructionist Jews, be they in Israel or abroad, observe the holiday for only seven days. Usually, the need of an extra day is justified by the necessity of the time to enact ancient Jewish sages. Another explanation stems from the fact that many Jews from abroad were not certain whether the local calendar matched the Jewish one and in order to be sure that all Passover was covered they would add an extra day. Apart from this, popular explanations concerning the extra day include the need to accommodate those people who travel so that they can take part in the rituals and religious practices of the celebration, the compromise reached between scholars on the matter of the calendar and as a means of protection in times of war so that it was certain that Jews would not be attacked on that day by their enemies.

The accommodation of the Jewish calendar with the modern versions of the calendar is an issue for the Karaites and Samaritans. Thus, in their case, the difference in calendars ranges to approximately a month’s length. In this case, Passover has the added extra day in order to be certain that the whole holiday has been observed.

It is interesting to have a look at the traditions of this holiday and the manner in which such traditions have been presented in the old texts of the Torah. Thus, during the observance of the holiday, all leavened bread should be disposed of at the beginning of the 15^th day of Nisan. Lamb is often eat on the occasion (the lamb is often referred to as Korban Pesach or Paschal Lamb) and its preparation begins on Nisan 10^th, when it is placed aside for the slaughtering on the 14^th of Nisan and roasted on the 15^th of Nisan. The time of eating the roasted lamb is on the very evening, a period of time known as “between the two evenings”. The tradition includes that the lamb be roasted and eaten with all the internal organs left inside; for the meal the meat is accompanied by unleavened bread – “matzo” and bitter herbs – “maror”. In the event in which some of the meat from the evening remains, it should be burnt the following day and not consumed.

The sacrificing of the lamb has to take place in specific places as commanded by God through the Torah. For Jews, the sacrificing of the lamb has to take place in Jerusalem, while in the case of the Samaritans it should take place on Mount Gerizim.

The Torah also depicts the manner in which the Passover meal should be eaten. This is present in Exodus 12:11 and dates back to the time of the original Exodus: "with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's Passover”.

On Passover, it is important to remember the events of the past. The importance of remembering is also stressed in the Torah, with Deuteronomy 16: 12 highlighting “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes” and the Exodus 12:14 referring to the sparring of the firstborn during the Tenth Plague in Egypt: “: And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever”. The Exodus is very thorough on this remembering issue, as it strengthens the command in the following manner: “Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength the hand of the Lord brought you out from this place”.

When the Jerusalem Temple existed, the center element of the Passover celebration was the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb. Large families would have to offer a lamb or a goat for sacrifice to the Temple in the afternoon of the 14^th of Nisan and be consumed during the night, meaning on the 15^th of Nisan. The lamb would be roasted entirely, with head and feet on, as well as with the inner organs inside. Matzo and maror would be the traditional foods accompanying the dish. In case the family could not finish eating the meat, it was customary to offer it to another family, along with unleavened bread, so that it would not be left over until morning. Also, it was highly important not to break any bones from the offering.

The Passover sacrifice is considered to be a sacred offering. In this regard there are regulations concerning the people participating in it. The only people allowed to eat the meat from the offering are those who were obliged to bring it, both men and women, without discrimination. But not everyone can offer/eat a Passover lamb. The following categories are exempt from it: an apostate, a servant, uncircumcised men, an impure person (referring here to ritual impurity) and a non-Jew.

It was usual to have the offering made in front of a quorum of 30 people. Nowadays, as the Temple of Jerusalem is no longer, the mitzvah of offering the Korban Pesach is observed in the Seder Korban Pesach, which is a prayer recited in the afternoon of Nisan 14 and the symbolic dish of roasted shankbone, which is considered to be the Passover Seder Plate. Also, it is common to eat the afikoman at the end of the Seder meal. In the Sephardi communities, Korban Pesach is commemorated by eating either lamb or goat meat.

Thus, it appears that Passover is a very complex Jewish celebration, with many traditions passed on from generation to generation.