Category: Passover

The Four Questions Hotline

Welcome to the Exploring Judaism Four Questions Hotline, with Passover Cleaning Support! We are here to answer your questions.

The Secrets of Matzah

There are so many secrets hidden away within Matzah that ask to be uncovered, offering us spiritual wisdom.
Every Year We Must See Ourselves As If We Were There

Every Year We Must See Ourselves As If We Were There

Every year at Passover, we must see ourselves as If we were there in Egypt and take on what that means for ourselves.
B'khol Dor Vador In Every Generation

B’khol Dor Vador—In Every Generation

What does "b'khol dor vador—in every generation" mean in light of the events of October 7? How does this connect us to Passover?
Why Couldn't Moses Enter the Promised Land?

Why Couldn’t Moses Enter the Promised Land?

Current events help us understand why Moses couldn't enter the Promised Land and remind us the importance of innocent lives.
A Very Waystar Royco Seder: How a Show Like “Succession” Illuminates the Four Children

How a Show Like “Succession” Illuminates the Four Children

How can a show like "Succession" illuminate the Seder? Compare the Four Children of our haggadah with the four Roy children.
Back to Our Roots

Back to Our Roots

Learn about the Wicked Child of the Four Children by going back to our roots and looking at the meaning of the Hebrew word itself.
The Living Room Seder

The Living Room Seder

Hosting a living room Seder can allow us to experience a Seder closer to the way that the rabbis thought of it.
Dip Your Karpas in Salt Water and Honey?

Dip Your Karpas in Salt Water and Honey?

Dipping Karpas into salt water at the Passover Seder has a mysterious history that invites us to create new dipping and meaning opportunities!
On Passover, We Are All Jews-By-Choice

On Passover, We Are All Jews-By-Choice

On Passover, we are all Jews-by-Choice when we choose to remember what it is that brings us together for the holiday.
The Magic of Bedikat Hametz

The Magic of Bedikat Hametz

Use this guide to bring the magic of bedikat hametz to your children. It can be a fun ritual with your kids, of any age.
Slavery, Social Justice, and Family History

Slavery, Social Justice, and Family History

Reflecting on a "Pilgrimage to the South" on a Movement social justice trip as a Black Jew and how it has changed who I am.
All Who Are Hungry and In Need Come Eat

All Who Are Hungry and In Need, Come Celebrate Pesach

Through the seder, we learn the importance of hospitality and inviting all who are hungry and in need, to come celebrate Pesach.
The Seder as a Lived Experience

The Seder as a Lived Experience

We use the Seder as a lived experience by reenacting the exodus, not just recounting it. Therefore, we can all connect to Passover.
Embracing Change: A Call to Rethink the Passover Seder Plate

Embracing Change: A Call to Rethink the Passover Seder Plate

How and why can you create a plant-based seder plate? We embrace change during Passover, especially in rethinking the seder plate.
Fury and Fermentation: A Hasidic Teaching for Pesach

Fury and Fermentation

Learn about fury and fermentation, the concept that our anger could be spiritual hametz during Pesach and all year-round.
Engaging Kids of All Ages in the Passover Seder

Engaging Kids of All Ages in the Passover Seder

Engaging kids of all ages in the Passover seder can feel daunting. Here are my top five tips for engaging everyone at the seder.
Pesah and Continued Kashrut Slavery: A Conceptual Reflection

Pesah and Continued Kashrut Slavery: A Conceptual Reflection

A conceptual reflection of Pesah and Kashrut can bring more meaning to how we follow the halakhah of food on Pesah.
How to Incorporate Kitniyot into Your Passover

How to Incorporate Kitniyot into Your Passover

Though the Conservative Movement has allowed eating kitniyot on Passover, many still do not. How can we incorporate kitniyot this year?
Passover Kashrut Questions and Answers

Passover Kashrut Questions and Answers

Answering key and specific questions about kashrut, kashering utensils, and food in the context of Passover.
The Passover Preparation Checklist

The Passover Preparation Checklist

We know that preparing for Passover can feel like a daunting task. With this handy checklist, you will be ready for Passover in no time!
Not A Haggadah Post Image

Passover Reader 5784: Not A Haggadah

Exploring Judaism's 2024 (5784) Passover Reader, Not A Haggadah, includes essays to inspire a meaningful Passover.
Charlton Heston Speaking

