This article is about the Jewish holiday. For other uses, see Passover (disambiguation).
Passover, also called Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪ-/;[2] Biblical Hebrew: חַג הַפֶּסַח Ḥag hapPesaḥ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt,[3] which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. The word Pesach or Passover can also refer to the Korban Pesach, the paschal lamb that was offered when the Temple in Jerusalem stood; to the Passover Seder, the ritual meal on Passover night; or to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Passover is traditionally celebrated in the Land of Israel for seven days and for eight days among many Jews in the Diaspora, based on the concept of yom tov sheni shel galuyot.
Passover
Pessach Pesach Pascha Judentum Ungesaeuert Seder datafox.jpg
A table set up for a Passover Seder
Official name
Pesach – פסח (in Hebrew).
Observed by
Jews
Type
Jewish (religious and cultural)
Significance
Celebrates The Exodus, the freedom from slavery of the Israelites from Ancient Egypt that followed the Ten Plagues.
Beginning of the 49 days of Counting of the Omer
Connected to barley harvest in spring.
Celebrations
Passover Seder
Begins
15 Nisan
Ends
21 Nisan (22 Nisan in traditional Diaspora communities)
Date
15 Nisan, 16 Nisan, 17 Nisan, 18 Nisan, 19 Nisan, 20 Nisan, 21 Nisan, 22 Nisan
2021 date
Sunset, 27 March –
nightfall, 4 April[1] (8 days)
2022 date
Sunset, 15 April –
nightfall, 23 April[1] (8 days)
2023 date
Sunset, 5 April –
nightfall, 13 April[1] (8 days)
2024 date
Sunset, 22 April –
nightfall, 30 April[1] (8 days)
Related to
Shavuot ("Festival of Weeks") which follows 49 days from the second night of Passover.
According to the Book of Exodus, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that the Angel of Death will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn). After the death of the firstborn Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they want, and asks Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The passage goes on to state that the passover sacrifice recalls the time when the LORD "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt".[4] This story is recounted at the passover meal in the form of the Haggadah, in fulfillment of the command "And thou shalt tell (Higgadata) thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the LORD did for me when I came forth out of Egypt."[5]
The wave offering of barley was offered at Jerusalem on the second day of the festival. The counting of the sheaves is still practiced, for seven weeks until the Feast of Weeks on the 50th day, the Pentecost.
Nowadays, in addition to the biblical prohibition of owning leavened foods for the duration of the holiday, the Passover Seder is one of the most widely observed rituals in Judaism.
Etymology
The Hebrew פֶּסַח is rendered as Tiberian [pɛsaħ] (audio speaker iconlisten), and Modern Hebrew: [ˈpesaχ] Pesah, Pesakh. The verb pasàch (פָּסַח) is first mentioned in the Torah’s account of the Exodus from Egypt,[6] and there is some debate about its exact meaning. The commonly held assumption that it means “He passed over” (פסח), in reference to God “passing over” (or “skipping”) the houses of the Hebrews during the final of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, stems from the translation provided in the Septuagint (παρελευσεται [Greek: pareleusetai] in Exodus 12:23,[7] and εσκεπασεν [Greek: eskepasen] in Exodus 12:27.[8] Targum Onkelos translates pesach as ve-yeiḥos (Hebrew: וְיֵחוֹס we-yēḥôs) “he had pity” coming from the Hebrew root חסה meaning to have pity.[9] Cognate languages yield similar terms with distinct meanings, such as “make soft, soothe, placate” (Akkadian passahu), “harvest, commemoration, blow” (Egyptian), or “separate” (Arabic fsh).[10]
The term Pesach (Hebrew: פֶּסַח Pesaḥ) may also refer to the lamb or goat which was designated as the Passover sacrifice (called the Korban Pesach in Hebrew). Four days before the Exodus, the Hebrews were commanded to set aside a lamb,[11] and inspect it daily for blemishes. During the day on the 14th of Nisan, they were to slaughter the animal and use its blood to mark their lintels and door posts. Before midnight on the 15th of Nisan they were to consume the lamb.
