100 Fun Facts About Passover

Who leads the Israelites out of slavery in the Passover story?

Moses had grown up in Pharaoh's own household, adopted by the king's daughter, before returning years later to demand that his people be set free.

Passover's name refers to God 'passing over' Israelite homes marked with what?

The blood of a lamb was brushed onto the lintel and both doorposts with a bunch of hyssop, and no one was to step outside the door until morning.

Passover begins on the 15th day of which month of the Hebrew calendar?

Nisan is the Torah's first month of the year, even though the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, arrives six months later in Tishrei.

Why does Passover traditionally run an eighth day outside Israel?

Calendar doubt: new months were once declared by a court on the testimony of moon-watchers, and distant communities kept a second day to be sure of observing the right one.

The intermediate, less-restricted days in the middle of Passover are known by what name?

Chol HaMoed means roughly 'the weekday of the festival': these are semi-holidays on which the ban on work is eased rather than lifted, so work that would mean a loss if left undone may go ahead.

The seventh day of Passover commemorates which miracle from the Exodus story?

The parting of the Red Sea is placed by tradition a week after the Israelites set out, so the festival's closing holy day recalls the crossing and the drowning of Pharaoh's army.

What was the first of the ten plagues?

The Nile turned to blood at the strike of a staff, killing the fish and fouling the river, and when Pharaoh's magicians copied the feat, the king refused to budge.

The Seder is a ritual meal whose Hebrew name literally means what?

Order: the meal moves through a fixed run of steps, and the odd things done along the way, such as dipping vegetables twice, are there to stir curiosity about the story.

Which sitting US president was the first to host a Passover Seder in the White House?

Barack Obama began the custom in 2009, a year after joining a Seder his campaign staffers threw together on the road in Pennsylvania, and kept it up every year of his presidency.

What is the Miriam's cup on some modern Seder tables filled with?

Water, recalling the miraculous well said to have followed the Israelites through the desert for as long as Miriam lived; Jewish feminists introduced the cup in the 1980s.

Who traditionally asks the Four Questions, beginning 'Why is this night different'?

The youngest child asks them, though one question has changed: in Temple times it asked why the meat was only roasted, and after the offerings ended it gave way to one about reclining.

In the Haggadah, the wise, wicked and simple sons are joined by a fourth who does what?

Cannot ask a question: the fourth son does not know how to, so the parent is told to open the story for him unprompted rather than wait to be asked.

In the Exodus story, why did the Israelites' bread never rise?

They had to leave in a hurry: Exodus says the Egyptians drove them out before the dough was leavened, so they carried it off in kneading troughs and baked flat cakes on the road.

In many homes, what do children do with the afikoman during the Seder?

Steal it and ransom it back: the meal cannot end until the afikoman is eaten, so the children hold real leverage, a game the Talmud links to keeping them awake.

Which step of the Seder involves breaking the middle matzah, with the larger piece set aside for later?

Yachatz means 'divide': the larger half is wrapped and hidden as the afikoman, and the meal cannot formally end until it is brought back and eaten at Tzafun.

What do many observant Jews do with chametz they cannot use up before Passover?

Sell it to a non-Jew: a rabbi usually arranges the sale for a whole community as a genuine, if temporary, transfer of ownership, and the goods are bought back once the festival ends.

Charoset, the sweet paste of fruit, nuts and wine, represents what?

Mortar used by Hebrew slaves is what the gritty paste stands for, so a symbol of forced labour ends up as the sweetest thing on the Seder table; its name comes from the Hebrew for clay.

Which vegetable is most often used as maror on the Seder plate?

Horseradish took over as Jews moved north and east into cold countries where lettuce, the bitter herb the Mishnah lists first, was hard to find.

The zeroa on the Seder plate is typically what?

A roasted lamb shank bone stands in for the Passover offering that ended with the Temple, so it is looked at and never eaten; vegetarians often swap in a roasted beet.

The beitzah, a hard-boiled egg on the Seder plate, symbolises which Temple offering?

The festival sacrifice, or chagigah, was brought at festivals while the Temple stood; an egg is often said to suit it because eggs are a traditional mourners' food, a nod to the Temple's loss.

The karpas vegetable is commonly dipped into what at the start of the Seder?

