by: Kate Norman and Janet Aslin
This Passover, many grieve loved ones lost or held in Gaza, as empty seats bear witness to the ongoing war (illustrative).
Friday, 11 April 2025 | Sundown Saturday evening ushers in the celebration of Pesach (Passover) in Israel and Jewish homes around the world, as families and friends will gather for the Passover seder (ritual meal) and celebrate their ancestors’ miraculous deliverance out of slavery in Egypt.
The holiday is celebrated every year on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan and runs until the 22nd day of the month, which this year falls on sundown of April 12 to April 20. It is one of the first of the biblical feasts prescribed by God in Leviticus 23.
Passover is preceded by weeks of preparation and carefully cleaning the home to ensure that every inch is free of chametz, or food that contains leavening agents, as the ancient Israelites ate unleavened bread on the first Passover. Out goes the bread and in comes boxes and boxes of matzah, or unleavened bread.
The first Passover took place in the land of Egypt, just before the Children of Israel began their Exodus out of bondage and into the Promised Land of Israel.
God gave Moses and Aaron specific instructions for how to keep the feast, which they passed on to all the Israelites, as described in Exodus 12.
Each Hebrew household was instructed to take a lamb without blemish and keep it in their household until the night of Passover, when the lambs were killed and their blood painted on the doorpost of the home.
The blood of the lamb protected the Israelites from the tenth and final plague against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the death of the firstborn. As the angel of the Lord passed through the land of Egypt to smite the firstborn, He passed over the Hebrew homes with blood painted on the doorpost, leaving them unharmed.
God commanded the Israelites to eat unleavened bread that night, as they would be leaving in a hurry and had no time to wait for bread to rise. And when He gave instructions to the Israelites to celebrate the feast for generations to come, He instructed that they eat no leavened bread for seven days and remove all leaven from their homes in remembrance.
Thousands of years later, the children of the Children of Israel continue to keep this feast. Just as Exodus 12:26 says, the Israelite children will ask throughout the generations the meaning of the Passover feast, which their parents are to answer: “It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households” (Exod. 12:27).
The first Passover in Egypt was a rushed one, as the Israelites were commanded to eat the meal in haste, wearing their belts and shoes and holding their staffs (12:11), ready to flee out of Egypt at a moment’s notice.
Not so today. The modern Passover seder lasts hours, as the Jewish people relish the seder, reading through the story of their ancestor’s miraculous Exodus and indulging in rituals of the celebration. These rituals are designed to get everyone around the table involved, such as children at the table kicking off the telling of the story by asking “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
The family then goes through the Haggadah, the Passover guide in which they read through the Exodus story together and eat the traditional food of the Passover seder.
The Passover seder is filled with rich symbolism and includes several elements: the karpas or vegetable, usually parsley, which symbolizes the hyssop plant that the Israelites dipped into the lamb’s blood and painted on the doorpost. The maror, or bitter herbs, usually horseradish, symbolizes the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. The charoset, a sweet mixture of apples, nuts, spices and wine or grape juice, symbolizes the mortar that the Israelites used to make mortar for bricks while they were under slavery. The lamb shank bone symbolizes the sacrifice, and the beitzah, a hardboiled egg, represents the daily Temple sacrifice as well as the cycle of life.
Each family has their own traditions and spins on the Haggadah. Jewish people from different corners of the Diaspora (Jewish population outside Israel) have different recipes and ways of conducting the seder. But on this night, in Israel and around the world, they join together to remember their ancient Exodus and marvel on God’s wondrous miracles.
This will also be the second year when Passover is celebrated with empty chairs belonging to family members who fell in the war which began October 8, 2023 or even worse, to a loved one still held in captivity in Gaza. As the Jewish people remember their freedom from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, many are mourning. As Christians, may we remember to pray for their comfort in this season.
Please note that the Bridges for Peace offices will be closed from April 14–18, 2025. We will resume normal business operations on Monday, April 21, 2025.
From Bridges for Peace, chag sameach (Happy Passover)!
Posted on April 11, 2025
Source: Bridges for Peace
Photo Credit: Sarah Yoder/Bridges for Peace
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