The English term “Passover” is first known to be recorded in the English language in William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible,[12] later appearing in the King James Version as well. It is a literal translation of the Hebrew term.[13] In the King James Version, Exodus 12:23 reads:
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.[14]
Origins
Illustration of The Exodus from Egypt, 1907
The Passover ritual is widely thought to have its origins in an apotropaic rite, unrelated to the Exodus, to ensure the protection of a family home, a rite conducted wholly within a clan.[15] Hyssop was employed to daub the blood of a slaughtered sheep on the lintels and door posts to ensure that demonic forces could not enter the home.[16]
A further hypothesis maintains that, once the Priestly Code was promulgated, the Exodus narrative took on a central function, as the apotropaic rite was, arguably, amalgamated with the Canaanite agricultural festival of spring which was a ceremony of unleavened bread, connected with the barley harvest. As the Exodus motif grew, the original function and symbolism of these double origins was lost.[17] Several motifs replicate the features associated with the Mesopotamian Akitu festival.[18] Other scholars, John Van Seters, J.B.Segal and Tamara Prosic disagree with the merged two-festivals hypothesis.[19]
Biblical narrative
In the Book of Exodus
Further information: Plagues of Egypt
In the Book of Exodus, the Israelites are enslaved in ancient Egypt. Yahweh, the god of the Israelites, appears to Moses in a burning bush and commands Moses to confront Pharaoh. To show his power, Yahweh inflicts a series of 10 plagues on the Egyptians, culminating in the 10th plague, the death of the first-born.
This is what the LORD says: “About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt – worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.”
— Exodus 11:4–6
Before this final plague Yahweh commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb’s blood above their doors in order that Yahweh will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn).
The biblical regulations for the observance of the festival require that all leavening be disposed of before the beginning of the 15th of Nisan.[20] An unblemished lamb or goat, known as the Korban Pesach or “Paschal Lamb”, is to be set apart on 10th Nisan,[21] and slaughtered at dusk as 14th Nisan ends in preparation for the 15th of Nisan when it will be eaten after being roasted.[22] The literal meaning of the Hebrew is “between the two evenings”.[23] It is then to be eaten “that night”, 15th Nisan,[24] roasted, without the removal of its internal organs[25] with unleavened bread, known as matzo, and bitter herbs known as maror.[24] Nothing of the sacrifice on which the sun rises by the morning of the 15th of Nisan may be eaten, but must be burned.[26]
The biblical regulations pertaining to the original Passover, at the time of the Exodus only, also include how the meal was to be eaten: “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”.[27]
The biblical requirements of slaying the Paschal lamb in the individual homes of the Hebrews and smearing the blood of the lamb on their doorways were celebrated in Egypt. However, once Israel was in the wilderness and the tabernacle was in operation, a change was made in those two original requirements.[28] Passover lambs were to be sacrificed at the door of the tabernacle and no longer in the homes of the Jews. No longer, therefore, could blood be smeared on doorways.
The passover in other biblical passages
Called the “festival [of] the matzot” (Hebrew: חג המצות ḥag ha-matzôth) in the Hebrew Bible, the commandment to keep Passover is recorded in the Book of Leviticus:
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at dusk is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD; seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work. And ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.
— Leviticus 23:5–8 (JPS 1917 Version)
The sacrifices may be performed only in a specific place prescribed by God. For Judaism, this is Jerusalem.[29]
The biblical commandments concerning the Passover (and the Feast of Unleavened Bread) stress the importance of remembering:
Exodus 12:14 commands, in reference to God’s sparing of the firstborn from the Tenth Plague: 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.[30]
Exodus 13:3 repeats the command to remember: 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.[31]
And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes[32]
In 2 Kings 23:21–23 and 2 Chronicles 35:1–19, King Josiah of Judah restores the celebration of the Passover,[33] to a standard not seen since the days of the judges or the days of the prophet Samuel.[34]
Ezra 6:19–21 records the celebration of the passover by the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon, after the temple had been rebuilt.[35]
In extra-biblical sources
Some of these details can be corroborated, and to some extent amplified, in extrabiblical sources. The removal (or “sealing up”) of the leaven is referred to in the Elephantine papyri, an Aramaic papyrus from 5th century BCE Elephantine in Egypt.[36] The slaughter of the lambs on the 14th is mentioned in The Book of Jubilees, a Jewish work of the Ptolemaic period, and by the Herodian-era writers Josephus and Philo. These sources also indicate that “between the two evenings” was taken to mean the afternoon.[37] Jubilees states the sacrifice was eaten that night,[38] and together with Josephus states that nothing of the sacrifice was allowed to remain until morning.[39] Philo states that the banquet included hymns and prayers.[40]
Date and duration
See also: Hebrew calendar and Yom tov sheni shel galuyot
The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which typically falls in March or April of the Gregorian calendar. The 15th day begins in the evening, after the 14th day, and the seder meal is eaten that evening. Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th day of Nisan typically begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox.[41] However, due to leap months falling after the vernal equinox, Passover sometimes starts on the second full moon after vernal equinox, as in 2016.
