Passover

Passover

PASSOVER is the joyous Jewish festival of freedom that celebrates the Exodus of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt. Beginning on the fifteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the festival lasts for seven days (eight days for Jews outside Israel). The Hebrew name for Passover, Pesaḥ, refers to the paschal lamb offered as a family sacrifice in Temple times (Ex. 12:1–28, 12:43–49; Dt. 16:1–8), and the festival is so called because God "passed over" (pasaḥ) the houses of the Israelites when he slew the Egyptian firstborn (Ex. 12:23). The annual event is called Ḥag ha-Pesaḥ, the Feast of the Passover, in the Bible (Ex. 34:25). Another biblical name for it is Ḥag ha-Matsot or the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, after the command to eat unleavened bread and to refrain from eating leaven (Ex. 23:15, Lv. 23:6, Dt. 16:16). The critical view is that the two names are for two originally separate festivals, which were later combined. Ḥag ha-Pesaḥ was a pastoral festival, whereas Ḥag ha-Matsot was an agricultural festival. In any event, the paschal lamb ceased to be offered when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, and although the name Passover is still used, the holiday is now chiefly marked by the laws concerning leaven and, especially, by the home celebration held on the first night—the Seder ("order, arrangement").

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