Pesach: What we do and Why we do it

I would like to lay in front of you a description of the basic obligations of the Pesach Festival, what in fact these obligations entail and why we do them. This will hopefully give your Seder and Pesach festival that bit more spirit and meaning!

3.      Not eating any mixture of Chametz on Pesach.

There are in fact five prohibitions that can be learnt from the Torah that we should not eat Chametz on Pesach. Chametz is something that has gone through the process of leavening – actually leavening agents are also included in this prohibition. Additionally, it is not only eating actual Chametz such as bread that is a problem, but any food product that contains flour, grain, or any leavened ingredient will also be prohibited.

Some important points regarding not eating Chametz:

§  Some medicines may well contain Chametz.

§  If the medicine is a bitter tablet, we usually say that this is being taken as medicine and not for food and so it is permitted.

§  If the medicine is palatable to a human, it may need to be mixed with a non-chametz food before Pesach to annul the Chametz ingredient. In cases of greater need it may well be permitted.

§  We stop eating Chametz after 4 hours of the day of the 14^th Nisan have passed. An hour here is one-twelfth of day light time. This year we stop eating Chametz at 10.40 a.m.

WHY? It is very easy on Pesach to ooze with National self-confidence. God redeems our whole nation, brings us to Mount Sinai as His chosen people, gives us the Land of Israel – all this can inspire a great deal of pride. But we also must remember where we came from – “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt…” Our beginning as a Nation was lowly. We were helpless. Chametz is a symbol of this sense of confidence without thinking about the source of this buoyancy. So on Pesach we are commanded – don’t eat chametz. Don’t eat the symbol of what will prevent you from thinking about your humble origins.

4.      Not owning Chametz on Pesach

Not only may we not eat Chametz on Pesach, but we my not own it. That is we may not have in our possession over Pesach any Chametz. If for instance a non-Jew comes in with his/her bread loaf into the house, I do not need to tell them to leave – this is not my Chametz.

WHY? The addition of a prohibition to own Chametz could be explained as causing us to put in an extra effort to emphasise the importance of Matza on Pesach. In other words, we want through Matza to remember the miracles that God did to our people in bringing us out of Egypt. Matza is a key symbol of this Exodus, as we did not have time to allow the dough to rise on our way out of Egypt. So to focus our attention on Matza, we remove our ownership of Chametz.

5.      To dispose of all Chametz on the 14^th Nisan

We are also commanded to actively get rid of all Chametz on the day before Pesach. There are two basic methods to get rid of Chametz:

§  Resolving firmly to nullify all Chametz in one’s possession. This is known as the Bitul.

§  Searching for chametz in one’s possession in order to burn it or destroy it. This is known as Biur.

Both these methods are carried out. A search might not yield all chametz so we also nullify our ownership over what we did not find. If our nullification was not completely sincere, we at least will search for the Chametz as well.

This year we will search for Chametz on Sunday night, April 17^th.

§  Searching for Chametz technically means making sure that one check any place in which there might be chametz. If one is clear that chametz did not enter into a certain place, then it need not be checked. The custom is that on the night before Pesach we put down 10 pieces of Chametz and ‘search’ for them. A blessing is said and then a proclamation of nullification is said as well. In the morning, a second nullification is said. The blessing and nullifications can be found in most Hagadot.

6.      Eating Matza on first night of Pesach

Even although we are usually faced with eight days of eating Matza, we are actually only obligated to eat it on the 15^th Nisan (outside Israel it should also be eaten on second seder). The Torah also asks of us: “you shall guard the Matzot”. From this comes the custom of Shmurah Matza or guarded Matza. It is accepted that one should fulfil the precept of eating Matza through this guarded Matza.

§  Shmura Matza as we know them have been guarded from leaven from the time the grain was reaped. One can also buy machine Shmura Matza that are often guarded from the time of grinding the grain into flour.

§  The amount to be eaten to fulfil the mitzvah is known as an olive’s’ amount. Today this is understood to be about half the size of a hand baked Matza or two-thirds that of a machine baked square Matza.

WHY? Two reasons can be offered for the importance of Matza. Firstly, as many of us know, when the Children of Israel left Egypt they only had enough time to bake unleavened bread. Here Matza symbolises the taste of freedom. However Matza was also deemed to be the ‘bread of affliction’ representing a lack of freedom. Within Matza lies the Jewish transformation from slavery to freedom.

7.      Eating Maror (Bitter Herbs) on 15^th Nisan

Connected to eating Matza is a mitzvah to eat Bitter Herbs, or Maror. Different vegetables were suggested to fulfil this and it has become widely accustomed to use horseradish. Another well-liked suggestion in Jewish law is lettuce. Just as the sweetness of the Jews’ sojourn in Egypt ended in bitterness, so also lettuce has an initial sweet taste and then is bitterer. The problem with lettuce is that it often contains small insects that blend in with the lettuce leaf and are difficult to find.

