Elijah, Dalya & my parents' seder meal

[Dalya]

as long as youre eating a LOT, thats the jewish way of eating. theres only certain rules about how youre supposed to eat everything during the actual seder, and even then the host describes everything as you go through it.

for people too lazy to read wikipedia, passover celebrates the jews escaping slavery in Egypt. This is the story that includes the 10 plagues and Moses parting the red sea, which you may or may not remember. but, of course, we also talk about the holocaust and how throughout history people have tried to exterminate the jews without success and how we must never forget the bonds of slavery etc etc etc.

[Dalya]

and also the seder is the passover feast. "seder" is the hebrew word for order, because all the prayers and stories and songs have to go in a specific order, which is laid out in the Hagadah (a special prayer book for passover).

in israel you have a seder on the first night of passover, which is the only night thats considered a "yom tov" (literally means "good day" but really means a holy day) even though passover lasts a whole week. if you are a jew living in the diaspora (anywhere but irsael) you are supposed to have a seder on the first 2 nights of passover, because you can't be sure when exactly you're supposed to celebrate it (sundown in jerusalem). this is why there are 2 days of rosh hashanah (jewish new year) as well. in israel there is only 1.

also, matzah is basically a giant saltless cracker. you have to eat it on passover, because when the slaves fled israel they didn't have time to let their bread rise, therefore you cant eat leavened bread during passover. this can be followed very strictly or very loosely. some people just won't eat bread. others (like my family) won't eat anything that can be made into bread. so no corn, legunes, anything made with flower, etc. there's lots of different variations depending on "how" jewish you are and where your ancestors are from.

i think thats it. passover 101.

[lennon]

thanks for the passover 101 lesson. being a christian we know (or at least should know) the stories of the israelites told by moses in the first five books of the bible. however its nice to know how that translates in todays society.

for christians, today is maundy thursday. which is the observance of jesus' last supper with his disciples. though for some reason all christians do not observe.

if there are christians out there that dont know that jesus was a jew they dont deserve to call themselves a christian.

[Sybil]

for christians, today is maundy thursday. which is the observance of jesus' last supper with his disciples. though for some reason all christians do not observe.

Wasn't Jesus' last supper basically a Passover seder? And that's why Passover and Easter almost always coincide? Or am I misremembering those long ago Sunday school classes?

I do remember the story about the angel of death "passing over", the lamb's blood, etc., and Moses and the Red Sea. That part was in the movie.

Sybil

[aquaphase]

for christians, today is maundy thursday. which is the observance of jesus' last supper with his disciples. though for some reason all christians do not observe.

Wasn't Jesus' last supper basically a Passover seder? And that's why Passover and Easter almost always coincide? Or am I misremembering those long ago Sunday school classes?

I do remember the story about the angel of death "passing over", the lamb's blood, etc., and Moses and the Red Sea. That part was in the movie.

Sybil

But that blue-eyed jeebus wasn't using unleavened bread in all the pictures.

[mr_j]

for christians, today is maundy thursday. which is the observance of jesus' last supper with his disciples. though for some reason all christians do not observe.

probably because the Maundy Thursday celebration is, i believe, based on Roman Catholic tradition

[Dalya]

the last supper was a seder indeed.

tons of kids at my christian highschool didn't know jesus was jewish and also didn't know im jewish because im blonde.

(and fyi moses didn't tell all the stories in the "old testmament", technically he only wrote down the ten commandments. and he coun't have written anything beyond exodus, as he died in the desert. *jew nerd*)

[eebs]

thanks for the links, when i was at school RE lessons were copy bits out of the bible into your exercise books and listen to the reverend roll out some of his old sermons so my knowledge about anything outside christianity C of E style is pretty much zilch.

[aquaphase]

C of E style is pretty much zilch.

All you need to learn about the C of E can be found on Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill"

[mere1975]

Sorry about mentioning Challah Friday. I had never heard of the no-bread tradition during this week.

- Mere "I went to preschool with a lot of Jewish kids and teachers, so I used to eat matzos for snack time almost every day, all year long actually" 1975

P.S.
Do you think that the Jews fleeing without enough time to let their bread rise were like, "This sucks. If we get through this, I'm going to make millions of future Jews remember this day by skipping the challah."

[mr_j]

am i the only one who finds the phrase 'challah challah make ya holla' to be a real hoot?

[Dalya]

yeah the no bread thing sucks. and it extra sucks because matzah makes you constipated. which i now am. shabbat shalom dalya.

onks i could give you all kinds of jew lessons. i went to jewish day school until i was 14. i dont remember all the stupid details but the basics are engrained in my brain forever.