Passover, one of the most celebrated holidays in the Jewish world and observed each spring, commemorates the biblical exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
During this eight-day holiday Jewish people do not eat any foods that are leavened and instead eat matzah, which is unleavened bread. This is because when the Jewish people were able to leave Egypt, they were forced to leave in a great hurry. Matzah is eaten as a reminder because leavening dough takes time that they did not have.
Unlike many other Jewish holidays, this one is primarily observed in the home with family and friends or, like here in Lakeside, with the community, with a special service called a seder (SAY-der, Hebrew, meaning “order”), a carefully choreographed ritual meal that takes place on the first night.
The Seder begins by reading the Haggadah (Ha-ga-DAH, meaning telling) where we remember the passage from slavery to freedom through prayer, song and story. In this narrative, the Israelites had been enslaved by the Pharaoh who, despite repeated promises, refused to allow the Jewish people to leave Egypt. God sent ten different plagues of increasing intensity to finally persuade the Pharaoh to allow them to depart.
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