Passover, also called Pasch () or Pesach (;"Pesach"; . Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary ), or Peysekh in Yiddish, is a major Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
According to the Book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and mark their doorframes with its blood, in addition to instructions for consuming the lamb that night. For that night, God would bring about the tenth plague, in which God would smite all the firstborn in Egypt. But when God saw the blood on the Israelites' doorframes, God would pass over their homes so that the plague should not enter (hence the name). The story is part of the broader Exodus narrative, in which the Israelites, while living in Egypt, are enslaved en masse by the Pharaoh to suppress them; when Pharaoh refuses God's demand to let them go, God sends ten plagues upon Egypt. After the tenth plague, Pharaoh permits the Israelites to leave. Scholars widely believe Passover originated separately from biblical Exodus; it likely evolved from earlier rituals and was later transformed.
This story is recounted at the Passover Seder by reading the Magid section of the Haggadah. The Haggadah is a standardized ritual book for the Passover Seder, containing an account of the Exodus story, in fulfillment of the command "And thou shalt tell () thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the did for me when I came forth out of Egypt." Jews are forbidden from possessing or eating leavened foods () during the holiday.
Pesach starts on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which is considered the first month of the Hebrew year. The Jewish calendar is adjusted to align with the solar calendar so that 15 Nisan always falls on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. The Hebrew day starts and ends at sunset, so the holiday starts at sunset the day before. For example, in 2027, 15 Nisan will coincide with Thursday, April 22. Therefore, Pesach will start at sundown on Wednesday, April 21, 2027.
Etymology
is rendered as Tiberian , and Modern Hebrew: . The verb () is first mentioned in the Torah's account of the Exodus, and there is some debate about its exact meaning. The commonly held assumption that it means "He passed over" (), in reference to God "passing over" (or "skipping") the houses of the Hebrews during the final of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, stems from the translation provided in the Septuagint ( in Exodus 12:23, and in Exodus 12:27.) The Targum Onkelos, written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, translates as , coming from the Hebrew root , meaning "to have pity". Cognate languages yield similar terms with distinct meanings, such as "make soft, soothe, placate" (Akkadian ), "harvest, commemoration, blow" (Egyptian), or "separate" (Arabic ).Prosic, p. 32.
Pesach may also refer to the lamb or goat which was designated as the Passover sacrifice. Four days before the Exodus, the Hebrews were commanded to set aside a lamb, and inspect it daily for blemishes. During the day on 14th Nisan, they were to slaughter the animal and use its blood to mark their lintels and door posts. Before midnight on 15th Nisan, they were to consume the lamb.
The English term Passover is first known to be recorded in the English language in William Tyndale's translation of the Bible, later appearing in the King James Version as well. It is a literal translation of the Hebrew term. In the King James Version, Exodus 12:23 reads:
Origins and theories
Passover is believed to have formed in the merger of a pastoral apotropaic ritual and an agricultural harvest festival, both practiced in the Land of Israel.
Apotropaic ritual The Passover sacrifice component is thought by modern scholars to have its origins in an apotropaic rite unrelated to the Exodus to ensure the protection of a family home, a rite conducted wholly within a clan. Ezov was employed to daub the blood of a slaughtered sheep on the lintels and door posts to ensure that demonic forces could not enter the home.
Barley harvest plus Exodus narrative A further hypothesis maintains that once the Priestly Code was promulgated, the Exodus narrative took on a central function, as the apotropaic rite was, arguably, amalgamated with the Canaanite agricultural festival of spring, which was a ceremony of unleavened bread, connected with the barley harvest. As the Exodus motif grew, the original function and symbolism of these double origins were lost, resulting in the biblical Passover. Several motifs replicate the features associated with the Akitu spring festival of ancient Mesopotamian religion, which celebrates the sowing of barley.Prosic, p. 28 Scholars John Van Seters, Judah Segal, and Tamara Prošić disagree with the merged two-festivals hypothesis.Prosic pp. 28ff., 32ff.
Biblical narrative In the Book of Exodus
In the Book of Exodus, the Israelites are enslaved in ancient Egypt. Yahweh, God of the Israelites, appears to Moses in a burning bush and commands Moses to confront the Pharaoh. To show his power, Yahweh inflicts a series of ten plagues on the Egyptians, culminating in the plague of the death of the firstborn.
Before this final plague, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors so God will pass over them and the plague of the death of the firstborn will not afflict them.
