PESACH – WHY, WHEN AND HOW?

By Petra van der Zande

“This day shall become a memorial for you… you shall observe it… for your generations as an eternal decree…” (Exodus 12:14-17)

Pesach, Passover, is the first of the three Jewish Pilgrim’s festivals. It is always celebrated on the 14^th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, marking the start of the ecclesiastical calendar. This year, 2008, it begins at the night of April 19.

Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt when God delivered the Israelites from bondage.

In Israel the holiday is observed for seven days, outside Israel, eight days. The first and last days are major holidays, on which working is prohibited. The intermediate days (Chol haMoed), people are allowed to work.

In religious circles, the day before Pesach all firstborn Jewish males fast. This commemorates the fact that God spared the Jewish firstborns during the last plague in Egypt.  

Pesach is also called Chag haMatsot, referring to the flat, unleavened “bread”. The Israelites had to leave in such a hurry there was no time for the bread to rise. The LORD told the Israelites to eat unleavened bread for seven days.

During the 40 years in the desert there was only manna. After they entered the Promised Land, the Jewish people were able to bake matzot from the wheat and barley and could celebrate a true Pesach.

Korban Pesach is the lamb that was sacrificed at the Tabernacle and Temple, roasted and eaten during the holiday.  Samuel the Prophet revived the national religious festival and under King Solomon the Feast  took new splendour with the building of the First Temple. After his death, idolatry and paganism caused the Pesach celebrations to decline. Sometimes godly kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah, reinstated the Festival.

After the destruction of the First Temple the Korban Pesach could no longer be sacrificed and was replaced by prayers, eating matza and bitter herbs. When the Second Temple was built, the Korban Pesach was reinstated, until its destruction in 70 A.D.    

Worldwide, more than 80% of Jewish people usually attend the Seder on the eve of the holiday.

Seder means order and refers to the commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt by eating special types of food, reading the Biblical story and singing specific songs. Some of today's practices were already followed before the destruction of the second Temple in the homes of Jews who couldn't go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Pesach Haggadah contains the text and order of the Seder meal, which can take many hours to complete.

The Samaritans living on Mount Gerazin, near Shechem (Nablus) and the Ethopian Falashas are the only group of people still performing Paschal sacrifices during Pesach.

As believers, we may join in celebrating Pesach with the Jewish people, and remember that Yeshua gave Himself as the unblemished, perfect sacrifice, during Pesach, as an atonement for our sins.