What is Passover?

Pessah means "to pass over"

We call this holiday passover because when the plagues hit the homes of the Egyptians God passed over the homes of the Jewish people. Passover lasts eight days. On the first and maybe the second nights we get together with family and friends and tell the story of Passover

A Seder means order. A seder is a meal that has a special order. It has fifteen steps that help us remember that the Jewish people were once slaves in Egypt. We remember how God took us out of Egypt and brought us to Israel.

During the Seder we read from the Haggadah.

Haggadah means the "the telling" On passover we use a book called the haggadah to tell the story of the Jewish people leaving Egypt. It is like a siddur. It has prayers and songs in it. The haggadah tells of our move from slavery to freedom

But we not only use the haggadah to tell the story, we also have a seder plate on the table. It is a sort of show and tell object of the seder. Everything on it will be used or talked about during the Seder.

A long time ago, in the land of Egypt, there was a King named Pharaoh. He made the Jewish people his slaves.

They had to work hard building cities for Pharaoh. The Charoset Mixture : A mixture of chopped nuts and fruit reminds us of the ortar used to hold the buildings together.

The Bitter herb (maror) : Herbs such as horseradish and romaine lettuce taste bitter. Maror, reminds us that a life of slaverly was bitter. We cried big, salty tears. The salt water is salty like our tears. God saw the sadslaves and wanted us to become free. God sent Moses to King Pharaoh to tell him to 'Let my people go. '

When Pharaoh told us we could leave Egypt, we had started baking bread but did not have time to let it rise. We made matzah instead.

Matzah is unleavened bread. Unlike regular bread, matzah is made without yeast or baking powder, which makes bread dough puff up and become soft when baked. The dough is rolled flat, and small holes are punched into it.

This helps the matzah bake quickly. We call the food made with leaven chametz. Before passover and certainly before we have our seder we remove all chametz from our homes.

We eat matzah to remember that we had to hurry because it is better to be free.

Shank bone (zroah) : This is also called the pesah. In ancient Israel we would have brought a lamb to the Temple in Jerusalem to show our love for God. Today, we roast the shank bone of a lamb instead.

Green Vegetables (karpas) : Parsley and celery make us think of life, spring, and hope. It reminds that Passover is a spring holiday. It is dipped into salt water.

Egg (beytzah) : The egg is roasted. It reminds us of a second offering, it is also a reminder of new life - the birth of the Jewish nation