South Hills children prepare for Passover
For numerous area youngsters, celebrating Passover will be extra special this year.
They had the opportunity to create their own plates for the Seder, the feast that opens the eight-day Jewish spring festival, during a March 18 event at Home Depot in Bethel Park organized by Chabad of the South Hills.
Children and their families work on Seder plates at Home Depot in Bethel Park.
“These original creations will be something that the kids can proudly display on their Seder tables, with a place for each of the special foods we eat,” Batya Rosenblum said. She is co-director of the Jewish center for living and learning in Mt. Lebanon, along with her husband, Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum.
This year, Erev Pesach, or Eve of Passover, is March 30, with the Seder to take place after nightfall. A second Seder is on the following day, the first of Passover, which commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt.
“They were Egyptian slaves for more than 200 years, and it was a very, very difficult time for them,” Batya Rosenblum said. “And so we celebrate Passover as the time that they were freed from this slavery and were taken out of Egypt under the direction of Moses.”
Integral to the celebration is the Passover cuisine, which signifies certain aspects of the Jewish ordeal. For example, bitter herbs are served.
“That reminds us of the bitterness of the Jews and their slavery,” Rosenblum explained. “Another one is a vegetable that we dip into salt water, to remind us of tears that the Jews cried.”
Also on the Seder plates is charoset, a sweet, dark-hued paste made of fruits and nuts.
“The color and texture of that reminds us of the mortar for the bricks that Jews were forced to build,” Rosenblum said.
The portion of the Torah known as the Shemot, corresponding to Exodus 1:1-6:1, tells of Moses parting the Sea of Reeds, allowing the Jewish people to cross before the water drowned the Egyptian army, and later of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.
Children and their families work on Seder plates at Home Depot in Bethel Park.
“Basically, when we celebrate Passover, we are recalling all those miracles and also how they apply to our lives today,” Rosenblum explained, “because really everything in Judaism is not just about something that happened a long time ago, but rather, what is the relevant message for today?”
In that context, she gave the example of the applicability of the Hebrew word for Egypt, “Mizraim,” which also can mean boundaries or limitations.
“It is a time for us to go out of our boundaries of our self-imposed limitations, out of what we consider our comfort zone of what we can do,” she said, “when really, if we break through that, we can do a lot more.”
Chabad of the South Hills, 1701 McFarland Road, will celebrate First Seder Night, March 30, with a Community Seder at 7 and lighting of candles at 7:24. Second Seder Night has Community Seder at 8 and lighting of candles after 8:24.
Passover, or Pesach, extends through April 7, when the customary Meal of Moshiach is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The eight-day festival of Passover is celebrated in the early spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan, March 30-April 7 this year.
In Hebrew, the observance is known as Pesach (which means “to pass over”), because the firstborn of Jewish homes were spared during 10th Plague of Egypt on the first Passover eve.
Pesach is observed by avoiding leaven, which causes dough to rise, and highlighted by the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzah (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus.
The first two days and last two days of Pesach are full-fledged holidays. Holiday candles are lit at night, and kiddush and sumptuous holiday meals are enjoyed on both nights and days.
The middle four days are called Chol Hamoed, semi-festive “intermediate days,” when most forms of work are permitted.
Source: www.chabad.org
For more information, visit www.chabadsh.com.