Salt water stands for the tears the Israelites shed as slaves, a sharp first taste for a meal about deliverance; many Sephardi families dip into vinegar instead.

Which fruit have some families added to the Seder plate since the 1980s, following Susannah Heschel?

An orange was Heschel's answer to an earlier proposal, a crust of bread on the plate in solidarity with gay and lesbian Jews, which she felt went too far at a festival that bans bread.

By Jewish law, matzah must be fully baked within how many minutes of water touching the flour?

18 minutes is the point at which wet dough is deemed to start leavening, so everything from mixing to the oven has to be finished at a sprint inside that window.

Which of these grains can become chametz, and so can also be baked into matzah?

Barley is one of just five grains, with wheat, spelt, rye and oats, that Jewish law says can leaven into chametz; the twist is that matzah must be made from those same five.

Kitniyot, foods like rice, corn and legumes, are traditionally avoided at Passover by which community?

Ashkenazim adopted the ban in medieval Europe over early objections, one 13th-century rabbi calling it 'mistaken', and in December 2015 the Conservative movement ruled that kitniyot are permitted.

Matzah is called lechem oni in the Torah, a phrase usually translated as what?

Bread of affliction is the standard rendering of Deuteronomy 16:3, though the Hebrew can also mean 'poor man's bread'; early in the Seder the matzah is held up and introduced by this very name.

In the pre-Passover search for chametz, crumbs are swept with what?

A feather into a wooden spoon, by candlelight: a few wrapped pieces of bread are usually hidden beforehand, and everything collected is burned the next morning.

The fast on the day before Passover traditionally applies only to which group?

Firstborns fast in gratitude for being spared the last plague, though most now sidestep it by attending a celebratory meal for finishing a tractate of Talmud that same morning.

Which Seder song lists God's gifts one by one, saying after each that it alone would have been enough?

Dayenu runs through fifteen gifts, from leaving slavery to the building of the Temple, and at some Persian and Afghan tables guests swat one another with scallions as they sing it.

Chad Gadya, the cumulative song that closes the Seder, tells of a father buying what for two zuzim?

One little goat is eaten by a cat, which is bitten by a dog, and so on up a chain that ends when God strikes down the Angel of Death; the kid is often read as the Jewish people.

In the Seder song 'Echad Mi Yodea' (Who Knows One?), what are the four?

Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah get the fourth verse rather than any of the Seder's own famous fours; the song climbs from one God to thirteen divine attributes.

A cup poured and left untouched at the Seder, with the front door often opened, is set out for which prophet?

Elijah's cup is commonly explained as the answer to an old dispute: the rabbis could not agree whether a fifth cup was required, so it is poured and left for the prophet expected to settle every open question.

The Seder ends with the words 'Next year in' where?

Jerusalem is already home to some who say it, so in Israel the line often becomes 'next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem', looking ahead to a restored Temple.

Which medieval Haggadah did a Muslim librarian hide from the Nazis during World War II?

The Sarajevo Haggadah was saved by the museum's librarian, Dervis Korkut, and by his family's account sat out the war among Korans in a village mosque; its pages are stained with Seder wine.

Which coffee brand's edition of the Seder text became a fixture at American tables?

Maxwell House owed its Passover sales to ad man Joseph Jacobs, who had rabbis confirm that coffee beans are not forbidden legumes; from 1932 the Haggadah was given away in stores with the coffee.

The oldest confirmed printed Haggadah was produced in 1486 by the Soncino family in which country?

Italy: the family took its name from Soncino, the Lombard town where it set up its Hebrew press in 1483; a Haggadah thought to have been printed in Spain in 1482 carries no printer's mark, so it stays unconfirmed.

Gefilte fish, a Passover staple, takes its name from a Yiddish phrase meaning what?

Stuffed is what the fish once was: cooks minced the flesh, packed it back into the skin and sewed it up, a step later dropped in favour of poached patties.

Which kosher brand, founded in Cincinnati in 1888, is best known for matzo and sweet Concord wine?

Manischewitz began as Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz's small bakery, where his machines produced square matzo that could be boxed and shipped, and it grew into the world's largest matzo baker.

Which cookies became a Passover staple because they are made without flour or leavening?

