Pesach (Passover): The Spring Cleaning / Chametz Hunt Mash-up

This beautiful spring week (and for many observant and ambitious Jews, all this month) hours upon hours have been spent spring cleaning, preparing for Pesach (Passover). Pesach is one of the 7 Holy Days observed by Jews. It is observed in March or April (one month after the February or March Festival of Purim; Purim is NOT a Holy Day). It is also called The Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it is one of three pilgrimage feasts the Jews observe each year.

Pesach is to be observed each year by Jewish people, and in-depth cleaning prepares for the celebration, which recalls and retells a lengthy story of how over 3,300 years ago God passed over firstborns in marked Hebrew homes and miraculously set the Israelites free from slavery and bondage to a cruel and merciless Egyptian Pharaoh (Exodus 7-14).

Cleaning is not ordinary before Pesach; it is thorough. Ovens and microwave ovens are scrubbed. A search is done inside of and under refrigerators, freezers, cabinets, and pantries, and in the basements, etc. for any speck of food with a leavening agent in it (called Chametz, pronounced hametz with a throaty chutzpah-like “h”). All leavening is removed from the home. Labels are read to confirm no leavening product remains, because leavening symbolizes sin. 

Items removed include any wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, etc. risen with a rising agent, including breads, cakes, pies, pie crust, cupcakes, brownies, crackers, muffins, cookies, pastries, packaged cereal, filo, sprouted grains, cake mixes, bread mixes, flour tortillas (not corn), etc. 

My question is, what foods are left that can be eaten during the 7 days of Pesach (Passover)? Matzah is one of the approved foods, but it must be made with kosher wheat flour. Other approved foods will be mentioned later.

My dinette table holds a firehose of Pesach details, but we will stick with practical and basic information, to help grasp a basic understanding of practices and symbolisms. First, the day before Pesach, religious practices are employed to express gratitude to God for sparing the firstborn in Hebrew homes the night the death angel passed over the Israelites over 3,300 years ago. Firstborns' fasting is one practice.

Before Pesach (a verb meaning to spare, "to pass over" and pronounced pay-sach with an ending throaty "h"), it is more like a war that begins, to search and remove any Chametz in the home [Rabbi Lewin]. The Pesach offering is a reminder that when the death angel (God, according to the Jewish Torah) went from house to house to kill the Egyptian firstborn, God passed over the Jewish homes that had the blood of a lamb on the doorposts (Exodus 12).

At nightfall, the evening before the first Seder (the ceremonial Passover meal, pronounced sayder, plural: sedarim), it is customary to spread 10 pieces of Chametz around the house, so that the searchers will have something to look for (to non-Jews, it sounds like an Easter egg hunt). The search is done by candlelight, and those doing the search should not speak (except to give instructions or ask questions about the search). The next morning, any Chametz found is burned ("Art-Scroll Youth Haggadah" p. 6).

Other notable Pesach (Passover) information:

Pesach dates are observed on the Hebrew calendar Nissan, Abib 15-22 (15 days after the beginning of Nissan + full moon). Easter is based off the Sunday after Spring's first full moon. I erroneously thought Pesach & Easter always fell during the same week, but the comparison of Pesach/Easter dates below shows otherwise:

            Easter                      Pesach

2022    Sunday, April 17      Friday, April 15-23  (same week)

2023    Sunday, April 9        Wednesday, April 5-13 (same week)

2024    Sunday, March 31    Monday, April 22-30  (3 weeks apart!)

A Day/Timetable of 2022's First Few Days of Pesach

We do not know the exact time that Jesus died. This is an approximate schedule. This schedule assumes that Jesus was nailed to the cross around 9:00 a.m. 

A Good Friday timetable that assumes a noon-ish crucifixion is way below

Dietary Restrictions for observant Jews are uncompromising during the entire days of Pesach ("The Jewish Lights Spirituality Book").

Seder Plate food items: Seder means order, and the reading of the Haggadah guides a general order of symbolic eating and blessings and singing that occur during the very lengthy candlelit Seder (Mitzvah) meal(s). One of the best loved songs from the Pesach Seder is Dayenu! 🎵Day dayenu day dayenu🎵.

