Passover - Pesach : History and Meaning of Freedom in Faith

Happy Passover ! Happy Pesach ! With Matzo Love !

Welcome to our Pesach website. In our Pesach website, we cover all topics Pesach-related from a trans-denominational, Jewish point-of-view since among other things, Pesach is a festival of community. We also have a section that briefly discusses the other Jewish festivals and holidays. So wherever in the world you are, sit back, relax, and get set to train your brain in all things Pesach ! :)

If you don't have much knowledge about Pesach, our website will enable you to discover many aspects about Pesach including the history and story of Pesach, how to prepare for Pesach, the Seder meal that is the highlight of Pesach and is standard for all Jewish communities, the Haggadah book that is used to conduct the Seder meal, a summarized calendar of all Pesach activities, the "Fours" of Pesach, meaning the Four Questions, Four Cups of Wine, and Four Sons; the Ten Plagues of Pesach, the different names for Pesach, and the role of Elijah the Prophet in Pesach. To reinforce the knowledge you gain from learning about Pesach, we have also created some educational games and quizzes that will add to the fun of learning about this festival.

If your knowledge of Pesach goes beyond a beginner's level to either a moderate or advanced level, perhaps you will add to your knowledge through learning about the different local traditions among different Jewish communities worldwide and you might even discover some great food ideas in our Pesach recipes section! You can also check out future dates for Pesach on our Pesach dates web page.

In addition to the aforementioned information about Pesach, we have ideas for Pesach activities for children to enhance their knowledge of the festival on our "For Kids" and "For Children" web pages, a countdown clock to the next Pesach, poems about Pesach, art depicting Pesach scenes, information about Pesach prayers, and tactful humor related to Pesach. We even have information about a "Second Passover" that was commemorated in biblical times. We add new topics about Pesach year round so you can either link to us if you have a website or bookmark us for future reference.

You obviously notice that I've been mentioning the word Pesach and not Passover as the name for this festival. This is because the name Pesach has become the colloquial name used for this festival among the Jewish people. Key on the words "has become" because Pesach as the name for this festival is not found in the Hebrew Bible. Rather, the Hebrew Bible names this festival "Chag Ha-Matzot" ("The Festival of Unleavened Bread" in Hebrew). However, Pesach as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is associated with "Chag Ha-Matzot" and so the importance of what Pesach represents to "Chag Ha-Matzot" eventually translated into the use of the word Pesach as the name for the festival among Jewish people. In contemporary times, particularly in English-speaking countries, the name Passover has also become quite popular as the name to describe this festival among more religiously liberal Jewish people, that is, among non-Orthodox Jewish people.

You may be wondering at this point: since the word Passover is not mentioned in the original Hebrew version of the Hebrew Bible, what is the origin of the name Passover ? Well, the name Passover did not come into use until the early 16th century C.E. in England. But how did the name Passover become so popular among non-Jewish as well as non-Orthodox Jewish people? The word Passover became popular as the name for the festival because from the 16th century onward, when people began creating English translations of the Hebrew Bible as well as its Greek version, the Septuagint, the word Passover was determined by the translators to be the English approximation of the meaning of the Hebrew word Pasach, which was mentioned in the biblical book of Shemot or Exodus and means either "to skip over (or on)" or to "pass over (or on)". Since the Hebrew word Pasach was linguistically connected to the Hebrew word Pesach in that both are spelled the same way in Hebrew (but pronounced differently by Jewish tradition), the translators concluded that Pesach (and its subsequent Greek equivalent "Pascha" mentioned in the Septuagint) also had the same meanings as Pasach and so Passover became the accepted English translation of both Pesach and Pascha from the 16th century onward in English-speaking countries.

Since Pesach represents a new beginning in the history of the Hebrews, occurring in the first month of the Jewish calendar, we also include a section about the history of the Jewish calendar.

We hope you enjoy your stay on our website and feel free to return anytime. You're always welcome on our Passover / Pesach website.

Create your free world visitor maps