This Wednesday, April 24, marks a little-known holiday on the Jewish calendar: Pesach Sheini -- Second Passover. Truth be told, it is a little different that the original holiday.
Life is designed to test us in many ways. Sometimes the tests are small and seemingly inconsequential. At other times, the significance of the test is obvious and terrifying.
Just as the Exodus from Egypt did not happen overnight--Passover reminds us that the changes we seek in our lives might be slow and gradual, even painful, but we should not despair.
If one is an observant vegan, isn't it troubling that a first born animal, say the offspring of a pet cat, let alone a human child, is to be sacrificed while the life of the lamb is saved?
For Passover this year, Rizzoli has just released The Bronfman Haggadah, written by the businessman, philanthropist and Jewish community leader Edgar Bronfman Sr., illustrated by artist Jan Aronson, who is also Bronfman's wife.
Here is the dilemma. You want to do a proper Seder, but need for whatever reason to get the Seder over and done with and you end up skipping essential parts of the Seder. With this in mind I created the 10 Minute Haggadah.
When Passover begins again next week, I will stage my millionth attempt to rescue some meaningful spark from its story -- this time, by exploring charoset as a glorious dish at once ancient and futuristic, traditional and infinitely adaptable.
Has the story of Passover made a people better or more secure? Has it stirred its believers to blame others? Has it encouraged a sense of victimhood? That it has is cause for concern and for discussion at the annual Passover meal.
Contrary to Hebrew School wisdom, the point of this chag is not simply to tell the story, but rather to tell the story in a heightened state of joy. That is much harder than simply planning a meal and choosing a haggadah.
At the beginning of the Passover Seder, we dip a vegetable in salt water. There are a number of reasons why. One of them may surprise you...
While we're busy navigating our ways around aluminum-clad kitchens, taped up cabinets containing chometz, all the while popping lady fingers and peeling vegetables, it's easy to forget why we celebrate the holiday altogether. I'm here to assure you, the story of Passover doesn't need to be complicated.
Prompted by this question, I returned to the perspectives of the ancient Jewish commentators on the Passover story. I wanted to know: Were they bothered by the death of so many Egyptians?
If Sukkot commemorates the wandering in the desert, why do we celebrate it now?
On the face of it, Foer seems a brilliant choice to commission and compile a New American Haggadah.The result is neither new nor particularly American -- it is as if he wrestled with the Haggadah, like Jacob wrestled with the angel, and the Haggadah won, repeatedly.
Like all Jewish festivals, Passover has its roots in Jewish history, in our connection to creation and in the rich spiritual and moral values of Judaism. Additionally, it helps us distinguish between two very different types of freedom.
Being free means accepting absolute responsibility for one's own behavior, which also made one distinctly aware of how one's own actions effect the community.
This year, sloppy eaters everywhere are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the invention of the sandwich by its eponymous Earl in 1762. Even so, the following must be said: Sandwich did not invent the sandwich.
Why do we wait until we're right down to the wire? We're transforming our entire modus operandi to become better individuals. Isn't this something that should be taking place all year round?
This is the prize which each of my Jewish loves - my Jewish teachers, my Rabbi and my Rebbetzin, my Jewish friends, my special Jewish Navigator and every Jewish patient has ultimately taught me: inside every Muslim is an inner Jew.
Passover has particular resonance in LA, where thousands of citizens in South LA live in a "food desert": an area where supermarkets are scarce and fresh fruits and vegetables hard to come by.
My Seder table, like everyone else's, is a blend of our own individual narratives and stories and the national story that we retell.
Passover is a roadmap to liberation, both personal and global, and who doesn't want, and deserve, to be free?
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