Friday night was the first night of the Jewish holiday Passover. I was fortunate to be invited to a family holiday event. It was also nice to get to know the significance of the holiday to the Jewish faith as my knowledge of Judasim is very limited.
Growing up in rural Nebraska didn’t give me the opportunity to meet Jewish people. I think the first Jeish person I met was in my senior year of college as he was the supervisor at a telemarketing company where I worked part time. The majority of the people, and I’d say 98% at that time were Christians. I didn’t have the opportunity to know anything about the faith from this individual.
It wasn’t until we met our neighbors in Florida that we came to really know a Jewish family. And let’s say from there it was history. We truly enjoyed the time we spent with this family. I remember a Thanksgiving meal we shared at their house. Their traditions for sides at the table were a little different but for my husband and I it was a relief that we knew everything was fair game as they too didn’t eat pork or by products of pork!
It reads like the start of a bad joke, a Christian, a Jewish person, and a Muslim, but it was far from it. It was just neighbors getting together for a wonderful day of good food and friendship. I miss those days as my good friends moved to Miami several years ago and we now live on the opposite Florida coast. Now if only the same care, compassion, and understanding can be applied to the Middle East where Jewish, Christian, and Muslims live side by side; we could all share a happy life. I understand the disrespect runs deep in that area but hopefully it can be gained and shared in the not so distant future.
Now back to Friday, Pesach (Passover in Hebrew is the celebration of freedom) is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays and commemorates the biblical story of Exodus, when Hebrew slaves were released in Egypt. The celebration is 7 days in Israel and 8 days outside of Israel.
The following is from About Religion for those also interested in how the night progressed. Passover Seder
I recommend it as a good read to understand. I’m weary about writing it in my own words as I don’t want to miss anything that happened Friday. Of course much was done in traditional Hebrew so my understanding was left to the English translation that I tried to follow.