67 classes & essays
Pesach
Pesach, the Festival of Freedom, commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. At the Seder we eat matzah and maror, drink four cups of wine and tell the story of our redemption, and for eight days we remove all chametz. Its final days recall the splitting of the sea and look ahead to the final Redemption.
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6:50 Essays
Holidays BEIRACH – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 14) When we are ready to recite the Birkat Hamazon, as we do whenever we eat bread, the meal has come to an end. In the context of the… Holidays HALLEL – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 15) Although we have already recited half of the Hallel (the special Psalms of praise to extol G-d for His miracles) before the meal,… Holidays Introduction – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 1) The Seder, as its name suggests, is an orderly ritual; so orderly, in fact, that even before we start the Seder, an outline of its… Holidays KADESH – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 2) We open each Seder with recitation of the Kiddush, just as we do at the onset of every Shabbat and major Jewish holiday. During… Holidays KARPAS – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 4) The third step, Karpas, consists of dipping a vegetable in salt water. (Customs vary as to which vegetable is used. In some… Holidays KOREICH – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 11) The creation of a sandwich is attributed by some to an 18th century English aristocrat. As Jews, we know that it goes back at… Holidays MAAGID – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 6) The tone has been set. We know that we are holy. We know that we have the need to cleanse ourselves by allowing the holiness we… Holidays MARROR – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 10) After we have internalized the dynamic and liberating force of G-dly awareness, it would seem that we should be able to revel in… Holidays MATZA – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 9) In the next step of the Seder, we recite a blessing that praises G-d for giving us the Mitzvah/commandment to eat Matzah. In other… Holidays MOTZIE – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 8) After washing our hands, we begin the process of internalizing the message of spiritual freedom by eating the Matzah. However,… Holidays NIRTZA – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 16) Unlike the previous 14 steps, this last and final step does not manifest itself in any prayer or action. We have reached a point… Holidays RACHTZA – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 7) Before we partake of the Matzah, we wash our hands a second time. If washing the first time was about removing the impurities that… Holidays SHULCHAN OREICH – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 12) A “set table” is a reference to the festival meal that we are obliged to eat every Shabbat and Jewish Holiday. But the festive… Holidays TZAFUN – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 13) Following the meal, we eat the Afikoman (the larger half of the middle Matzah that we broke and then hid away in Yachatz). Tzofon… Holidays U'RCHATZ – 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 3) Washing the Hands After reciting the Kiddush, we wash our hands before dipping a vegetable in salt water, the next item of the… Holidays YACHATZ- 15 Steps of the Seder (Part 5) The fourth—yet still preliminary—step is the breaking of the middle Matzah. We break the Matzah at this point because it sets the… Holidays Last Days of Passover – Don’t Stand on Ceremony PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – Double Vision PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – Silent! PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – Sing and Shine PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – The Horse and Its Rider PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – The Inner Song PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – The Last Day of Passover: The Bottom Line (Ii) PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – The Last Day of Passover: The Bottom Line PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – The Link PASSOVER PASSOVER Holidays Last Days of Passover – Three Jews, Four Opinions PASSOVER PASSOVER Pesach Haggadah – All Dressed Up and Ready to Go Pesach Matzah and Maror Passover - the Passover-lamb that our fathers ate during the time of the Beit Hamikdash - for what reason [did they do so]? Pesach Haggadah – Chad Gadya One of the hymns sung by many at the end of the Seder is the Chad Gadya hymn, although it is not included in the Chabad version of the Haggadah it is nevertheless considered to be a holy hymn with deep symbolic and spiritual overtones. Some of the greatest sages of the last few… Pesach Haggadah – Ask, Child On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice! Pesach Haggadah – Four Cups Plus One This week’s Torah portion features the four expressions of Redemption: “I will take you out...rescue you...redeem you...take you... bring you to the land, and give it to you as a heritage.” The four cups we drink Passover night at the Seder were instituted by our sages as a… Pesach Haggadah – Innocent by Association Blessed is the Omnipresent One, blessed be He! Blessed is He who gave the Torah to His people Israel, blessed be He! The Torah speaks of four children: One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple and one does not know how to ask. Pesach Haggadah – It’s a Command! The wise one, what does he say? "What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the L-rd, our G-d, has commanded you?" You, in turn, shall instruct him in the laws of Passover, [up to] `one is not to eat any dessert after the Passover-lamb.' Pesach Haggadah – Magid Tell the Story Freedom of Speech Pesach, our sages tell us, is more than just a commemoration of an ancient people’s drive for independence saga. One of the salient themes of the Seder is the need to feel as if we are actually the ones who are going through this liberation process. Quoting the Mishnah, the… Pesach Haggadah – Reach for the Highest: The Sky Is Not the Limit It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarphon were reclining [at a seder] in B'nei Berak. They were discussing the exodus from Egypt all that night, until their students came and told them: "Our Masters! The time has come… Pesach Haggadah – Staff Eats Staffs "And with signs," this refers to the staff, as it is said: "Take into your hand this staff with which you shall perform the signs." Pesach Haggadah – Shabbos Hagadol- Shabbos of Maturity There are many reasons given for the designation of the Shabbat that precedes Passover, as Shabbat Hagadol-the Great Sabbath. The primary reason given is that on the Sabbath immediately preceding the Exodus from Egypt the Egyptians were informed of the impending “tenth plague”… Pesach Haggadah – The Four Answers One of the significant aspects of the Seder is the emphasis we place on questions; specifically, the Four Questions. Pesach Haggadah – The Four Sons in Ascending Order Blessed is the Omnipresent One, blessed be He! Blessed is He who gave the Torah to His people Israel, blessed be He! The Torah speaks of four children: One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple and one does not know how to ask. Pesach Haggadah – The Seder: The New World Order The obsession with doing things in their proper order is exemplified in the Passover evening service known as the Seder, which means order. Despite the fact that the Passover Seder is devoted to the theme of freedom, which often implies the lack of order, freedom in Judaism… Pesach Haggadah – The Sixteen Sons? The wise one, what does he say? "What are the testimonies, the statutes and the laws which the L-rd, our G-d, has commanded you?" You, in turn, shall instruct him in the laws of Passover, [up to] `one is not to eat any dessert after the Passover-lamb.' Pesach Haggadah – The Ten Plagues (I) Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild Beasts. Pestilence. Boils. Hail. Locust. Darkness. Slaying of the First-born. Pesach Haggadah – The Ten Plagues (Ii)-The Last Three Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild Beasts. Pestilence. Boils. Hail. Locust. Darkness. Slaying of the First-born. Pesach Haggadah – The Ten Plagues (Iii) Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild Beasts. Pestilence. Boils. Hail. Locust. Darkness. Slaying of the First-born. Pesach Haggadah – The Ten Plagues the First Step to Freedom Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild Beasts. Pestilence. Boils. Hail. Locust. Darkness. Slaying of the First-born. Pesach Haggadah – This Is the Bread of Affliction “A Kosher and Happy Passover” This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Whoever is hungry, let him come and eat; whoever is in need, let him come and conduct the Seder of Passover. Pesach Haggadah – Windows 2448-5776 man of seventy years old, yet I did not succeed in proving that the exodus from Egypt must be mentioned at night-until Ben Zoma explained it: "It is said, `That you may remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life;' now `the days of your life' refers to the days,…