From 1905 How Passover Will Be Observed on the Lower East Side

Wishing Everyone a Ziessen and a Kosher Pesach 

The 5 Most Important Things to Know About Passover

Our greatest contributions to the world summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

Scholars have long wondered why Jews who number less than one quarter of one percent of the world – as Milton Himmelfarb memorably put it, "The total population of the Jewish people is less than a statistical error in the annual birth rate of the Chinese people” – have had such a profound influence on almost every field of human endeavor.
What accounts for the remarkable fact that in the 20th century, Jews, more than any other minority, have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, with almost one-fifth of all Nobel laureates being Jewish?

Perhaps it all goes back to the very beginning of the birth of our people and the Passover holiday that we will shortly be celebrating. 

Passover conveys five major concepts that became our mantras for how to lead successful and productive lives. They are the five most important things to know about Passover, and to incorporate into every day of the rest of the year. Because we’ve absorbed them into our national psyche for the thousands of years since the Exodus, we’ve been privileged to fulfill in great measure our prophetically mandated role to become a light unto the nations.

They are our greatest contributions to the world and can be summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

The Importance of Memory

The Irish Catholic writer Thomas Cahill was so overwhelmed by how the Jewish people literally transformed the world that he authored what proved to become an international bestseller, The Gifts of the Jews. One of the major gifts he credits to Jewish genius is the invention of the idea of history.

"Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt." "Remember that the Lord took you out of the bondage of slavery." Remember is a biblical mandate that had never seemed important to anyone else before the Jewish people came on the scene. It was the Passover story that initiated a commitment to memory.

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Ten Tips for a Great Seder

by Dr. Ron Wolfson

I don't know what the tradition is in your family, but in ours, Seder night is a dress-up affair. Suits and ties, dresses, new clothes for the kids - "Shabbes" clothes we call them. Imagine when our surprise when one year we arrived for Seder at the door of our friends David and Shira Milgrom-Elcott in our dressy clothes and they greeted us wearing the long, flowing robes of Beduins!

"Welcome to our Seder!" they exclaimed. "Please take off your shoes before you come in."

We dutifully took off our shoes and entered their home. On the right, we saw the formal dining room, the table set with fine china and crystal, seemingly ready for the Seder guests. David and Shira, however, led us right past the dining room, down the hall and into their large family room. We should have known what to expect from the desert garb worn by our hosts, but we were hardly prepared for the sight of that room.

Draped from the beams if the vaulted ceiling were large white bedsheets, forming a tent-like structure encompassing the center of the room. All the furniture had been taken out, except for some beanbag chairs and overstuffed pillows scattered around the floor, in the center of the "tent," on a low coffee table, was the Seder plate.

"Welcome to our home in the desert," David and Shira explained. "The Seder ceremony is a simulation of what really happened on that first night of the Exodus from Egypt, so we've decided to conduct our Seder in this tent. Please make yourselves comfortable -- take off your ties and jackets -- and recline with your kids on the floor."

Well, you can imagine what followed next! In a masterfully-led, fun-filled experience, the families in attendance enjoyed a delightful, relaxed telling of the Passover story. Once we completed the Maggid section of the Haggadah, we moved into the dining room for the Seder meal. After opening the door for Elijah, we returned to the tent to complete the Seder ceremony.

It was a Seder we'll always remember.

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When is Passover/Pesach in 2013?

Passover in 2013 or Pesach in 2013 will commence either just after sunset or just after nightfall on Monday, March 25, 2013, depending on the authoritative rabbinical opinion one follows. Nightfall is defined in Jewish law as being "the end of sunset", and occurs anytime from 20 minutes to 1 hour after sunset, depending on one's geographic latitude and where one is located. For Jews who celebrate Passover for 7 days (most Reform Jews, most Reconstructionist Jews, some Conservative Jews, and Jews living in Israel), Passover in 2013 will end either at sunset or at nightfall on Monday, April 1, 2013. For Jews who celebrate Passover for 8 days (some Reform Jews, some Reconstructionist Jews, most Conservative Jews, and Jews living outside Israel), Passover in 2013 will end either at sunset or nightfall on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 (Jews who live outside Israel are known as Diaspora Jews, where the word "diaspora" is derived from Greek and means either "dispersion" or "scattering". In Hebrew, the equivalent words are "Tefutzah", meaning "scattered", or "Galut", meaning "exile". Diaspora, Tefutzah, and Galut all refer to the Jewish people being dispersed among all the other nations outside of Israel). The exact time for when Passover in 2013 will begin either just after sunset or just after nightfall or anywhere from 15 minutes to a half-hour before sunset on March 25, 2013 depends on the geographic latitude and location of a person in the world. Similarly, the exact time for when Passover in 2013 ends also depends on the geographic latitude and location of a person in the world.

Passover 2013 - Pesach 2013 : Exact Starting Time

For those living where we are located - in Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Passover / Pesach in 2013 will commence at exactly 7:13:41 P.M. on Monday, March 25, 2013 (Sunset), and end at nightfall where nightfall is defined in Judaism according to the following two authoritative rabbinical opinions: either when 3 medium-sized stars appear first appear in the sky, or at 72 minutes after sunset. The first opinion occurs at exactly 8:08:59 P.M. (Nightfall = When 3 medium-sized stars first appear in the sky) and the second opinion occurs at 8:36:04 P.M. (Nightfall = 72 Minutes after sunset) on Saturday, April 14, 2012 (Source: MyZmanim.com).

Regarding when Passover in 2013 begins, although sunset or sundown ("shkiah ha'chama" in Hebrew) at sea level occurs at exactly 7:13:41 P.M. for Montreal (Source: MyZmanim.com), there is a custom among the majority of Jewish people to "extend" the "holiness" time of a Jewish festival or Jewish holiday by beginning a Jewish festival or Jewish holiday at least 18 minutes before sunset or sundown. This extended time can range from 15 minutes to a half-hour before sunset depending on one's custom but, as mentioned, the majority of Jewish people follow the custom to begin a festival or holiday at 18 minutes before sunset or sundown. Also, as just mentioned, the exact time for the beginning and ending of Passover varies with where one is located in the world; specifically, one's geographic latitude and where one is located.