I grew up from the age of five in Canada and lived in Israel as a student at the Hebrew University many years ago, and then in the US. Over the last year, I have been living in Israel while studying at a Women’s Jewish studies program called Shviti in Jerusalem.
The Jewish calendar is an education in itself – And living in Israel, one gets to experience it as a living thing. So our school is on recess for the month of Nissan, the month of Passover, to allow both students and teachers to fulfill the obligations of Passover towards self, family, and community. And this goes on throughout the whole country. In preparation for Pesach, some people seek to examine their state of servitude and their slavery and explore how to be released from it. But as much as Pesach can be a personal stocktaking, it is also a communal endeavour.
From the beginning of the month of Nissan, the month of the Passover/Pesach, every Jewish person and Jewish community begins preparations for the holiday by:
- Cleaning and removing leavened bread products from every personal habitation – home, workplace, and community center are studying the story of the exodus from Egypt and preparing for the seder night by studying the Torah portions about the exodus story and also reviewing the mitzvot/obligations. i.e., what to do and what not to do during this period to have a fulfilling and “kosher” Passover/Pesach with family and friends. We greet each other with the Hebrew words, “hag Kasher vesameach” – May you have a kosher and joyous hag.
My family history has a connection to the Exodus story – a going out from slavery to freedom. In 1949, when I was three years old and my dear sister Anita was only one year old, my mother and her brother Tibi set out on the last night of Passover after having set the holiday table – so that no suspicions would be aroused – at the family home in Tokay, Hungary.
During the night, they left the house to cross the border by foot from Hungary into Czechoslovakia and, from there, crossing secretly into Vienna, Austria, the gateway to the free world of “the West.” They were successful, so I am here today to tell the tale. This is my story, but it is also the story of all Jewish people as it says in the Haggada – the prescribed book that details all of the story and traditions practiced at the seder table on the Eve of Pesach, – “On this night, every Jew should consider himself as having been personally freed from slavery: And had we not be freed, we would still today be slaves in Egypt!.”
Everyone in the community, in Israel and any Jew anywhere in the world, needs to be provided with provisions for the seder and holiday, with matzoh and all Passover foods. Leket is an organization in Israel dedicated to collecting food and distributing it to the needy all year round, especially on Passover. Leket relies year around on volunteers and donations. “Leket” is a Hebrew word from the Torah. It refers to a practice prescribed by our Torah of leaving the corners of the agricultural fields to be harvested by whoever feels he needs it – so that no one ever goes hungry in the land of Israel.
In addition to significant organizations like Leket in Israel, every Rabbi and Jewish congregation in the world will have its private collections to provide for those in need in their particular community. Passover is expensive, and it tests our relationship with material things.
After the recitation of the story in the Haggada on Seder night and after the festive meal comes the reciting of the traditional prayers of gratitude to the Creator and Sustainer, the Hallel, followed by the supplementary classic songs – Dayeinu, Ehad mi Yodaya and Had Gadya.
I wish you all a hag Kasher vesameach, a joyous and kosher Passover holiday!