Wishing our Jewish friends a blessed Passover. Tonight marks the beginning of Passover, the High Holy day for Jews who celebrate their freedom from their slavery in Egypt. This is a very special holiday for the Jews with special prayers, hymns, songs, and of course food. Most Passover Seder's are private family affairs but occasionally they will offer community Seder's as well. When I was a teenager I attended a community Seder hosted by my mother's boss, a devout Jew who invited several of her friends to her local synagogue. It was a very moving experience. The Rabbi lead us through the meal, reading from the Haggadah, the special Passover prayer book, and explaining all of the different types of foods.
Christians often forget our Jewish roots, especially the liturgical and ritual roots. We forget for example that what we call the Last Supper was really a Passover meal, and that Jesus gave it a new meaning, that not only were we supposed to remember Moses delivering the Jews out of Egypt but now Jesus was the content of the meal, that every time we broke the bread and drank the wine we recalled his death and confessed his resurrection.
