Today at sundown, Passover begins. That’s the festival that celebrates the Children of Israel being freed from slavery in Egypt. The Pesach season itself goes on for eight days, involves a kind of spring cleaning in Jewish houses & the shunning of any bread-like food that requires leavening (yeast, baking powder/soda, etc.). That’s because when the word came to the Jews that they had to get out of Dodge (so to speak), there was no time to let bread rise. They had to grab their gear & git.
Probably the most well-known part of Passover is the Seder, the dinner that begins the holiday, brings family together & reinforces the history by following the instructions in the Haggadah. It’s an interesting ritual, but if you’re in a hurry, Slate has conveniently provided a two-minute Haggadah to give you the big picture.
I’m not Jewish, but I’ve been to a few Seders, including one put on by Jews for Jesus; & another by friends in the film industry where the Questions were asked by the youngest male, black Catholic attending. & then we watched the Passover sequence from C.B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, as you do.
But here’s something of an update for the 21st Century (or for year 5771 in the Jewish calendar): the Pesach story if Moses had had access to the Information Highway.
It still includes part of the Passover sequence from The Ten Commandments. It’s good to hold on to tradition.
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