Charlton Heston Speaking

We can learn about leadership from Moses, as well as from Charlton Heston speaking, as he plays Moses in the Ten Commandments movie.
The Weird and Wacky World of Kosher for Passover

The Weird and Wacky World of Kosher for Passover

The weird and wacky world of keeping Kosher for Passover is confusing and overwhelming, especially when you're new to it. Start here!
This is the Bread of Affliction

This is the Bread of Affliction

This is the bread of affliction: Matzah adorns our Seder plates and nourishes our souls, as well—this food is fulfilling.
Remembering Our Loved Ones Before Us

Remembering Our Loved Ones Before Us

When our loved ones die, who remembers those they remembered? Here's a way to remember all of those that came before us.
Yachatz Brokenness and Wholeness

Yachatz: Brokenness and Wholeness

One explanation offered by the Sages for Yachatz in the seder is that it helps promote making the world less broken, if not completely whole.
Climate Disruption and Passover

Climate Disruption and Passover

Let’s do more than remember our refugee origin story and include how climate change and disruption are leading to new refugees.
Mujaddara on Passover

Mujaddara on Passover

How my family created and passed down cultural traditions, and how the Conservative Teshuvah on Kitniyot impacts our life outside the academy.
Why Is Diversity Important at the Passover Seder?

Why Is Diversity Important at the Passover Seder?

This is why I think my family's tradition of inviting a non-Jew each year to the Passover seder is important.
When Can a Passover Seder Start Early?

When Can a Passover Seder Start Early? Other Festivals?

When is the earliest time that we can begin observing Jewish festivals, on first or second day of Yom Tov, in particular, the Passover seder?
A Guide To Your First Passover Seder

A Guide To Hosting Your First Passover Seder

It can be daunting to prepare for your first seder. We've put together a collection of great posts that will help you get started.
Special Shabbats leading up to Purim and Passover

What are the Special Sabbaths Before Purim and Passover?

A series of special Shabbatot with special Torah readings precede Purim and Passover.
blurry image of dishes and the words The Important Thing That Keeps our Family “Doing Jewish”

The Important Thing That Keeps our Family “Doing Jewish”

The most important thing to teach the next generation is how to make a seder, including what comes before the festival candles are even lit.
Blurry image of an open ark with four Torahs and the words: The Concluding Days of Passover

The Concluding Days of Passover

What do we do in synagogue on Passover? What Torah readings and haftarot do we read? We outline that for you here.
Blurry image of a Torah scroll and the words Passover Torah Readings: An Explainer

Passover Torah Readings: An Explainer

Though Pesach is thought of as the quintessential home-based holiday, the Torah is read on each of the mornings of Pesach in the synagogue.
Blurry image of an open ark with four Torahs and the words: Passover in the Synagogue

Passover in the Synagogue

What do we do in synagogue on Passover? What Torah readings and haftarot do we read? We outline that for you here.
blurry image of someone cleaning a table with the words When the COVID Plague Threatens Your Seder (Again)

When the COVID Plague Threatens Your Seder (Again)

Here are 10 tips on how to make Pesah meaningful and kosher (enough) even when the plague of COVID continues to threaten our celebrations.
blurry image of a table with the words The Four Children and Racial Justice

The Four Children and Racial Justice

We approach the Haggadah at a time of profound racial reckoning in our country. How might the four children help us relate to racial justice?
Blurry image of a firepit and the words Biur and S’mores: Have Fun As You Get Rid of Hametz

Biur and S’mores: Have Fun As You Get Rid of Hametz

There is lots to do to get ready for Passover. We may ask, where am I going to have Seder? How long or short will ...
Blurry image of countryside with the words Mah Nishtanah: How Is This Moment Different?

Mah Nishtanah: How Is This Moment Different?

Mah Nishtanah: How is This Moment Different by Rabbi Rachel Ain is a reflection on her recent trip to Ukraine in 2022.
blurry image of a book with the words The Sunflower on Our Seder Table

The Sunflower on Our Seder Table

The Sunflower on Our Seder Table by Rabbi Ilana Garber on behalf of the people in Ukraine in 2022.
blurry image of a book with the words All Who Are Hungry: A Prayer for Action, A Prayer for Ukraine

All Who Are Hungry: A Prayer for Action, A Prayer for Ukraine

All Who Are Hungry: A Prayer for Action, A Prayer for Ukraine by Rabbi Mark Greenspan on behalf of the people in Ukraine in 2022.
blurry image of a set table How to Make a Seder for Everyone