WHY? The Torah explains that the Pesach lamb offering was to be eaten with Matza and with Maror. Now Matza has an independent command for it to be eaten. Maror however, does not. It is only really obligatory when we sacrifice the Pesach offering. However, the Jewish people still eat Bitter herbs, a symbol of our oppression, both physical and spiritual.

8.      Telling the Story of the Exodus

Telling the story of the Exodus is one of our favourite tasks – we do it by reading the Hagada. Of course, the Hagada itself tells of a number of Rabbis that stayed up all night discussing the meaning of the Exodus. There is no maximum measure for this command other than the need to say the Shema the next morning! The Hagada is our toolbox for the fulfilment of this mitzvah, and we must therefore understand it. We may read the Hagada in our own language if we will understand it better.

WHY? The Exodus from Egypt was a groundbreaking event for the Jewish nation. It allowed feelings and rumours about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to become reality. This God really was all-powerful, and really was the Creator. The Exodus made a massive affect on our belief system. When we tell the story, and attempt to relive it we want to see God’s providence as clearly as our ancestors did.

9.      Drinking four cups of wine - FOUR LANGUAGES OF REDEMPTION

One well-known practice at Pesach is drinking four cups of wine at the Pesach Seder. Have you ever thought why exactly we carry out this ritual? Is there a basis for the Four Cups?

 In fact, according to our tradition, this obligation has its roots at the beginning of Chapter 6 of Exodus. There, God reassures Moses that He will redeem the Jewish people, and in doing so uses four different words for the concept of redemption:

“I shall bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt; and I shall deliver you from your bondage, and I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishing judgements; and I shall take you to Me for a people and I shall be for you a God”

In bold are four different representations of God’s redemption, which came to be known as the ‘four languages for redemption’. What is more, the four cups of wine are sourced back to these four expressions. Each cup represents a different term.

Now Pesach is considered the festival dedicated to the concept of freedom, most particularly freedom to worship God. This idea is encapsulated in the Hagada itself, which maps out this journey from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt to our freedom to be God’s people. In fact according to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1889) each of the different languages of redemption represents another step on the way to true freedom.

Firstly, God proclaimed that he would ‘bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt’. This is physical redemption, simply a lightening of the load, and a relief from burden. To Hirsch, this is a first and necessary step on the way to true freedom. Once material stresses are lifted from off a man, he can then feel freer to consider the spiritual.

Secondly, God would “deliver you from your bondage”. Here Rabbi Hirsch understands ‘bondage’ not to mean physical slavery but rather the mentality of slavery. The next step after a relief from burden was to shake off the damaging philosophy propagated by Pharaonic Egypt that we have no control over our destiny. In Egypt, a caste system was created where everyone had their place and there was next to no social mobility. Here God freed and redeemed us from being enslaved to man and to nature.

Thirdly, God declared, “and I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm”. This according to Hirsch is where “man must become aware of the source of his freedom”. In other words, so far freedom has been negative – from physical burdens, from a slave mentality. Now freedom is something positive, freedom to appreciate God rather freedom from any burden. This difference between positive and negative freedom was discussed by Sir Isaiah Berlin in his ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ and most recently from a Jewish perspective by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his Hagada (Essays, p68). With this third step, God reveals himself as the Creator of our freedom, and paves the way for a specific bond with the Jewish Nation.

Lastly, God explains, “I shall take you to Me for a people”. The previous three representations of redemption could be experienced by all of mankind. This fourth one however, was indicative of the election of the Children of Israel to take the concept of redemption and explain it to the world. For this the Jewish people would need to regulate themselves as a nation according to the word of God. Religion would not just be something of the private domain, remaining with the individual. Rather, it would be interchangeable with the constitution of the nation. Our happiness and satisfaction as a nation will truly come when we live as a nation according to the Torah and its mitzvot.

So the four cups of wine that we drink at the Seder, are stations along the path of freedom and redemption, each one leading us closer to our goal as a people – to be God’s people.

10.  Leaning at the Seder

Early in the book of Exodus, God explains to Moses that He will redeem the Children of Israel. But God uses four expressions for the word ‘redeem’. On this basis the Rabbis that lived at the time of the Second Temple ordained that we drink four cups of wine to commemorate these four expressions of redemption. We also learn from the Rabbis the obligation to lean at certain points in the Seder evening.

WHY? Both these customs have in common the expression of freedom and nobility. Thus we drink wine, a noble drink; and we also lean, which was a custom of royalty in Babylonian, Greek and Persian times. Actually leaning meant eating while lying on a bed! But Jewish freedom is not to be free to do what we want. It means being free from the chains of human control, and therefore free to contemplate the ideas of spirituality and God.

Have a wonderful, meaningful and Kosher Pesach and if you have any queries or questions, do not hesitate to be in contact.