When Did Passover Begin?

When Did Passover Begin?
Stephanie Kramer

When did Passover begin? According to the Bible, Passover has been celebrated as an evening ceremony ever since the Israelites escaped Pharaoh’s rule in Egypt and had their initial paschal meal. Passover has two biblical names, Chag HaPesach, “the Feast of the Passover” (Exodus 34:25), and Chag HaMatzot, “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Exodus 23:15, Leviticus 23:6, Deuteronomy 16:16). In the Book of Exodus, Chapters 12 and 13, we read the historical narrative of the fleeing from Egypt, followed by the biblical commandment to celebrate Passover in Leviticus 23:5-8.
“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a Passover offering to Adonai, and on the fifteenth day of that month Adonai’s Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you shall celebrate a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. Seven days you shall make offerings by fire to Adonai. The seventh day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations” (Leviticus 23:5-8).
According to some scholars, it is possible that the festival finds its roots among the semi-nomads who wandered near Palestine thousands of years ago. Nisan, the month when Passover falls, is also the month when sheep are most likely to give birth. On the full moon, nomads would come to observe the festival shortly before a sheep or a goat was about to be sacrificed; the animal was then eaten before daybreak.1

One theory states that the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a festival celebrated by the farmers in Cannan to mark the spring harvest. The first step was to cut the barley and offer it to the priests as a sacrifice to God before it was collected for consumption. “The elimination of chamaytz may have originally been precautionary so as not to infect the new incoming crop. Or, it may have been a way of propitiating the priests and God so as to assure healthy bounty.”2

The seder, literally translated as order, which we know as the home ceremony performed on the first two nights of Passover, was probably not always as packed full of rituals, symbolism, and teaching. Many of the amusing rituals that are carried out at this meal were created to enable parents to hold the attention of their children long enough to teach them about the deliverance from slavery to freedom. This injunction is found in Exodus 13:8, “And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I went free from Egypt.’” Most scholars believe that the seder was ritualized by the time the Mishnah was published in 200 C.E. This is thought to be so because Mishnah P’sachim 10 presents a description of the seder meal that is very similar to ours today.3

This prototype haggadah found in the Mishnah must have been widely used, because it made its way into Rav Amram’s very first prayer book, which was published in the eighth century, and was again used in Saadia Gaon’s prayer book, published in the tenth century, and was finally printed as a separate book, it is believed, beginning in the twelfth century.

Even though the bulk of our seder has longstanding roots, there are new rituals being added all the time: Miriam’s cup, an orange, plague hand puppets, creative 4 children, and participatory telling of the Exodus story serve to keep the attention of twenty first century children around the world while they participate in the most celebrated Jewish Holy Day of all.
Stephanie Kramer is a fifth year rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. She is the Religious School Family Education and Special Programs Coordinator at Stephen S. Wise Temple. Stephanie lives in Stevenson Ranch with her husband Adam and their seven month old Micah where they enjoy watching movies, exercising, attending plays, and cooking.