Community invited to Passover event in Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS – A beloved Jewish tradition is being held in Idaho Falls Wednesday night.
Chabad-Lubavitch of Idaho, a Boise-based Jewish outreach organization, is hosting Passover Seder, a festive ritual meal celebrating the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt, as told in the Bible.
The Passover traditionally kicks off an 8-day celebration, according to Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz, but the community event will only last one night.
Lifshitz says the Passover meal is happening on a Biblically significant year.
“This is a Biblical year called Hakhel, which is a year of unity and gathering (for the Jewish people),” Lifshitz tells EastIdahoNews.com. “In Biblical times, all the Jewish people would gather together once every seven years to celebrate. It didn’t happen all the time because it’s difficult to get millions of people together.”
Lifshitz estimates there are several hundred Jewish people in eastern Idaho and he’s excited to share this tradition with locals.
Seder, which means order, has 15 steps, so it’s a lengthy meal, Lifshitz says.
“It incorporates a lot of multi-sensory activities into the recollection of our liberation from slavery,” Lifshitz explains. “One of the main objectives of the meal is to retell the story of the exodus.”
A book called Haggadah, which means to tell over, is a major feature of the meal.
Another major feature involves eating matzah, a type of unleavened bread. Lifshitz explains the meaning behind this tradition.
“As the story of the Jewish people leaving Egypt goes, they were in a rush to leave Egypt and their bread did not have time to rise. So they ate unleavened bread. As a commemoration of that, we do not eat any leavened products for all eight days of passover,” says Lifshitz.
Traditional, handmade matzah is being brought in from Israel specifically for this event, he says, and will be served to those in attendance.
Four glasses of wine or grape juice are also part of the meal. The purpose of this is to remind the Jewish people of their liberation and freedom and it’s meant to be a celebration of that reality.
Maror, or bitter herbs like horseradish, are also eaten. These help “induce tears” in memory of “the back-breaking labor and suffering our ancestors endured during the painful times in Egypt.”
In ancient times, Lifshitz says another important component of the passover involved offering a sacrificial lamb in the temple. Lifshitz says they do not have authority to sacrifice a lamb outside of the temple. This part of the tradition has been suspended until the coming of the Messiah, according to Jewish belief.
“It’s a night of remembering, reliving and celebrating altogether. One of the telling messages is that we should never take freedom for granted, whether it’s physical freedom or spiritual freedom. We want to make sure we incorporate that into our lives in a very tangible fashion,” he says.
This event comes on the heels of the Jewish Chanukah Celebration in December. It was well-attended, Lifshitz says, which prompted them to bring this tradition to eastern Idaho.
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The Passover Seder will be held at the Snake River Event Center, formerly known as the Shilo Inn Event Center, at 780 Lindsay Boulevard. It starts at 7:15 p.m.
Student Rabbis Shneur Lifshitz from Boise, and Levi Greenberg, from Commerce, Michigan, will run the Idaho Falls event.
“We are excited to be coming to Idaho Falls,” Shneur Lifshitz says in a news release for the event. “It’s especially enriching to celebrate Passover together with a diverse and burgeoning Jewish community. I look forward to sharing our traditions and learning together.”
The event is free, but donations are encouraged. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting the visiting rabbis at (208) 809-8917 or szlifshitz@gmail.com.