Pesah Guide 5783 (2023)

5783/2023

A Message from the President

Dear members and friends of Kahal Joseph,

In my layman’s understanding of Passover, Mitzrayim, also known as Egypt, is the symbol of bondage, and Yerushalayim, or Jerusalem, is the symbol of freedom. Exodus is the journey we make, the path we travel, to grow in our lives.

Each time we open ourselves to change, Hashem guides us to freedom, our personal version of Yerushalayim, depending on the circumstances and challenges we face. The result may be physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. As we move from a state where we feel stuck or trapped, we go through a process of development and understanding, until we emerge with a positive, life-enhancing mindset.

When we trust ourselves and Hashem, we surmount our obstacles. Success is when we plan wisely and devote constructive, positive energy. Success is when we care for others and share the generous gifts given us. Success, in our beautiful traditions, is to tell the story of bondage to freedom for generations to come.

Wishing you and those close to you a joyful, peaceful, healthy and abundant Passover,

Rafael Itzhaki, President

A Message from Rabbi Halevy

Shalom U’vracha,

We are reaching the special time of year when spring is upon us, and we are blessed with the holiday of Pesah. During this yearly season, we connect deeply to the energy of hope, envisioning and anticipating the positive, transformative influence of Hashem, an effect often called “redemption” or “salvation”. We express gratitude with the blessing “shehekheyanu v’kiyemanu v’higiyanu la’zman ha’zeh.” We thank Hashem for giving us life, sustaining us, and bringing us to this special time.

Annually, we are given the opportunity to tap the inner well of our soul and awaken our connection with Hashem, recognizing these resources as ever-present in our lives. Because we are souls in physical form, we live in a world of contradictions, paradoxes, and challenges which may, at times, shake us to our core.

Hashem has placed us in this realm to arouse hope in the face of despair, to shine our light in the murky dimness of this world. During Pesah, the festival of freedom, we experience the story of our people through the reading of the Haggadah. We relive the physical and emotional depths of slavery from which we rise up and reach spiritual freedom as a liberated people. Click here to read more . . .

Learn with Rabbi Halevy

Pesach

Beginning of Pesah

End of Pesah

Learn more with these videos:

Pesach Insights I & Pesach Insights II

Pesah Melodies with Hazzan Jalali

Pesah Seder – Bread of Oppression

Enjoy more melodies from Hazzan Jalali, click HERE!

Mitzvot of Passover

Selling Hametz

Tuesday, April 4th with KJ

If there is hametz one wishes to keep after Pesah, it should be sold before the holiday.
Click HERE to SELL HAMETZ

Search for Hametz

Tuesday, April 4th after dark

The night before Pesach we do ‘Bedikat Chametz,’ the search for Chametz. We recite the Bracha: Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheynu Melech Haolam asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al biur chametz. We search in all the rooms of the house with a candle or flashlight.

Last Time to Eat Hametz

Wednesday, April 5th by 10:48 AM

The last halakhic time to eat hametz before Pesah is 10:48 AM on Wednesday, April 5th. Hametz is defined as food containing one for the five grains (wheat, barley, oats, rye, or spelt) that may have come into contact with water or other leavening agents.

Disposing of the Hametz

Wednesday, April 5th by 11:52 AM

We dispose of most of our hametz at by 11:52 AM on Wednesday, April 5th.

We can either burn the hametz or take what is left to the trash.

Siyum for Fast of Firstborns

Wednesday, April 5th, 7:30 AM

Siyum for Fast of Firstborns begins at 5:20 AM. Firstborn males have the custom of listening to the finishing of a Talmud tractate or partaking in another mitzvah so as not to fast from dawn to dusk. This year, you may attend a Siyuum at Kahal at 7:30 am (following morning prayers at 6:30 am).

Passover Seder Nights

First Seder after dark: Wednesday, April 5th, Light Candles by 7:00 pm

Second Seder after dark: Thursday, April 6th, Light Candles after 7:56 pm

It is a mitzvah to recite the Haggadah during the Seder with great joy. We eat matzah and drink four cups of wine (or grape juice for kids) while reclining to the left to show that we have our freedom. We arrange the Seder Plate with various symbolic foods. Women recite Shehechiyanu blessing when lighting and saying the blessing over Yom Tov candles on the first nights of Pesach. It is a great mitzvah to speak of Hashem’s wonders on this night!

Click HERE for the complete Pesah Schedule

Click HERE for an Iraqi Haggadah

Passover Haggadah and Seder Guide

Click HERE for an Iraqi Haggadah

Click HERE for the Library of Congress Haggadah Collection

Click HERE for Seder Guide by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”l, in 1981

Click HERE to for a Haggadah Companion from aish.

Passover Recipe for Charoset

Iraqi Charoset

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup Date syrup (Silan) or date molasses

3/4 cup Finely chopped walnuts

INSTRUCTIONS:

Finely chop the walnuts.
In a bowl, combine the date syrup and chopped walnuts.
Mix together the ingredients.
Served at room temperature.

Click HERE for other Charoset Recipes.

Haroset is one of the special foods served as part the Passover Seder. A sweet, sticky spread, often with
a brownish hue, it reminds us of mud used by the Jewish people to make bricks during their
enslavement in Egypt millennia ago. It also tastes pretty amazing. We partake of sweet Haroset and
recite blessings as we remember the forced, harsh labor we endured as we built the pyramids and cities
of Pitom and Ramses. During the Seder, Haroset is eaten shortly before the main meal, heralding its
arrival, which sweetens haroset’s taste even further.