Yet another year has passed and so we’ve reached Passover 2018. Passover 2018 will undoubtedly be little different to previous years, although we still find joy to celebrate anew. We have covered up the all chametz items in the supermarkets and local grocery stores. Cafes 
and restaurants will ensure that the bread, pastries or cookies they serve are kosher for the holiday. Our homes have undergone a super Spring clean in accordance with Pesach rules, eliminating everything with a leavening ingredient like a bug!
For the Jewish people, this Passover 2018 festival will be as significant as all others that have come before. Whether we are living in Tel Aviv, Israel or any country in the world, we as one Jewish community, come together on this ‘holyday”. It’s a celebration of remembrance and thanks. We gratefully acknowledge our liberation from a long slavery in Egypt. But, as we celebrate our freedom as one nation, we are each gently reminded of who we are and why we are. We clean more profusely than usual. We ensure that not a breadcrumb is visible to the naked eye! It is our intention to remove all traces of forbidden leavened food. But why is this necessary? We do this in order to experience the hardship of eating unleavened bread, as forefathers did on their very long journey. In these modern times, this is no great sacrifice as we have developed matzot in all gourmet forms including bread from matza meal. However, it does signify our commitment to commemorate and recognize the importance of Passover. At this Passover 2018 Seder table, we will join with our loved ones, family and friends. 
We will read and chant through the Haggadah (the “telling”) The text will carry us back to the traumatic biblical journey that was so very long ago but, still remains fresh in our hearts and minds. The traditional Passover rituals & blessings will be performed. Specifically chosen foods will be eaten, each food type representing our lives as they were. Parsley dipped in salted water, the vegetable symbolizing our lowly origins, the salt water symbolizing the many tears shed during our imprisonment as slaves. ” Maror”, bitter herbs symbolizing our enslavement. “Haroset” a sweet nutty (delicious) paste symbolizing the mortar the slaves used to build with. Matzah, unleavened bread, which is probably the greatest universal symbol of the Exodus. Passover 2018 will be a time for reflection. We shall celebrate the strength of the brave Jews in ancient times who suffered but fought with hope and unwavering faith. This Passover 2018 we will also commemorate those who have suffered and fought in more recent times. We shall, at each and every Passover never forget those who still suffer and fight in current times, in order that we have a safe land which is home to the entire Jewish Nation.
My Sweet friends when you are celebrating Pesach this year, do give thanks to our ancestors and to all those that helped the Children of Israel survive throughout the ages.
Passover in Israel begins in the evening of 30th March & ends in the evening of 6th April 2018
♥May you have a Sweet, memorable Pesach 2018, Hag Sameach!
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