Another year passes and so we’ve reached Passover once again. Pesach 2017 in Tel Aviv will be the usual rush of covering up the chametz
items in the supermarkets or local grocery stores. Some cafes & restaurants will ensure that bread, pastries & cookies are kosher for the holiday without a leavening agent in sight! Of course at home, Pesach is a like the super Spring clean you’d rather not imagine.
For the Jewish people, Passover is a very significant festival. 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 holiday for 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.
Our homes are cleaned more profusely than normal. We ensure that not a breadcrumb is visible! It is our intention to eliminate all traces of forbidden leavened food. Why is this necessary? This is done in order to experience the hardship of eating unleavened bread, as forefathers did. These days this is no great sacrifice as we have matzot in all the gourmet forms or, bread from matza meal. However, it does signify our commitment to commemorate and recognize the importance of Passover.
At the Passover Seder table, we join with our loved ones, family and friends. We read together and chant through the Haggadah (the “telling”) The text carries us through the traumatic 
biblical journey that was so very long ago but, still remains fresh in our hearts and minds.
The traditional Passover rituals & blessings are performed. Specific foods are eaten, each representing our lives as they were. Parsley dipped in salted water, the vegetable symbolizing our lowly origins and 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
My Pesach 2017 in Tel Aviv will be a time for reflection. Celebrating those brave Jews from history who suffered but fought with hope and faith. My Pesach 2017 in Tel Aviv will also commemorate those that suffered and fought in recent times. At each Passover, we shall never forget those who still suffer and fight in these current times, so 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 on the evening of 10th, April & ends on the evening of 17th April 2017
♥May you have a Sweet, memorable Pesach 2017!
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