Passover (Pesach) this year began at sunset on April 18th. I joined several others at our congregation in the morning to begin preparations for the Seder dinner we all shared that evening.
With my usual warning to the kitchen crew that I am not very good in the kitchen, but happy to follow explicit directions, I was set to work with another much more confident lady, forming the matzo balls for the soup. Between the two of us we made almost one thousand matzo balls of varying sizes according to the directives that came from the kitchen.
Then it was on to making the tabouli salad. My friend’s family has a proud tradition of tabouli-making, so she instructed me in detail, then applauded my parsley chopping skills, and I beamed with pride as we minced the dozen bushels, then moved on to the mint leaves, etc.
The best part of cooking with other people is the social aspect of it, and my cooking partner and I got to know each other quite well throughout the day, and I enjoyed hearing her perspectives on life, politics, faith, sociolinguistics, and more. (And I learned my numbers in Arabic! Well, started to, anyway :))
Having completed our assignments in the kitchen we moved over to what was to serve as our dining room and helped set the tables with the typical forks, spoons, knives, plates and napkins, and then with the Pesach Seder specifics of wine, matzah, bitter herbs, etc.
A little before dinner, a friend from the international school arrived and we walked over to the German Colony to find our other friend and her mom who was visiting and wanted to join our Seder meal. I was happy to have somewhere to invite them. :)
Usually the services at our congregation are given in Hebrew and you can access English or Russian translation through a headset, but they opted for this night (“Why is this night different than any other night?” ;-)) to conduct it all in Hebrew, and have the translations projected on the screen rather than deal with the wires, make the interpreters work, etc…
Passover is the feast remembering the night the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. You can read the whole account recorded in the first 12 chapters in Exodus (the second book of the Bible), but basically God had sent Moses to the Pharaoh to tell him to free the people and Pharaoh refused, even after the plagues that God sent convinced all of his advisers and they all told him to let the Israelites go, Pharaoh would not have it. Finally, God said that if he didn’t let them go, the firstborn son of every single person, and even of the firstborn of the cattle! would all die in one night. But God spared the Israelites from this plague, to show Pharaoh the distinction. He instated the Hebrew calendar then, by making that the first month in their calendar, and gave directions on how they were to be spared from the plague (Exodus 12). What God said came to pass and the Israelites were able to flee Egypt, not only with their own belongings, but with tons of gifts from their Egyptian neighbors, too. And God said to keep this feast annually as a remembrance of him saving them.
The feast was also a prophecy of God’s anointed Messiah to come. We believe that Yeshua of Nazareth fulfilled the prophecies in this meal (and all the others made by the prophets), and is the one that all they spoke of. So, for instance, the lamb that is eaten may not have its bones broken. When Jesus and the two other guys were crucified it was on a Friday. They didn’t want to have the guys die after sunset, because that would be on the Sabbath, so they went to break their legs (because when you’re crucified, you die from suffocation, and if you break the guy’s legs, he can’t lift himself up to breathe, so he dies really quickly). But Jesus had already died, so they didn’t break his legs like they did to the other two.
Another part of the Seder is the three pieces of matzah bread. Partway through the meal, the middle matzah is taken from the other two (like Jesus came down from between God and the Holy Spirit), and broken (his death). This broken middle matzah, called the afikomen, is hidden during the meal and then at the end of the meal brought out of the hidden place back for all to see (like Jesus in the tomb for three days and then his resurrection).
Anyway, there're of course some other great connections between the original night of the Passover, the night when Jesus ate it as his final supper before his crucifixion, and the one we ate a couple weeks ago, but I hear my ASL/ISL work calling out to me so I will have to share that with you when you ask. :) We ate the dinner, the youngest at each table asked the four traditional questions, we sang the songs, prayed the prayers, and enjoyed great conversation and fellowship at our tables. It was an excellent start to Pesach (it is a week-long holiday with various food rules, and no school/work).Next up: hiking during Pesach break. :-D
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