Join us for our annual First Day Passover Service, held in conjunction with Emanuel Congregation at Temple Sholom.

Passover, also known as Z’man Cheiruteinu—the Festival of our Freedom—commemorates the Exodus from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The holiday’s central observances take place on the first and second nights during a special home ritual called the seder (meaning "order"), which includes a festive meal and a reading from the Haggadah (meaning “telling”). The Haggadah guides us through prayers, rituals, readings, and songs that help each generation remember and retell the story of liberation—one of the most central narratives in Jewish life and history.

Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) is also marked by refraining from eating chametz—leavened foods made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt—and by eating matzah, the unleavened bread that recalls the haste with which the Israelites fled Egypt, leaving no time for their bread to rise.