Pesach

COMING UP....

The next holiday on the calender is Pesach and Chag HaMatzot!

Pesach is a celebration of our great deliverance from the brutal slavery we endured in the land of Egypt.

Pesach in it's common usage generally includes Chag HaMatzot but technically Pesach is more of a point in time rather than a day. Pesach is the time when the plague went through Egypt and "passed over" the blood on our doorposts. Chag HaMatzot overlaps Pesach as it begins at sunset on the 14th of Nisan. 

HaShem gave the instructions this way in Vayikra/Leviticus 23:5,6

"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at dusk, is the LORD'S passover.
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD; seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread."

We are also instructed in Shemot/Exodus that we are to remove "all Chametz(commonly translated: "leaven") out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." Shemot/Exodus 12:15

A month before (or after Purim is a good marker) many people cease from buying chametz products so they can start to finish up the ones in the home. A thorough clean of the house ensues in the month leading up to the feast to purge all areas of the home of the chametz. Hmm....did you ever wonder where "Spring Cleaning" came from?


The basic Pesach activities are:
 - Purging the house of chametz prior to the Feast
 - The Sedar meal on the 14th of Nisan at evening in which we eat the matzah, bitter herbs ( to commemorate the bitter bondage in Egypt), drink four cups of wine or grape juice (cup of sanctification, deliverance, redemption, and praise) representing the four "I wills" of HaShem (I will bring you out, I will redeem you, I will deliver you, and I will take you to Myself for a people) in ShemotExodus 6:6,7, and reading through the Haggadah (lit. telling) of history of the exodus from Egypt.

 - Feasting and rejoicing in the miracles that HaShem has done on our behalf
- And last but certainly not least, remembering the great deeds of our Mashiach Yeshua and the great salvation He has wrought on our behalf

Chag HaMatzot

- The first and last days are to be holy convocations:

 "And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you." Shemot/Exodus 12:16

- Eating bread without chametz/unleavened bread

- Remembering what the L-rd did for us in Egypt

*It is very difficult to touch on everything! This is only meant to be a quick summary on the holiday.