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Click on the Parashah name to read the summary:
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Preparing for the Passover...
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The Passover Haggadah
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The traditional Passover Seder that has been developed over the centuries has been more or less distilled into a formulaic text recited during the Seder on the first two nights of Passover. This text is called the Haggadah (הַגָּדָה, "telling") and it was designed to guide the order of the Passover service... While there is no "official" Passover seder, and there are some variations in custom, most haggadot will set forth the traditional sequence of 15 "steps" (or activities) we do to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.
Ideally we begin preparing for Passover by first reviewing the Haggadah that we will use for our family service, making a checklist of needed items, and so on. We also take time to review the order, steps, and prayers to be recited to help us feel more comfortable as we go through the service with our family and friends.
You can download the Hebrew for Christians Passover Seder and print a copy for each participant at your Seder. This haggadah guides you through the 15 steps and is focused on the ministry of Yeshua as the Lamb of God, the King of Israel and Savior of the world:
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"Worthy is the Lamb"
H4C Passover Seder Guide (pdf)
Let us "keep the feast," chaverim, for the Messiah our Passover Lamb has indeed been sacrificed for us! (1 Cor. 5:7-8)
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A time for Spring Cleaning
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Preparing for Passover usually begins a full month before the holiday arrives, just after the festival of Purim. Since no leavened bread may be eaten during all seven days of Passover, we make a special effort to remove leaven entirely from our homes, in obedience to the Torah's command (see Exod. 12:15). This means we clean every room of the house so that all "chametz," or leavened products, are removed. We search for bread crumbs under the cushions of our sofas and chairs,
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in the pockets of our coats and pants, on closet floors, and remove every trace. We also thoroughly clean our stove, oven, refrigerator, and freezer. It is a big job to clean the house so thoroughly, but doing so provides an important "object lesson" about the need to separate ourselves from corrupting influences in our lives. The traditional spring cleaning also helps us spiritually prepare for the coming new year.
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Removing Chametz
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The process for removing chametz from your house is very involved, and frankly very few people have the time and energy to perform a thorough cleaning in the traditionally prescribed manner. Nonetheless, the traditional steps include:
- Cleaning all possible locations where chametz might have been eaten or might be found in the house. This means searching for crumbs under the cushions of your sofa or stuffed chairs, in the pockets of your coats and pants, on closet floors, and so on. After a room is entirely cleaned and declared chametz-free, it is called "Pesachdik" and no further eating in that room is allowed until after Passover.
- Emptying and scrubing down the entire refrigerator to remove all traces of chametz. This includes washing out the freezer as well.
- "Kashering" your stove and oven. This involves a thorough scrubbing of the entire oven, stove top, and racks and then turning the stove (and stove tops) on for over one hour at the highest temperature. A microwave oven can be kashered by boiling a bowl of water inside it for more than 20 minutes.
- Putting away all dishes, silverware, pots, utensils, etc. that are normally used during the year. Only dishes, silverware, pots, utensils, etc. that are dedicated for Passover may be used during Passover Week.
- "Kashering" your dining room and kitchen tables by pouring boiling water over them and then thoroughly scrubbing them down with soap and water. After kashering, the tables are covered until Passover.
- Scouring the sink, counters, and all other appliances with boiling water.
- Scrubbing down the floors, windows, and all other parts of the house.
Once the house is thoroughly cleaned, chametz may still be eaten up until the morning of the day before Passover. That evening, however, the Bedikat Chametz ritual is performed to finally dispose of any remaing chametz. Only after this may the house be considered chametz-free and ready for Passover.
Why are we commanded to remove chametz? Because it represents a corrupting influence, a hidden uncleanness that manipulates purer elements. Like the influence of a small lump of leaven in a batch of dough, "spiritual" leaven functions as an evil impulse within us (i.e., yetzer ra: יֵצֶר רָע) that corrupts and "sours" our inner life. This "yeast in the soul" is essentially pride that manifests itself in idolatrous desires and lusts. For more information about this, see the Bedikat Chametz pages.
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Why Search for Bread Crumbs?
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The search for chametz is not unlike the soul searching we do before the fall High Holidays, when we perform chesbon hanefesh (חֶשְׁבּוֹן הַנֶּפֶשׁ) by taking inventory of our spiritual condition before the LORD. In other words, we are commanded to search and remove sources of inner impurity so that we might experience the truth that we area "new lump" - that is, a new substance that is untainted by the sour and rotting influences of our past lives. Since Yeshua has been sacrificed as your Passover Lamb, you are indeed a new creation (בְּרִיָּה חֲדָשָׁה) and are made "unleavened" by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17). Therefore we are likewise commanded put away the "old nature" - the yetzer ha'ra - and purge from your life the old influences that inwardly canker you and make you sick. Walk without hypocrisy in the truth of the love of God for your soul.
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The Days of Unleavened Bread...
