The Festival of Matzos Passover is most often referred to in the Torah as Chag HaMatzot, literally the Festival of Matzahs (unleavened bread).30 Clearly, the eating of matzah and the prohibition against leavened bread (in Hebrew, chametz) are defining features of the festival. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread [matzah]… you shall observe the…
Rabbi Becher wonders why does G-d introduce Himself to the Jewish people as “G-d Who took you out of Egypt” and not as “G-d Who created the universe”? Surely creation of everything, space, time and matter is more impressive than taking one group of people out of Egypt? View this video directly on Vimeo.
Soon, at the Seder, we will be sitting and reading, learning, teaching and questioning the Haggadah – the story of Pesach and the Exodus which we are obligated to review, to investigate, and to convey to our children and grandchildren on the night of Pesach. It is fascinating to note that there is something fundamental…
Harry Rothenberg asks how can we view ourselves as if we personally left Egypt if we were never there? View this video directly on VIMEO
Question: What is the Haggadah? AskTheRabbi.org answered: The Haggadah is a book that Jews read on the first night of Passover – and on the first two nights outside of Israel. It tells about our slavery in Egypt and the miracles God did for us when freeing us. The word haggadah means “telling,” which comes from…
Generally, we classify the commandments of the Torah into commandments that pertain to our relationship with G-d and commandments that pertain to our relationship with other people. There are some who had a third category, the commandments that govern the relationship between body and soul, in other relationship with the self. Generally, when we think…
Passover celebrates an historic event – the freeing of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt about 3300 years ago. The Torah recounts how God intervened in history, punished the Egyptian slave-masters and took His people – known then as the Hebrews or the Children of Israel — out of Egypt with miracles and wonders….
Passover is always observed in spring, on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nissan (around March or April). The Torah describes the month in which Passover falls as the first month, and emphasizes several times that Pesach occurs in the springtime. In terms of the creation of the Jewish people as a nation,…
Is it ever OK to gloat? View this video directly on Vimeo
Diaspora Doubts In the times of the Temple, the Sanhedrin (Supreme Court) would decide when to sanctify a new month primarily on the basis of eyewitness reports. Two people would come to the court and testify that they had seen the new moon. If the court accepted the testimony (based on specific criteria), Rosh Chodesh…