Macaroons need only egg whites, sugar and ground almonds or coconut, and the cookie most likely began in Christian rather than Jewish kitchens before Jewish bakers adopted it.

Beginning on the second night of Passover, Jews count 49 days toward which holiday?

Shavuot falls on the fiftieth day, and the seven-week count ties the escape from slavery to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, which tradition places on that festival.

Which book of the Bible do many Jews read in synagogue during Passover?

Song of Songs is set in springtime, like the festival itself, and its love poetry is traditionally read as the romance between God and the Jewish people.

Mimouna, celebrated the night Passover ends with mufleta pancakes, is a tradition of Jews from which country?

Morocco's Jews welcome leavened food back with tables of sweets and a bowl of flour with gold rings buried in it, a wish for prosperity; how the festival began is unclear.

Which event in the life of Jesus do three of the Gospels describe as a Passover meal?

The Last Supper is a Passover meal in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but John's Gospel has the festival still to come on the morning of the trial, a clash scholars have never settled.

Which 1956 biblical epic became an annual Passover-and-Easter broadcast on ABC?

The Ten Commandments first aired on ABC in 1973 and kept coming back in holiday week for decades, long enough for watching it together to become a family ritual.

Which two singers duetted on 'When You Believe', the Oscar-winning song from 1998's The Prince of Egypt?

Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey sang the pop version over the end credits; in the film itself Miriam and Tzipporah sing it, joined by a children's choir singing Hebrew lines from the biblical Song of the Sea.

Which ancient sect makes the Passover offering each year on Mount Gerizim?

The Samaritans hold Mount Gerizim to be the true holy place, so the rite is held there: the animals are slaughtered on Passover eve, cooked in pit ovens and eaten after midnight.

The Hebrew calendar is lunar, so what keeps Passover from drifting out of spring?

An added leap month, a second Adar, is slotted in seven times every 19 years, because twelve lunar months fall short of the sun's year and the festivals would otherwise wander through the seasons.

Reclining at the Seder table is meant to symbolise what?

Freedom: in the ancient world it was aristocrats who ate lying on couches, so leaning to the left at the Seder lets every guest dine like the free and wealthy.

What is the name of the matzah-and-maror combination eaten at the Korech step?

The Hillel sandwich copies the practice of the ancient sage Hillel, who ate the evening's symbolic foods wrapped together rather than one by one.

Which Nickelodeon cartoon retold the Exodus in a 1995 Passover special?

Rugrats locks Grandpa Boris in the attic with the babies on Seder night, so he tells them the Exodus story, which they picture with cousin Angelica as Pharaoh; the episode earned an Emmy nomination.

Bottles of Coca-Cola certified kosher for Passover are marked in stores by a cap of which colour?

Yellow caps mark the Passover run, and the drink's kosher story dates to 1935, when Atlanta rabbi Tobias Geffen was shown its secret list of ingredients so he could certify it.

Which Passover food, knaidel in Yiddish, was the winning word at the 2013 Scripps Spelling Bee?

Matzah ball in Yiddish is knaidel, a word with so many accepted spellings that the 2013 win set off a small row over which one was right.

Jews from Iran and Afghanistan playfully whip each other with which vegetable at the Passover Seder?

Green onions fly during a refrain sung midway through the Seder, a custom thought to warn against pining for the foods of Egypt.

Eytan Stibbe recited kiddush over grape juice at a 2022 Passover Seder held in which location?

The space station hosted the Seder during Stibbe's privately sponsored science mission, where he spoke to his crewmates about the Exodus story.

Which South American seed did the Orthodox Union begin certifying for Passover in December 2013?

Quinoa is a seed, not one of the grains that can become chametz, yet several kosher agencies still refused it for looking too much like them.

Which pharaoh, the villain of The Prince of Egypt, is most often named as the Exodus story's ruler?

Ramesses II is the usual choice because the Bible names Rameses as a place the Israelites knew, and most scholars set the story in his 13th century BCE.

Which 2019 Adam Sandler thriller sends its debt-ridden gambler to an awkward family Passover dinner?

Uncut Gems sends Howard Ratner to a tense Passover dinner with his wife, who has agreed to divorce him once the holiday is over.

In Poland, the Passover starter gefilte fish is named after which freshwater fish, 'Jewish-style'?

