Jewish Passover
celebrated this week
By Saria Kraft
kraft@theacorn.com

For about 2,000 years, Jewish families have gathered around the Seder table to recount the Exodus from Egypt. The story, later known as the Haggadah, was first written in about 1,300 B.C.

The Haggadah is one of the few books in Jewish life that contains illustrations, making it more accessible to children, says Rabbi Noson Gurary, Chabad of Simi Valley.

"It comes from the Hebrew word, ‘to tell,’" Gurary says. "The theme of the holiday is to pass the story to the next generation."

Although the Passover Seder is just one component of the eight-day festival, it’s where kids can have the most fun, says Rabbi Michele Paskow of Congregation B’nai Emet.

"There are prizes and a scavenger hunt," Paskow says. "Children are encouraged to observe their surroundings and ask questions. They’re not told to be quiet."

The ability to question is the sign of a free person, Paskow says, adding that slaves are not permitted to challenge their captors.

According to the the rabbi, "Slavery still exists in 2004 . . . In Mexico, China and the Sudan, children are sold into bondage. Passover holds a message of hope and healing for a fractured and fragmented world."

Each year, rabbinic scholars find new meanings to the story of the Exodus.

Chabad Rabbi Levi Cunin of the Malibu synagogue also expressed his thoughts on Passover:

Jews do not celebrate holidays based on culture or religion alone. Rather, it is the personal reliving and re-experiencing of history, the quest to interpret the past and to seek its relevance to the individual’s present that is essential.

At the Seder table, the assembly calls "whosoever shall be hungry to come and eat." But they’ve already sat down, so whom are they asking? In a way, they invite themselves to partake of matzah, the bread of affliction and poverty. Each asks the part of him that may be spiritually impoverished to receive bounty.

And finally, the words "Mi Mitzrayim" are pronounced a multitude of times throughout the Seder. They mean "out from Egypt." But Mitzrayim may also mean limitations or a narrow place. On Passover, those who observe Judaism look to be free of those personal limitations.

In the fall, the High Holy Days (Ten Days of Awe) seek accountability for one’s actions during the preceding year. Each spring, Passover looks to the future.