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Customs
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After four hundred years, the Jews were finally free - another name for Pesach is Zman Heiruteinu, the Time of Our Freedom. After so much suffering, it is no wonder that the Jews were in such a hurry to leave Egypt. They started to prepare dough so that they would have bread to eat on the way, but in their rush to leave they had no time to bake it, so they just carried it on their backs. The bread they finally made from this dough was flat and dry, almost like crackers. Every Pesach, Jews still eat this bread to remind them how their ancestors left Egypt in a hurry. We call the bread matza, and another name for Pesach is Hag Ha’Matzot, the Holiday of Matzot. Every year at the time the Jews left Egypt, they held a big celebration to remember everything that happened to them. In time, the celebration became very organized. There is a time to tell the story of what happened in Egypt, a time to eat special foods to remind us about what happened, and a time to sing holiday songs about the miracles that occurred or just for fun. In Hebrew the word for organized is seder, and the celebration that Jews have on the first two nights of Pesach (or one night in Israel) is called the seder - and the book we read at the seder is called the Haggadah. |
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