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Next Year May All Be Free ...
   The Celebration of Passover

The Golden Haggadah Northern Spain, c. 1320*

The Jewish holiday, Passover, celebrates the Exodus, the journey of the Jews from bondage to freedom.  All over the world, on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, Jews sit down to a ritual dinner and retell the story:  How we became slaves in ancient Egypt, how we were united and inspired by Moses, how Moses tried to negotiate with the Pharaoh for freedom, how eventually the Hebrew God broke the will of the Egyptians by slaying their first born.  We retell how the Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Jews to the edge of the Red Sea and how Moses called on God who parted the Sea for the Jews but drowned the Egyptians.  And we also tell how the Jews wandered in the desert, received the Ten Commandments and became, finally, a people worshipping one god only.

Until the first century CE, Passover was celebrated as a spring ritual.  “It was a sacrificial system, whose religious festivities revolved about a series of cultic acts performed by a priestly class within the precincts of the Jerusalem Temple.  Pilgrims to Jerusalem spent Passover eve consuming the paschal lamb which they had sacrificed in the Temple that afternoon and recounting the tale of the Exodus in what must have been a night of celebration unstructured by any elaborate order of prayer,” says Rabbi Herbert Bronstein in the Introduction to his Passover Haggadah.  But in the first century the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed and the Jewish community began to form various sects, among them Christianity.  It was in response to a new concern for identity that the Passover dinner, or Seder, took on the form it has now.  At that time there was already a Greek custom of huge banquets accompanied by philosophical conversation.  The Jews adapted this custom, assigned symbolic meaning to the foods and rituals and extended the scope of the holiday.  Not only did Passover recount the Exodus.  It now examined what it meant to be a Jew in the present and how the themes of unity and freedom applied to Jews in the first century.  This is the holiday that has been passed on for generations.  It’s a holiday aimed at children. 

The youngest child at the table recites the Four Questions.  In answering these questions, the leader of the Seder tells the Passover story, explaining the symbols and rituals.  “Why do we eat unleavened bread (matzoh)?” the child asks.  She learns that the Jews escaped from Egypt in such a hurry, there was no time to let the bread rise.  Why do we eat bitter herbs only?” the child asks.  He learns that these herbs (usually horseradish) symbolize the bitter years of bondage.

And because the goal of the holiday is to teach, the ceremony uses a hands-on approach.  Everyone at the table eats a sandwich made of matzoh and horseradish.  We dip the parsley, symbolizing hope and the rebirth of spring, into the salt water, which symbolizes the tears of the Jews in slavery.  As we recite the ten plagues that God unleashed on the Egyptians, we spill a drop of wine for each to show that we should never celebrate the misfortune of others.  We eat the delicious haroset a mixture of apples, nuts, fruit and wine to recall the mortar our ancestors used to build for the Pharaoh.  We watch the leader raise the roast lamb shank as we hear how the Jews smeared lambs’ blood on their doorposts, so the Angel of Death would pass over their homes and spare their firstborn sons.

The traditional feast varies from culture to culture.  But for all, there are strict food prohibitions.  No leavened food or leavening agents are allowed.  Grains -- wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt -- that have come in resting contact with water for 18 minutes are considered to have begun the leavening process.  Food or drink made from these grains is forbidden, of course, except for matzoh.  Special precautions are taken in the preparation of Passover matzoh to insure that no leavening occurs.

The Passover holiday is designed so that Jews will move emotionally from the sorrow of slavery through hope to the elation of freedom.  As the evening progresses there is singing.  We’re instructed to drink four cups of wine.  The children have “stolen” the special matzoh, the Afikomen, which the leader must buy it back in order to complete the Seder.  After supper, there is heated negotiation between the children and the leader with everyone shouting advice from the sidelines.  The celebration ends joyfully.

Yet the holiday of Passover is also designed to remind Jews that if anyone is still enslaved, we are all enslaved. ...

Early in the Seder we have recited together:

“This is the bread of affliction,
the poor bread,
which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.
Let all who are hungry come and eat.
Let all who are in want
Share the hope of Passover.
As we celebrate here,
We join with our people everywhere.
This year we celebrate here.
Next year in the land of Israel.
Now we are all still in bonds.
Next year may all be free.”

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NOTE:  The Golden Haggadah is one of the outstanding works among The British Library's world-renowned collection of Hebrew manuscripts.  It was written and illustrated in Northern Spain, possibly Barcelona, in around 1320.  The haggadah contains the liturgy used in Jewish homes on the Passover to tell the story of, and to give thanks for, the divine deliverance of the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage.  The Golden Haggadah contains illustrations of Old Testament incidents.  Each page is divided into four panels.  The ravages of time have caused the brilliant colours of this priceless work to fade slightly.  This facsimile faithfully reflects its current condition.

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