The biblical regulations for the observance of the festival require that all leavening be disposed of before the beginning of the 15th of Nisan according to Exodus 13:7 An unblemished lamb or goat, known as the Passover sacrifice or "Paschal Lamb", is to be set apart on 10th Nisan, and slaughtered at dusk as 14th Nisan ends in preparation for the 15th of Nisan when it will be eaten after being roasted. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is "between the two evenings". English Standard Version It is then to be eaten "that night", 15th Nisan, roasted, without the removal of its internal organs with unleavened bread, known as matzah, and bitter herbs known as . Any parts of the sacrifice that remain when the sun rises by the morning of the 15th of Nisan cannot be eaten, and must be burned instead.
The biblical regulations of the original Passover at the time of the Exodus only also include how the meal was to be eaten: "your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to ."
The biblical requirements of slaying the Paschal lamb in the individual homes of the Hebrews and smearing the blood of the lamb on their doorways were celebrated in Egypt. However, once Israel was in the wilderness and the Tabernacle was in operation, a change was made in those two original requirements. Passover lambs were to be sacrificed at the door of the Tabernacle and no longer in the homes of the Jews. No longer, therefore, could blood be smeared on doorways.
The Passover in other biblical passages Called the "festival [of] the unleavened bread" () in the Hebrew Bible, the commandment to keep Passover is recorded in the Book of Leviticus:
The sacrifices may be performed only in a specific place prescribed by God. For Judaism, this is Jerusalem.
The biblical commandments concerning the Passover (and the Feast of Unleavened Bread) stress the importance of remembering:
Exodus 12:14 commands about God's sparing of the firstborn from the tenth plague: "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever." Exodus 13:3 repeats the command to remember: "Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength the hand of the LORD brought you out from this place." Deuteronomy 16:12: "And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes".
In 2 Kings 23:21–23 and 2 Chronicles 35:1–19, King Josiah of Judah restores the celebration of the Passover, and to a standard not seen since the days of the judges or the days of the prophet Samuel.;
Ezra 6:19–21 records the celebration of the passover by the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon, after the temple had been rebuilt.
In extra-biblical sources Some of these details can be corroborated, and to some extent amplified, in extrabiblical sources. The removal (or "sealing up") of the leaven is referred to in the Elephantine papyri and ostraca in an Imperial Aramaic papyrus letter from the 5th century BCE from Elephantine, Egypt.James B. Prichard, ed., The Ancient Near East – An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Volume 1, Princeton University Press, 1958, p. 278. The slaughter of the lambs on the 14th is mentioned in Jubilees, a Jewish work of the Ptolemaic period, and by the Herodian-era writers Josephus and Philo. These sources also indicate that "between the two evenings" was taken to mean the afternoon."On the feast called Passover...they sacrifice from the ninth to the eleventh hour", Josephus, Jewish War 6.423–428, in Josephus III, The Jewish War, Book IV–VII, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979. Philo in one place (Special Laws 2.148) states that the victims are sacrificed "from noon till eventide", and in another place (Questions on Exodus 1.11) that the sacrifices begin at the ninth hour. According to Jubilees 49.12, "it is not fitting to sacrifice [the Passover] during any time of light except during the time of the border of evening." Jubilees states the sacrifice was eaten that night,Jubilees 49.1. and together with Josephus states that nothing of the sacrifice was allowed to remain until morning."And what is left of its flesh from the third of the night and beyond, they shall burn with fire," Jubilees 49.12. "We celebrate [the Passover] by fraternities, nothing of the sacrificial victims being kept for the morrow," Josephus, Antiquities 3.248. Philo states that the banquet included hymns and prayers."The guests assembled for the banquet have been cleansed by purificatory lustrations, and are there...to fulfill with prayers and hymns the custom handed down by their fathers." Philo, Special Laws 2.148, in Philo VII: On the Decalog; On the Special Laws I–III, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1937.
Date and duration
The Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which at present falls between March 26 and April 25 of the Gregorian calendar.See Jewish and Israeli holidays 2000–2050 for more information. The 15th day begins in the evening, after the 14th day, and the seder meal is eaten that evening. Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th day of Nisan typically begins on the night of a full moon after the northern vernal equinox. However, due to leap months falling after the vernal equinox, Passover sometimes starts on the second full moon after vernal equinox, as in 2016.