To ensure that Passover did not start before spring, the tradition in ancient Israel held that the lunar new year, the first day of Nisan, would not start until the barley was ripe, being the test for the onset of spring.[42] If the barley was not ripe, or various other phenomena[43] indicated that spring was not yet imminent, an intercalary month (Adar II) would be added. However, since at least the 4th century, the intercalation has been fixed mathematically according to the Metonic cycle.[44]
In Israel, Passover is the seven-day holiday of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with the first and last days celebrated as legal holidays and as holy days involving holiday meals, special prayer services, and abstention from work; the intervening days are known as Chol HaMoed (“Weekdays [of] the Festival”). Jews outside the Land of Israel celebrate the festival for eight days. Reform and Reconstructionist Jews usually celebrate the holiday over seven days.[45][46][47] Karaites use a different version of the Jewish calendar, differing from that used with modern Jewish calendar by one or two days.[48] The Samaritans use a calendrical system that uses a different method from that current in Jewish practice, in order to determine their timing of feastdays.[49] In 2009, for example, Nisan 15 on the Jewish calendar used by Rabbinic Judaism corresponds to April 9. On the calendars used by Karaites and Samaritans, Abib or Aviv 15 (as opposed to ‘Nisan’) corresponds to April 11 in 2009. The Karaite and Samaritan Passovers are each one day long, followed by the six-day Festival of Unleavened Bread – for a total of seven days.[50]
Passover sacrifice
Main article: Passover sacrifice
The main entity in Passover according to Judaism is the sacrificial lamb.[51] During the existence of the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem, the focus of the Passover festival was the Passover sacrifice (Hebrew: korban Pesach), also known as the Paschal lamb, eaten during the Passover Seder on the 15th of Nisan. Every family large enough to completely consume a young lamb or wild goat was required to offer one for sacrifice at the Jewish Temple on the afternoon of the 14th day of Nisan,[52] and eat it that night, which was the 15th of Nisan.[53] If the family was too small to finish eating the entire offering in one sitting, an offering was made for a group of families. The sacrifice could not be offered with anything leavened,[54] and had to be roasted, without its head, feet, or inner organs being removed[55] and eaten together with unleavened bread (matzo) and bitter herbs (maror). One had to be careful not to break any bones from the offering,[56] and none of the meat could be left over by morning.[57]
Because of the Passover sacrifice’s status as a sacred offering, the only people allowed to eat it were those who had the obligation to bring the offering. Among those who could not offer or eat the Passover lamb were an apostate,[58] a servant,[59] an uncircumcised man[60] a person in a state of ritual impurity, except when a majority of Jews are in such a state,[61] and a non-Jew. The offering had to be made before a quorum of 30.[62] In the Temple, the Levites sang Hallel while the priests performed the sacrificial service. Men and women were equally obligated regarding the offering (Pesahim 91b).
Today, in the absence of the Temple, when no sacrifices are offered or eaten, the mitzvah of the Korban Pesach is memorialized in the Seder Korban Pesach, a set of scriptural and Rabbinic passages dealing with the Passover sacrifice, customarily recited after the Mincha (afternoon prayer) service on the 14th of Nisan,[63] and in the form of the zeroa, a symbolic food placed on the Passover Seder Plate (but not eaten), which is usually a roasted shankbone (or a chicken wing or neck). The eating of the afikoman substitutes for the eating of the Korban Pesach at the end of the Seder meal (Mishnah Pesachim 119a). Many Sephardi Jews have the custom of eating lamb or goat meat during the Seder in memory of the Korban Pesach.
Removing all leaven (chametz)
See also: Chametz § Removal of chametz
See also: Eliminating Ḥametz
Burning chametz on the morning before Passover begins
Leaven, in Hebrew chametz (Hebrew: חמץ ḥamets, “leavening”) is made from one of five types of grains[64] combined with water and left to stand for more than eighteen minutes. The consumption, keeping, and owning of chametz is forbidden during Passover. Yeast and fermentation are not themselves forbidden as seen for example by wine, which is required, rather than merely permitted. According to Halakha, the ownership of such chametz is also proscribed.[65]
Chametz does not include baking soda, baking powder or like products. Although these are defined in English as leavening agents, they leaven by chemical reaction, not by biological fermentation. Thus, bagels, waffles and pancakes made with baking soda and matzo meal are considered permissible, while bagels made with sourdough and pancakes and waffles made with yeast are prohibited.[66]
The Torah commandments regarding chametz are:
To remove all chametz from one’s home, including things made with chametz, before the first day of Passover [67] It may be simply used up, thrown out (historically, destroyed by burning), or given or sold to non-Jews.