Carp is the fish in karp po żydowsku, and in Poland the same recipe turns up on Christmas Eve tables, when the meal is traditionally meatless.

The Prince of Egypt, a 1998 Exodus musical, was the first hand-drawn film made by which studio?

DreamWorks made it at the urging of co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had pitched an animated Exodus for years while he was an executive at Disney.

Which 1943 revolt against the Nazis began on the eve of Passover and lasted nearly four weeks?

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising began on 19 April 1943, when its fighters refused to surrender as SS and police units arrived to deport the remaining residents.

By which Hebrew name, shared with the ancient Temple offering, is Passover known in Israel?

Pesach names both the holiday and the offering once eaten on its opening night, and Yiddish speakers pronounce the word Peysekh.

Like every day in Jewish tradition, the opening day of Passover begins at which time of day?

Sunset starts every Hebrew day, so Passover arrives the evening before its first full day, which is why the Seder is a night-time meal.

The Israelites who escape Egypt at the original Passover wander the wilderness for how many years?

40 years pass because the generation that came out of Egypt refuses to enter Canaan, so only their children reach the promised land.

In the Exodus story, what lights the way for the Israelites by night as they travel out of Egypt?

A pillar of fire leads them after dark, and by day it gives way to a pillar of cloud that marks the route through the desert.

After the Exodus marked at Passover, the Israelites travel to which mountain to receive God's law?

Mount Sinai is where the Bible sets the giving of the law, although the Book of Deuteronomy calls the same place Horeb.

Which two-word Hebrew greeting meaning 'happy holiday' is commonly exchanged during Passover?

Chag sameach works for any holiday, and at Passover many people stretch it to wish each other a kosher and happy one.

Factory machines of the late 1800s turned out Passover matzah in which shape, easy to pack and ship?

Square matzah replaced dough that had been rolled and trimmed by hand, and making matzah by machine at all was considered revolutionary at the time.

Why is matzah dough pricked with rows of small holes before it goes into the oven for Passover?

To stop it puffing up: the holes keep the thin dough flat, and it then bakes at high heat until dark spots appear.

What traditionally happens on the morning before Passover to chametz found in the night's search?

It is burned, usually in a small bonfire, together with the ten or so pieces of chametz that families hide for the searchers to find.

The night-before-Passover search for chametz is traditionally made by the light of what?

A candle is the rule drawn from the Talmud because its small flame reaches into corners, though many rabbis now allow a flashlight for safety.

Many observant families keep a complete extra set of which household items just for Passover?

Dishes, glassware and silverware that have never touched chametz come out once a year, and some homes even keep a separate sink or dishwasher.

Outside Israel, traditional Jewish families hold a Passover Seder on which nights of the holiday?

The first two nights each get a full Seder abroad, while families in Israel hold just one.

While drinking the wine at a Passover Seder, participants traditionally lean in which direction?

To the left is the side for drinking each cup of wine and for eating the afikoman, and pillows are often set out to make the lean comfortable.

Which slow-braised cut of beef is the classic main course at many Passover Seders?

Brisket earned its place because the tough cut was cheap, and many hours in a low oven turn it tender enough for a holiday table.

Which autumn harvest holiday joins Passover among the three pilgrimage holidays of the Hebrew Bible?

Sukkot was one of the three times a year when Israelites were expected to travel to the Temple, each timed to a harvest in the land.

A famous Haggadah made in Germany around 1300 gives its Jewish figures the heads of which animals?

Birds, beaks and all, replace the faces of every Jewish figure on its pages, which is why the manuscript is known as the Birds' Head Haggadah.

The Haggadah, read aloud at the Passover Seder, takes its name from a Hebrew word meaning what?

Telling is the point of the night: reading the book fulfils the duty of every parent to recount the Exodus to their children.

The word afikoman, for the matzah eaten as the Passover Seder's dessert, comes from which language?

Greek gave the Seder the word, traced to a term for what followed a banquet, whether dessert or revelry, which is why it now names the final thing eaten.

The shmurah in shmurah matzah, favoured for Passover's opening night, is a Hebrew word meaning what?

Guarded describes the grain, which is kept under supervision from the moment it is harvested to make sure no fermentation has begun.

