Passover
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Omer Mourning Period
What is the Omer mourning period? The “Omer” period is the national mourning period between Passover and Shavuot which commemortaes the death of 24,000 Torah Scholars who were the students of Rabbi Akiva just around the Beginning of the Common…
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The First Passover Seder
When was the first Passover Seder? How many years ago did we leave Egypt? We left Egypt 3319 years ago, which is year 2448 in the Jewish calender, 1312 BCE in the non Jewish one. That was the year of…
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Karpas and the Bitter Herb
Why are there two things at the Passover Seder to symbolize our slavery in Egypt? We have the Karpas (Vegetable dipped in salt water) and the Bitter Herb, not to mention the Haggadah itself which talks about Egypt. Shouldn’t just…
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Sell Chametz
What does it mean to “Sell your Chametz”? Getting all leavened products out of your possession is part of the observance of Passover, and selling those things which you might want to re-purchase afterwards is part of this process. Read…
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The Seder Plate
Why are there places on the Seder plate for the Bitter herbs, horseradish and Charoset? What is the distinction? That’s a wonderful question. I often wondered why there were two places for horseradish (albeit they are given different names), and…
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The Last Days of Passover
What occurs on the last 2 days of the Passover festival? The last two days are observed as a standard Festival, with extended prayer services and 2 festive meals each day. Tradition tells us that the end of Passover is…
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Species for the Bitter Herb
What did we originally use for bitter herbs for the Pesach seder? There’s a list of five types of plants (in the Mishna) which are suitable for use as bitter herbs: “Chazeret” – considered by most authorities to be the…
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The Haftorah Before Passover
What is the correlation between the Haftorah in Malachi read before Passover and the Passover holiday? We read from the last Chapter of the Prophet Malachi (chapter 3, from verse 4 to the end) on Shabbos HaGadol (lit. “The Great…
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Passover Greeting
I have no religious affiliation but would like to offer Passover greetings to my close Jewish friends. What would be a proper greeting? “Happy Passover” would be appropriate. If you want to sound really with-it, say “Happy Pay-sach” (“sach” rhymes…