Jewish community prepares to celebrate Passover

Passover begins at sunset tonight. The annual eight-day Jewish celebration ends at nightfall on April 13.

Passover celebrates the birth of the Jewish people following the liberation of the Israelites from 210 years of slavery in Egypt.

The week marks the time in which Moses performed miracles upon the exodus from Egypt. A meal called a seder is shared among congregation members as part of the Passover observance.

Rabbi Akiva Hall from Congregation Beth Israel shared with us the traditional elements of the holiday. “By eating special foods, drinking special… drinking wine, telling the story in a very ritualistic format, also with lots of new insights every year.” Rabbi Hall says that some seders continue on for up to five hours. The idea of the meal is to “relive or re-experience in a very real sense what our ancestors went through.”

“Passover for… for some reason, more than any other Jewish holiday, has a pull on Jewish people,” Rabbi Hall says. “Even Jewish people who are very far away from Jewish observance or Jewish life. Almost every Jew observes Passover, comes to a seder, and has that connection.”

If you would like to learn more about Passover, you are welcome to join Congregation Beth Israel in Gulfport located on Three Rivers Road.