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To celebrate Passover, you should be careful not to eat anything with chametz (yeast) during the entire seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (i.e., from Nisan 15 through Nisan 22). According to the rabbis, if you intentionally eat even one molecule of chametz during the week of Passover, you are breaking a Torah prohibition. (headslap!)
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Okay then, what to eat during the week of Pesach? Obviously enough you won't be eating doughnuts or pastries! What are you allowed to eat for the seven days of Passover? If you want the details regarding the dietary restrictions, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA) publishes an official list of approved and permitted "kosher for Passover" foods. If you want to have a strictly kosher Passover, I recommend checking with them for dietary restrictions.
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This Week's Torah:
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Vayikra - The LORD Calls Out...
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The first Torah portion for the new Biblical New year is parashat Vayikra ("and he called") which is the first "section" from the Book of Leviticus (ספר ויקרא). In Jewish tradition, Leviticus is sometimes called the "Book of Sacrifices" (i.e., sefer ha'zevachim: ספר הזבחים) since it deals largely with the various sacrificial offerings brought to the altar at the Mishkan ("Tabernacle"). Indeed, over 40 percent of all the Torah's commandments are found in this central book of the Scriptures, highlighting that blood atonement is essential to the Torah. Moreover, since the revelation of the Tabernacle was the climax of the revelation given at Sinai, the Book of Leviticus reveals its ritual significance, as it is written: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement (kapparah) by the life" (Lev. 17:11).
Unlike narrative portions of other books of the Torah, the Book of Leviticus begins with the LORD himself "calling out" (i.e., vayikra) to Moses to explain that the way to draw near to Him is by means of atoning sacrifice. It is noteworthy that throughout the book, only the sacred name of the LORD (יהוה) is used in connection with sacrificial offerings, and never the name Elohim (אלוהים). This suggests that sacrificial offerings were given to draw us near to experience God's mercy and compassion rather than to simply appease His anger. In other words, the Name of the LORD represents salvation (i.e., yeshuah: ישועה) and healing for the sinner, not God's judgment (John 3:17). Indeed, the word korban (קרבן), often translated as "sacrifice" or "offering," comes from a root word karov (קרב) that means to "draw close" or "to come near" (James 4:8). The sinner who approached the LORD trusting in the efficacy of the sacrificial blood shed on his or her behalf would find healing and life...
In this connection we note that the ancient Greek translation of the Torah (called the Septuagint) translated the Hebrew word kapporet (i.e., כפרת, "mercy seat") as hilasterion (ἱλαστήριον), sometimes translated "propitiation." The New Testament continues this usage in Romans 3:25: "God put forward Yeshua as a propitiation (ἱλαστήριον) through faith in His blood." In other words, the shedding of Yeshua's blood - represented by His Passion upon the cross - was "presented" upon the Heavenly Kapporet, before the very Throne of God Himself for our atoning sacrifice (i.e., kapparah: כפרה) before God.
Please see the summary for Vayikra for more information. You can also download the Shabbat Table Talk for this portion here:
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"And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." - Leviticus 1:4
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Blessing before Torah Study:
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Some terms:
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- Parashah is the weekly Scripture portion taken from the Torah. Each parashah is given a name and is usually referred to as "parashat - name" (e.g., parashat Noach). For more information about weekly readings, click here.
- Aliyot refer to a smaller sections of the weekly parashah that are assigned to people of the congregation for public reading during the Torah Reading service. In most congregations it is customary for the person "called up" to recite a blessing for the Torah before and after the assigned section is recited by the cantor. For Shabbat services, there are seven aliyot (and a concluding portion called a maftir). The person who is called to make aliyah is referred to as an oleh (olah, if female).
- Maftir refers to the last Torah aliyah of the Torah chanting service (normally a brief repetition of the 7th aliyah, though on holidays the Maftir portion usually focuses on the Holiday as described in the Torah). The person who recites the Maftir blessing also recites the blessing over the Haftarah portion.
- Haftarah refers to an additional portion from the Nevi'im (Prophets) read after the weekly Torah portion. The person who made the maftir blessing also recites the blessing for the Haftarah, and may even read the Haftarah before the congregation.
- Brit Chadashah refers to New Testament readings which are added to the traditional Torah Reading cycle. Often blessings over the Brit Chadashah are recited before and after the readings.
- Mei Ketuvim refers to a portion read from the Ketuvim, or writings in the Tanakh. Readings from the Ketuvim are usually reserved for Jewish holidays at the synagogue.
- Perek Yomi Tehillim refers to the daily portion of psalms (mizmorim) recited so that the entire book of Psalms (Tehillim) is read through in a month. For a schedule, of daily Psalm readings, click here.
- Gelilah refers to the tying up and covering the Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll) as an honor in the synagogue.
- Divrei Torah ("words of Torah") refers to a commentary, a sermon, or devotional on the Torah portion of the week.
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Related Topics:
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Hebrew for Christians
Copyright © John J. Parsons
All rights reserved.
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