New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-23
The Jewi.h Passover.

The Jewish Passover.
The Israelites of New Orleans. last oven
ing, a. well as their brethren elsewhere, OBJ
served the commencement of the Pass
over.
The observance, as is generally known, is
dictated by one of the laws OF Moses, IN
commemoration of the deliverance OF the
Jews from bondage, and. according to the
Jewish calendar, commences on the four
teenth of Nilsson, the first month in the jew
ish year, which, in this year, occurs on the
twenty-second of April. On the night pre-
ceding the first day Of Passover, the heads
of the Israelitish households collect all the
Ieavened bread in their houses, and on the
next morning before ten o'clock they burn
it. The celebration commences that night,
and that and the next night are termed
Slider nights. The families are called to-
gether at the feasts, and during these nights
no distinction in position is made. The
servants sit at the tables with their employ
ers, and for the time being all are
considered equals. The culinary uten-
sis used during this time are not the
same that are commonly employed, and on
the tables are placed articles not usually
seen there, as for instance the shin-bone Of
a lamb mathematical of the Passover lamb)
h0rse-radish and bitter herbs. The latter
are to remind the people Of the hardships
and trials experienced by the Jews in Egypt.
During the feast part of the psalms of
Moses are chanted, prayers recited, and
four glasses Of wine are drunk by every in
dividual. The designation of the two first
nights of the Passover as Slider nights is not
generally understood. '.Sider" is, we be-
ieve, derived from the Portuguese, and
means assembling and sitting up to. By the
Jewish calendar there are two days of the
week on which the feast of the Passover
can never commence, as the law forbids
any Two great feasts as holidays to come
together.
That our readers may fully appreciate its
historical and religious Importance, the fol-
lowing account Of the Jewish Passover is
extracted from Stanley's history Of the jew
ish Church:
Among the various festivals of the Jewish
Church, one was distinctly historical. In
the feast of the Pascha Pascha, Or Pass.
over, the scene of the flight of the Israel
ties, its darkness, it's hurry, its confusion,
was acted year by year, as in a living
drama. In part it is so acted throughout
the whole Jewish race; in all its essential
features (some Of which have died out
everywhere else), it is enacted in the most
lively form by the solitary remnant of that
race which. under the name of Samaritan
celebrates the whole Paschal service year
by year ON the summit of Mount Gerizlm
Each head of family assembled his house
hold around him; the feast was within
the house; there was no time nor
place for priest or sacred edifice.
Even after the establishment of the
sanctuary at Jerusalem this vestige of
the primitive or the irregular celebration
of that rite continued, and not in the Temple
courts, but in the upper chamber of the
private houses, was the room prepared
where the Passover was to be eaten. The
animal slain and eaten on the occasion is
itself memorial of the pastoral state of
the people. The shepherds of Goshen, with
their tiocks and herds, whatever else they
could furnish Cor a hasty meal, would at
least have lamb or kid, a male of the first |
year from the sheep or from the goats. |
They stuck its blood on the door posts of |
iZinl, the Samaritan community rushes for |
ward, and as the blood flows from the throat |
of the slaughtered lamb, they dip their |
fingers in the stream, and each man, woman |
ami child, even to the child in arms, is |
marked on the forehead with the red stain. |
Night FALLS the stars come OUT the bright |
moon is IN the sky; the household gathers |
round, and then takes place the hasty meal,
of which every part is marked by the al |
fro MT hos of no oh
when Pharoah's messengers were expected |
every instant to break in with their COM |
mand, Get you forth from among my peo-
Pile. Go, begone' The guests of such a |
household, at the moment of the meal, rose |
from their sitting and recumbent posture, |
and stood around the table on their feet. |
Their feet, usually bare within the house,
were shod as it, for journey. Each mem.
Der of the household, even the women, had
stats in their hands, as if for an immediate |
departure. The long Eastern garments of |
The men were grit up, for the same reason,
around their loins. The roasted lamb was
TORN to pieces, each snatching and grasping |
n his fingers the mOEsel which he might |
lot else have time to eat. Not fragment |
5 left for the morning, which will find them |
gone and far away. The cakes of bread |
which they broke and ate were tasteless |
rom the want of leaven, which they had no |
P"ASf Gnu 90 VA ohaU 1atdi
midnight they took their dough before it |
vas leavened, their kneading trOughs being
pound up in their clothes on their shout
lers.
SO the recollection of this characteristic
Incident was stamped into the national |
by the prohibition Of every kind |
# leaven or ferment at the feast, as it was
rom this cause named, of unleavened |
bread. And finally, in the subsequent union
II late and earlier usages, the thanksgiving
or their deliverahce was always present. |
The Renaissance of their bondage was
sept up by the mess of bitter herbs, which |
rave relish to their supper, and that bitter
up again was sweetened by the festive
'haracter which ran through the whole
and gave it in later genera
ions what in its first institution 1t could
hardly have had, it's full social and ecclesias-
ical aspect; the wine cups of blessings and
he long sustained hymn from the One Hun
lred and Thirteenth to One Hundred and |
Eighteenth Psalm. of which the thrilling
acts must always have been those which |
ing how "lsraei came out of Egypt; how
lot unto them, but unto Jehovah's name |
vas the praise to be given for ever and |
ever"
Benefit Of Mime. Durand.
The numerous friends and admirers of |