How to Make a Seder for Everyone

The key to hosting a successful seder for everyone is to articulate a bold purpose in gathering and map the journey.
blurry image of a book with the words Dedication for First Cup of Wine

Dedication for First Cup of Wine

Dedication for the First Cup of Wine at the Passover Seder by Rabbi Martin S. Cohen on behalf of the people in Ukraine in 2022.
close up image of gas stove with the words Leveraging Anger for Change this Passover

Leveraging Anger for Change this Passover

While anger and frustration can lead to stress and dissatisfaction, mindful approaches to our anger can move our lives out of complacency.
Image of a desert with the words Passover: An Invitation to Get Free

Passover: An Invitation to Get Free

Spiritually preparing for Passover not an intellectual exercise. It’s a spiritual invitation to ask ourselves: am I willing to get free?
blurry zoom meeting with the words How to Make your Zoom Seder not Suck

How to Make your Zoom Seder not Suck

Hosting a Zoom seder is not just putting a webcam on your seder plate. These tips will ensure your guests won’t succumb to Zoom fatigue.
Blurry image of a set table and the words Hosting a Seder for People New to Judaism or the Seder

Hosting a Seder for People New to Judaism or the Seder

The Seder is a potpourri of powerful rituals, wise rabbinic aphorisms, and opportunities to elevate the mundanities of eating into holiness.
Ask the Questions and Dig Deeper

Ask the Questions and Dig Deeper

Combining lessons from the Mishnah and Human Resources, we realize that asking questions is the path to greater understanding.
Blurry image of rice with the words What are Kitniyot and when can I eat it?

What are Kitniyot and when can I eat it?

In the early medieval period, it became customary for Ashkenazi Jews to not eat a category of foods called kitniyot. What are they?
The Four Questions and Living with Mental Illness

The Four Questions and Living with Mental Illness

We have the opportunity to help teens create long-lasting positive connections to the very traditions they are appropriately questioning.
Blurry image of cleaning supplies with the words Spirtually Cleaning the Hametz within our souls

Spiritually Cleaning the Hametz Within Our Souls

With all of this physically taxing work, it can be easy to miss the spiritual preparation for this celebration of our collective redemption.
Blurry image of child's hand painting with the words Tips for Passover with Toddlers

Tips for Passover with Toddlers

After all of the preparation, all that’s left to do is celebrate the holiday. How do you do that with your young children?
blurry image of seder plate with the words 7 Tips for Hosting Your First Passover Seder

7 Tips for Hosting Your First Passover Seder

If this is your first-time hosting a Passover Seder, here are seven tips to make it a memorable and meaningful experience!
blurry background of a grocery store with the words freedom and food allergies

Freedom and Food Allergies

How is one with food allergies supposed to feel free when they can’t partake in the matzo balls, charoset, cake, or anything else?
blurry picture of a table with the words Bringing Teens to the Seder Table

Bringing Teens to the Seder Table

We have the opportunity to help teens create long-lasting positive connections to the very traditions they are appropriately questioning.
blurry cloth with the words: Including non-Jewish guests at our Seder: A reflection on top

Including non-Jewish guests at our Seder: A reflection

Reflecting on the universal nature of the Exodus, as "eternally contemporary; it’s the story of too many peoples."
blurry image of lots of bread with the words What is hameitz and what do we do with it?

What is Hameitz and what do we do with it?

Hametz, is defined as any food made of wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye—that has been made wet and left unbaked for more than 18 ...
Image of matzah, matzah cover with the word pesah on it in hebrew, and a kiddush cup with the words: Passover, Nisan, and the Fast of the Firstborn: Before Passover Begins

Passover Themes, The Month of Nisan, and the Fast of the Firstborn

Passover, commemorates the exodus from Egypt. On a spiritual level, the festival confronts us with the notion of redemption.
Image of a seder plate with the words The Seder an overview

The Seder: An Overview

The Passover seder is the cumulative result of untold generations of Jews telling the same story, the Exodus from Egypt.
image of bread roll for eiruv tavshilin

What is an Eiruv Tavshilin?

One is only permitted to cook on festivals to make food for the holiday itself, not for other days. There is an exception: eiruv tavshilin.
blurry image Hand placing utensil into boiling pot of water with the words How to Kasher Your Kitchen: A Simplified Guide of lots of bread

How to Kasher Your Kitchen: A Simplified Guide

This is a simplified guide on how to kasher (make kosher) various items in your kitchen, especially for Passover.