To refrain from eating chametz or mixtures containing chametz during Passover.[68]
Not to possess chametz in one’s domain (i.e. home, office, car, etc.) during Passover.[69]
Observant Jews spend the weeks before Passover in a flurry of thorough housecleaning, to remove every morsel of chametz from every part of the home. Jewish law requires the elimination of olive-sized or larger quantities of leavening from one’s possession, but most housekeeping goes beyond this. Even the seams of kitchen counters are thoroughly cleaned to remove traces of flour and yeast, however small. Any containers or implements that have touched chametz are stored and not used during Passover.[70]
Some hotels, resorts, and even cruise ships across America, Europe, and Israel also undergo a thorough housecleaning to make their premises “kosher for Pesach” to cater to observant Jews.[71]
Interpretations for abstinence from leaven or yeast
Some scholars suggest that the command to abstain from leavened food or yeast suggests that sacrifices offered to God involve the offering of objects in “their least altered state”, that would be nearest to the way in which they were initially made by God.[51][72] According to other scholars the absence of leaven or yeast means that leaven or yeast symbolizes corruption and spoiling.[51][73]
There are also variations with restrictions on eating matzah before Passover so that there will be an increased appetite for it during Passover itself. Primarily among Chabad Chassidim, there is a custom of not eating matzoh (flat unleavened bread) in the 30 days before Passover begins.[74] Others have a custom to refrain from eating matzah from Rosh Chodesh Nissan, while the halacha merely restricts one from eating matzah on the day before Passover.[75]
Sale of leaven
Search for leaven
Morning of 14th of Nisan
Separate kosher for Passover utensils and dishes
Matzah
Passover seder
Counting of the Omer
Chol HaMoed: The intermediate days of Passover
Seventh day of Passover
Shvi’i shel Pesach (שביעי של פסח) (“seventh [day] of Passover”) is another full Jewish holiday, with special prayer services and festive meals. Outside the Land of Israel, in the Jewish diaspora, Shvi’i shel Pesach is celebrated on both the seventh and eighth days of Passover.[96] This holiday commemorates the day the Children of Israel reached the Red Sea and witnessed both the miraculous “Splitting of the Sea” (Passage of the Red Sea), the drowning of all the Egyptian chariots, horses and soldiers that pursued them. According to the Midrash, only the Pharaoh was spared to give testimony to the miracle that occurred.
Hasidic Rebbes traditionally hold a tish on the night of Shvi’i shel Pesach and place a cup or bowl of water on the table before them. They use this opportunity to speak about the Splitting of the Sea to their disciples, and sing songs of praise to God.[citation needed]
Second Passover
The “Second Passover” (Pesach Sheni) on the 14th of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Numbers[97] as a make-up day for people who were unable to offer the pesach sacrifice at the appropriate time due to ritual impurity or distance from Jerusalem. Just as on the first Pesach night, breaking bones from the second Paschal offering or leaving meat over until morning is prohibited.[98][99]
Today, Pesach Sheni on the 14th of Iyar has the status of a very minor holiday (so much so that many of the Jewish people have never even heard of it, and it essentially does not exist outside of Orthodox and traditional Conservative Judaism). There are not really any special prayers or observances that are considered Jewish law. The only change in the liturgy is that in some communities Tachanun, a penitential prayer omitted on holidays, is not said. There is a custom, though not Jewish law, to eat just one piece of matzo on that night.[100]
Traditional foods
Matzah brei (fried matzo and egg), a popular Passover dish
Because the house is free of leaven (chametz) for eight days, the Jewish household typically eats different foods during the week of Passover. Some include:
Ashkenazi foods
Matzah brei – Matzo softened in milk or water and fried with egg and fat; served either savory or sweet
Matzo kugel – A kugel made with matzo instead of noodles
Charoset – A sweet mixture of fruit, fresh, dried or both; nuts; spices; honey; and sometimes wine. The charoset is a symbol of the mortar the Israelites used for building while enslaved in Egypt (See Passover seder)
Chrain – Horseradish and beet relish
Gefilte fish – Poached fish patties or fish balls made from a mixture of ground, de-boned fish, mostly carp or pike
Chicken soup with matzah balls (kneydlach) – Chicken soup served with matzo-meal dumplings
Passover noodles – Noodles prepared from potato flour and eggs, served in soup. Batter is fried like thin crepes, which are stacked, rolled up and sliced into ribbons.[101]
Sephardi foods
Kafteikas di prasa – Fried balls made of leeks, meat, and matzo meal
Lamb or chicken leg – A symbol of God’s strong hand, and korban pesach
Mina (pastel di pesach) – a meat pie made with matzos
Spring green vegetables – artichoke, fava beans, peas
