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Under Jewish law, the Shabbat is a weekly holiday. Shabbat is a day of rest on the seventh day of each week which begins at on sunset on Friday evening and ends at nightfall on Saturday evening. The Halacha Jewish Law makes the Sabbath the most important holy day on the Hebrew calendar. It is the first holiday mentioned in the Tanakh and the Sabbath has more Torah readings than Yom Kippur. Jewish Holidays. collectively known as Yamim Tovim, always take place in accord with the Hebrew calendar. The Hebrew Calendar (Jewish Calendar) is an annual calendar used in Judaism to determine the Jewish holidays, which Torah portions "Yahrzeits", and which daily Psalms to read. Once an observational calendar, it is now a lunisolar rule based calendar that uses lunar months and solar cycle defined years. The Haggadah is a special book which narrates the Exodus from Egypt, the symbolism of the objects on the Seder tables, psalms, prayer, and Passover songs. Passover (Pesach) is a time when Jews worldwide conduct a Passover Seder with family members.
The Passover Seder with its
festive meal, is performed in accordance with the Mitzvot commandments of Pesach
and includes: telling the Exodus story; eating extra matzah called afikoman and
bitter herbs; reciting Hallel, songs of praise; drinking four cups of wine; and
demonstrating acts of freedom. The Pesach Passover commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. No leavened
food is eaten during Passover week.
The Haggadah is used for the Seder. The fifteen steps of the Seder are usually sung to a special melody at the beginning of the service. The first five steps of the Seder are: Kadesh, the first of four cups of wine is drunk from a special cup; Urchatz, the hands are ritually washed; Karpas, vegetables dipped in salt are eaten; Yachatz, Matzah is broken in half and half is kept for the Afikoman; and Maggid, the Exodus story is recited followed by a blessing and drinking the second cup of wine. The next six steps of the Seder are: Rachtzah, washing the hands before the meal and reciting the blessing; Motzi, the blessing associated with the bread; Matzah, pronouncing the blessing over the Matzah; Marror, the bitter herbs blessing is recited; Korech, the Matzah and Marror sandwich is eaten; and Shulchan Orech, the festive meal is eaten.
The final four steps of
the Seder are: Tzafun, the hidden Afikoman is retrieved and eaten before
midnight; the Barech, blessings are made after the meal and the third cup
of wine is drunk; Hallell, chapters of Psalms are recited and the fourth
cup of wine is drunk with blessings before and after; and Nirtzah, the
Seder is over with prayers and songs to G-d.
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