All you need to know about the Jewish Passover

It was a dark night, filled with wails and cries as death swept through Egypt, striking down every firstborn male Egyptian—man and beast alike. This, the 10^th and final plague that God inflicted upon Egypt was the one that convinced Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from several centuries of slavery, after the Pharaoh too lost his son. As the story goes, before the plague, God instructed the prophet Moses and the Israelites to sacrifice an unblemished male lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. The Israelites were commanded to eat the lamb, roasted with bitter herbs and unleavened bread—a meal to be eaten in haste—while the angel of death, who saw the blood, 'passed over' their homes, sparing their firstborns. Passover, or Pesach, celebrates the Israelites' freedom from bondage.

Rinse them clean 

A day before Pesach, Jews are required to remove and burn any chametz (leavened food). “You scrub everything—the gas range, kitchen, fridge, larders. Anything that is fermented, including bread, yogurt and alcohol, cannot be consumed,” says Chef Moshe Shek, one-time founder of Moshe’s. All utensils that come into contact with chametz during the year must be especially purified through hagala (immersion in boiling water); water is boiled in a large vessel and three iron pieces or stones are added to it so that the water overflows and the rim is purified. Other vessels are then dipped into the boiling water three times and once in cold water.

The Passover meal

Preceeded by the haggadah (Passover prayers), the Pesach Seder is eaten on one of the first two or last two nights of Pesach. It consists of maror (bitter herbs) symbolising the bitterness of slavery; charoset (a brown paste of dates and nuts), representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves; karpas (celery); hard boiled eggs to remind them that like an egg that hardens the more it is boiled, so also their suffering has made the Jews stronger; zeroa (roasted lamb or goat bone) symbolising the korban Pesach (Pesach sacrifice); and matzah (unleavened flatbread). Having left Egypt in a hurry, the Israelites didn’t have time to wait for the dough to rise, so the tradition of eating matzah forms an integral part of Passover.

Fast of the firstborn

In thanksgiving for the firstborn Israelite sons that were saved, firstborn boys fast on the first day. The fast begins early in the morning and culminates with the Seder meal. “Firstborn males, born of a normal birth, are blessed and a lamp is lit in their name,” says Ahmedabad-based Aviv Divekar, a Bene Israeli Jew.

In India and the world

While in Israel, Pesach is celebrated for seven days, the diaspora throughout marks it over eight days, where “the first two days and the last two days are considered yom tov (Jewish holy days on which no work is done) to be on the safe side,” says Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, a Bene Israeli rabbi and head of the Jewish community in New Delhi.

Community Seders held in synagogues are common in India. In Ahmedabad, “around 70 Jews come together for the Seder held in the synagogue's compound, where we bake our own unleavened bread and prepare kosher wine”, says Divekar. In Delhi, “diplomats and Jews working in embassies and consulates join the 10 Jewish families for the community Seder,” says Malekar. 

Keeping in mind the limited time the Jews had when they escaped, “the matzah has to be prepared in 18 minutes. If the dough rises, it cannot be used”, says Chef Moshe, adding that at Mumbai's Magen David synagogue, an oven is built from scratch and Maharashtrian women prepare the dough at the synagogue, “while young boys run and hand it over for baking”.