Passover holiday starts at sundown

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Jews in the Washington region will gather with their families at sundown today to observe the first night of Passover, the commemoration of the Hebrews as slaves under Pharaoh Ramses II, and a celebration of their exodus from Egypt.

“For some people it’s more of a social or family gathering,” said Rabbi Ethan Seidel of Tifereth Israel, located on 16th Street in far Northwest D.C. “For others it’s a deeply religious thing.”

The Washington region represents the sixth-largest Jewish population in the United States — roughly 215,000 people in more than 100,000 households. Many will join tonight, and some for a second night, to participate in the Passover seder.

The seder table features dishes symbolic of the Jews struggle in, and emergence from, Egypt: The bitter herbs, charoset, karpas, a roasted lamb shankbone, and a roasted egg. During the seder, families read from a Haggadah to retell the story of slavery under Ramses, of the 10 plagues, and of the exodus.

Moses is not mentioned during the ceremony.

Rabbi Jack Moline, of Alexandria’s Agudas Achim Congregation, invites 30 to 50 people to participate in something of an interactive seder. Each participant, he said, is asked to study and prepare to discuss a pivotal event or issue of his choosing.

“To simply go through the ritual as it’s printed in the book is not particularly satisfying to me anymore,” he said. “I take very seriously that the long section, the telling of the story, should be fresh each year.”

Everyone at the table, the rabbi said, should have the “sense that they were present at that moment and that they have a slavery to be liberated from in their own life.”

And for the next seven to eight days, Jews who keep kosher for Passover will shun “chametz,” any foods that contain wheat, barley, oats, spelt or rye that have been in contact with water for longer than 18 minutes. Matzoh, a baked unleavened food made of flour and water, will take the place of bread.

For many Jews, whose lunch options are generally tied to the sandwich shop on the corner, keeping kosher will be not be easy.

“I think with most things the anticipation is worse than the realization,” Moline said. “I mean, the big deal is you don’t eat bread.”

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com

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