The first matzah-making machine, ancestor of boxed Passover matzah, was invented in which country?

France is where the machine appeared in the 1830s, and some rabbis fought it, one ruling that machine-made matzah counted as chametz.

Which Asian capital's Passover Seder for Israeli trekkers has been called the world's largest?

Kathmandu's Seder began in 1986 as an Israeli embassy event for travellers, and Chabad later grew it to some 1,500 guests.

In which Jane Yolen novel is a girl at a Passover Seder sent back in time to 1942 Poland?

The Devil's Arithmetic follows Hannah Stern, bored by her relatives' stories of the past, until the Seder door opens onto a village on the Polish border.

Which prisoner does Pilate release in the Gospels under a custom of pardoning a captive at Passover?

Barabbas, described as a bandit, is the crowd's choice over Jesus, though no Roman record mentions any such Passover pardon.

At the original Passover, the Israelites daub their doorposts using a bunch of which plant?

Hyssop is the name most English Bibles give the Hebrew ezov, which Maimonides identified with Origanum syriacum, a wild herb that bunches easily for sprinkling.

In the Passover story, which Israelite region of Egypt is spared the plagues of flies and hail?

Goshen, where Jacob's family had settled generations earlier, is named only twice in Exodus, both times as the plagues pass it by.

Whose coffin do the Israelites carry out of Egypt, keeping an oath sworn generations earlier?

Joseph had made his family swear to take his remains home, and they were finally buried at Shechem, on land his father had bought.

Which Hebrew name, from their opening words, is given to the Four Questions of the Passover Seder?

Ma Nishtana is traditionally sung rather than spoken, and its questions go back to the Mishnah, though the two Talmuds word them differently.

Which white robe, a custom in some Orthodox homes, does the leader of a Passover Seder wear?

A kittel is also worn in synagogue on Yom Kippur and by some bridegrooms on their wedding day.

Which memorial service, held only four times a year, falls on the final day of Passover?

Yizkor began as a Yom Kippur custom of remembering the dead and pledging charity in their name, and later spread to three other holidays.

From the opening day of Passover, synagogue prayers drop their mention of rain in favour of what?

Dew takes over because the dry summer of the land of Israel is beginning, and the wording switches back to rain in the autumn.

Which Jewish movement keeps Passover for seven days rather than eight, even outside Israel?

Reform Judaism keeps the seven days set out in the Torah, treating the opening and closing days as the major holidays.

Who leads the Israelites when they keep Passover at Gilgal, just after crossing the River Jordan?

Joshua presides over the earliest Passover held in Canaan, and the Bible ties the occasion to the end of the manna that had fed the people in the desert.

The 'Matzah of Hope' joined 1960s Passover Seders for Jews barred from worship in which country?

Soviet Union Jews were barred from practising their faith, and Seders abroad kept up the ritual through a protest movement that ran into the 1980s.

Ha Lachma Anya, a declaration recited early in the Passover Seder, is written in which language?

Aramaic is the language of the declaration, and in times past the head of the household would step into the street to say it, inviting the poor to the Seder.

The English word Passover is first recorded in the 16th-century Bible translation of which scholar?

William Tyndale introduced the word in his translation, and the King James Version later adopted it too.

Which church council of 325 cut the dating of Easter loose from the Jewish reckoning of Passover?

Nicaea ruled that Easter would be a Sunday in a lunar month picked by Christian reckoning, after complaints that churches were relying on Jewish informants.

Which king of Judah revived Passover after a lost scroll of the law was found during Temple repairs?

Josiah began his religious overhaul when the scroll surfaced, and the prophetess Huldah confirmed that the text was authentic.

What is the Saturday just before Passover called, a day traditionally marked by a long sermon?

Shabbat HaGadol means the Great Sabbath, a name one tradition traces to a great miracle in Egypt five days before the Exodus.

Before Babylonian month names were adopted, the Torah called the month of Passover by which name?

Aviv is the Hebrew word for spring, the season the Torah ties the holiday to, and it lives on in the name of Tel Aviv.

The Bible's 'second Passover', a make-up date one month on, falls in which Hebrew month?

Iyar hosts the make-up date, which the Book of Numbers created for people who had been ritually impure or away on a distant journey.