Tag: passover

Have you ever wanted to wish your Jewish friends a happy holiday, but maybe you weren’t sure if the upcoming Jewish holiday even was a happy one? You are not alone.

As the normally joyous communal holiday of Passover approaches this year, many Israelis say the war in Gaza has dampened the prospect of holding a Seder — the communal retelling of the ancient Israelites’ escape from Egypt from enslavement based on the Bible’s Book of Exodus. 

Midway through the eight-day Passover festival, dear friends invited my wife, me and a few others to their home for a simplified Passover Seder. Over the years I’ve been particularly attracted to the portion of the service in which we hear of four sons — one wise, one contrary, one simple and one who does not know how to ask questions.

I start my column with the headlines from the past three years about the clashes between the Israeli forces and the Palestinians at the holy mosque of Masjid Al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. 

As I look back on my childhood, I realize how lucky I am that my parents gave my brother and me the choice. We were able to choose what we believed in and how we believed in it.

On the first night of Passover, Jews ask aloud, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

(RNS) How many days do you have to eat matzo before it starts to taste like "the bread of affliction?"