Seders for Pesach are held on the first night (in Israel) or first two nights (in the U.S.). Each Jewish family has their own traditions for the meal, but they are similar. Some tell the story of the 4 Sons (see YouTube's video that explains the story). Symbols are used to remind everyone of the meaning of Passover and its story. The items on the Seder Plate are pictured and explained below ("Art-Scroll Youth Haggadah" p. 8, detail added):

Two food items on the plate that are not eaten: A roasted egg (a traditional symbol representing mourning) and a roasted lamb bone (God's outstretched "arm" that took Israelites out of Egypt), both commemorate worship in the old Temple.

Matzah or unleavened bread (on one hand eaten because God took the Jewish people out of Egypt so quickly there was no time for their dough to rise, but also eaten as a reminder that the servant Israelites were poor and ate no other kind of bread). The Torah says, "They baked the dough they took from Egypt into matzos for it had not risen... they had not prepared other food for the way."
Maror / two kinds of bitter vegetables (romaine lettuce and raw horseradish are pictured above), because the Egyptians made the Jewish ancestors' lives bitter.
Charoses Mixture: Chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine mixed together, to symbolize the cement used by the Israelite slaves when they were building houses for their Egyptian masters. The mixture is also a reminder that Pesach (Passover) is a spring festival.

Karpas: A vegetable other than Maror (celery, parsley, or boiled potato). It is dipped into salt water and eaten as a symbol of the sweat and tears of the slaves. 

Four Cups of Wine [or grape juice] per person: At four points during the Seder meal, they bless The King and Creator of the grapevine "Hashem our God." Each cup, drinking as little as a sip to up to 1/2 cup or more of wine/grape juice: For God... #1 cup) brought us out; #2 cup) delivered us; #3 cup) redeemed us; #4 cup) took us out of Egypt.

Elijah's Cup: A separate large cup is saved until the end of the Seder meal, in honor of Elijah, who, according to tradition, will arrive one day as an unknown guest to herald the advent of the messiah.

 

Final Night of Pesach is one of the 7 Holy Days of the year, listed in Leviticus 23. "The Jewish Lights Spirituality Handbook" states, "... the esoteric celebration is focused on the crossing of the Red Sea, which symbolizes faith... of getting out of an impossible situation without deserving it" (pp. 192-193).

As a non-Jew and fully devoted follower of Jesus my Savior, I have every reason to love my Jewish friends and neighbors AND to learn about the Holy Days. Over 2,000 years ago on Pesach (Passover), God figuratively parted the waters of death, hell, and the grave through His Son. Jesus was born a Jew, and He is in Pesach (Passover), especially as the spotless Passover Lamb. Sinless Jesus died on a cross, for my Chametz (my sins). His death on the cross was perfectly timed, on Preparation Day, as the Israelites were sacrificing their lambs for Pesach!

Jesus was crucified. He arose. He lives! Only He could take me out of a most impossible situation when I didn't deserve it... I was a sinner destined for hell. But I accepted Jesus as my Savior. And more times than I can count, He continues to take me out of a variety of (less impossible) situations.

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, 

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb... 

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, JESUS MET THEM [emphasis added]...

(Matthew 27:62-66)

Good Friday Timetable

 (Author unknown)

We do not know the exact time that Jesus died. This is an approximate schedule. This schedule assumes that Jesus was nailed to the cross around noon, as indicated in the Gospel of John

(Exodus 12:46 & Psalm 34:20): "Not one of his bones will be broken."

It was normal practice at a crucifixion to break bones, but Jesus' bones were not broken

As a side note, in many Orthodox Jewish families, the period following Pesach (Passover) is traditionally one of mourning, one that means no weddings, no live music and no haircuts from Friday until the first week of June, before Shavuot. (Baltimoresun.com) Jews mourn in remembrance of a plague that killed 24,000 Jews that occurred the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot (disciples of Rabbi Akiva c. 50-c. 135 CE, one of the 10 martyrs, who flourished during the era of the destruction of the Second Temple) (Chabad.org).