Page 15 - Issue 23

There weren’t always matzo balls

Passover traditions have evolved continuously through
history, with many of the core elements remaining and
many innovations made to meet the needs of the
Jewish people in their particular place and time.

In the days of the First and Second Temples, when Jews
lived as a sovereign nation in Israel and Jerusalem was
at the center of Jewish life, the Passover Seder looked
very different from today. The holiday was celebrated
with a mass pilgrimage from all over the country and
from the Diaspora. Even before Jews were expelled
from Israel in the days of the Roman Empire, there were
many Jews who lived outside of the traditional
homeland.

Authorities would pave the roads to the pilgrimage site,
plant trees to provide shade for the pilgrims, and leave
the cisterns open for all the pilgrims to drink from –
people and animals alike. Whole convoys came,
including extended families with elders and children.
With them were the animals they brought to the
sacrificial ceremony in Jerusalem.

At the heart of the holiday was the Passover ceremony
– bringing the Passover sacrifices together into the
temple, eating bitter foods to remember the bitterness
Jews went through in Egypt, and eating matzah. These
ceremonies fulfilled a social purpose as well as a
religious one, providing an opportunity to renew the
social fabric at a large gathering. Stories of the Exodus
from Egypt were also traditionally told.