{"id":33488,"date":"2023-04-06T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T14:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=33488"},"modified":"2023-04-06T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T14:45:13","slug":"why-is-passover-different-from-all-other-nights-3-essential-reads-on-the-jewish-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-is-passover-different-from-all-other-nights-3-essential-reads-on-the-jewish-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Passover different from all other nights? 3 essential reads on the Jewish\u00a0holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Molly Jackson<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boxes of matzah stacked high in grocery stores? It\u2019s almost Passover. Wednesday, April 5, marks the first night of the weeklong Jewish holiday<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many people who celebrate it, Passover brings to mind memories of Seder meals with family and reading from the Haggadah, the script for the Seder ritual, which commemorates the biblical story of the Israelites\u2019 flight from slavery in Egypt. It\u2019s a holiday, in other words, with remembrance and tradition at its core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s unchanging. As these scholars explain, Passover has been evolving from the start, reflecting Jewish communities\u2019 experiences around the world \u2013 right up to the past few years, with Zoom Seders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It\u2019s about honoring freedom not only yesterday, but today and tomorrow. Here we spotlight three articles from our archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Story of liberation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
Musician Nisim Nisimov\u2019s wife serves matzah ball soup during a Passover Seder at their home in Azerbaijan in 2013. Reza via Getty Images News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The central story of Passover, and the holiday\u2019s name itself, come from the biblical book of Exodus<\/a>, where Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Before their escape, God punishes the Egyptians with a series of plagues, including the death of firstborn sons \u2013 but tells the Israelites to put the blood of a sacrificed lamb above their doors so they shall be passed over and spared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before they have actually departed Egypt, God commands Moses that the Israelites should commemorate this event. The narrative of persecution and liberation \u201cfuses the present moment with the past, encouraging each participant to imagine themselves as part of the first generation to leave Egypt,\u201d writes Samuel Boyd<\/a>, a scholar of the Bible and ancient Judaism at the University of Colorado Boulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
An illustrated Haggadah from the late 18th century. Godong\/Universal Images Group via Getty Image<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Haggadah is a guide to Passover\u2019s central ritual, the Seder meal traditionally celebrated on the first and sometimes second evening. Some of the Haggadah\u2019s rituals may be nearly two millennia old, Boyd notes<\/a>. Yet \u201calmost like a time machine,\u201d the traditions \u201cencourage the participants to reflect, in different ways, on the significance of liberation and how to communicate it to future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Ancient, yet ever-evolving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the past few years, Zoom Seders became the norm for many Jewish families unable to celebrate in person with their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That in itself might be a brand-new experience, but Passover and Judaism are no strangers to innovation, Boyd explains<\/a>. And few things illustrate that history like the temple in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Bible, the temple was God\u2019s home, and central to ancient Israelite worship. After it was destroyed not once but twice, Jewish leaders were left \u201cwith profound questions\u201d about how to connect with God and offer sacrifices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A woman slides a written prayer into a crack in the Western Wall beside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Joel Carillet\/iStock via Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gradually, Jews came to see prayer as a form of sacrifice, one that could be performed anywhere in the world. It was an idea rooted in biblical passages drawing comparisons between the two: Psalm 141:2<\/a>, for example, which says \u201cTake my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing the destruction,\u201d Boyd writes, \u201cthe way that Jewish communities worshiped God changed forever\u201d \u2013 and has kept evolving today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Brewing up a new tradition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the most famous Passover examples? The Maxwell House Haggadah<\/a> \u2013 yes, like the coffee company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of different Haggadahs exist, each one supplementing the core store from Exodus with different readings. But in the United States, one of the most popular for decades was a simple version \u201cdreamed up in 1932 by the coffee corporation and a Jewish advertising executive\u201d who grew up on New York\u2019s Lower East Side, explains Kerri Steinberg<\/a>, a professor at Otis College of Art and Design who researches advertising\u2019s impact on religion. During the Great Depression, Maxwell House followed his firm\u2019s advice to distribute a Haggadah for free with each can of coffee in an effort to boost sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A Jewish family welcomes home a man in the Navy during a Passover Seder at their home in St. Paul, Minn., in 1943. Minnesota Historical Society\/Corbis Historical via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell House\u2019s Haggadah has become a classic, with even the White House using it. But it\u2019s also changed with the times: nixing words like \u201cthee\u201d and \u201cthine,\u201d for example. There\u2019s even a special edition themed for hit TV show \u201cThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a sea of thousands of Haggadahs, it is Maxwell House\u2019s that has become the de facto representative of American Jewish life,\u201d Steinberg wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molly Jackson<\/a>, Religion and Ethics Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Molly Jackson, The Conversation Boxes of matzah stacked high in grocery stores? It\u2019s almost Passover. Wednesday, April 5, marks the first night of the weeklong Jewish holiday in 2023. For many people who celebrate it, Passover brings to mind memories of Seder meals with family and reading from the Haggadah, the script for the Seder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":33489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[2275,12702,13159,3104,9666,13866,6610,13584],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33490,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33488\/revisions\/33490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}