50 Fun Facts About Passover

Passover celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in which land?

It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, alongside Shavuot and Sukkot.

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

The doorframes were marked so the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, would skip those houses.

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

Nisan is counted as the first month of the Hebrew year, and the holiday always begins at sundown the evening before.

Jews outside Israel traditionally celebrate Passover for how many days?

In Israel it lasts seven, and Reform and Reconstructionist Jews usually keep seven wherever they live.

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

The name means 'weekdays of the festival'; Pesach Sheni is the make-up 'Second Passover' a month later.

How many plagues did God send upon Egypt before Pharaoh let the Israelites go?

Each plague confronted Pharaoh and one of the Egyptian gods, and they are recited at the Seder while spilling drops of wine.

What was the first of the ten plagues?

Moses struck the river with his staff, and Pharaoh's magicians managed to copy the trick.

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

The Haggadah lays out that order: fifteen steps captured in a rhyming mnemonic usually credited to Rashi.

How many steps make up the traditional Seder, as listed in the mnemonic poem?

They run from Kadesh, the opening kiddush, to Nirtzah, when everyone says 'Next year in Jerusalem'.

How many cups of wine is each participant obliged to drink at the Seder?

They stand for the four expressions of deliverance in Exodus 6:6-7: bring out, deliver, redeem and take.

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

The Jerusalem Talmud records only three questions; the fourth, about reclining, was added to make the number match other fours in the Haggadah.

The Haggadah describes four sons. Which of these is NOT one of them?

The fourth is the simple son; the number comes from four Torah passages commanding parents to explain the Exodus.

The word 'afikoman' derives from a Greek word meaning what?

The half-matzah stands in for the Passover sacrifice, once the last thing eaten in Temple times, so nothing may be eaten after it.

In many Ashkenazi homes, what do children do with the afikoman?

In other homes the leader hides it for them to find; some Mizrahi families tie it in a sling on a child's back for the whole meal.

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

Tzafun, meaning 'hidden', is the step near the end when that piece is finally eaten.

How many symbolic items sit on a traditional Seder plate?

The three matzot are a seventh symbolic item but sit on their own plate.

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

Its name comes from the Hebrew for clay; Ashkenazi versions use apples and walnuts, while Sephardi ones lean on dates and figs.

Which vegetable is most commonly used as maror, the bitter herb?

Romaine lettuce is the other common choice; the bitterness recalls the harshness of slavery.

The zeroa on the Seder plate is typically what?

It is the only meat item on the plate and symbolises the ancient sacrifice; a chicken wing is a common substitute.

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

The egg is also a symbol of mourning for the destroyed Temple.

In Ashkenazi custom, the karpas vegetable is dipped into what at the start of the Seder?

The salt water recalls the tears of the enslaved; Sephardim use vinegar and Yemenites charoset.

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

Heschel got the idea after seeing an early feminist Haggadah at Oberlin College.

Dough is considered to begin leavening how many minutes after it gets wet, the limit for baking matzah?

That is why matzah bakeries work the dough constantly and bake only small batches at a time.

According to the Talmud, chametz can only be made from how many species of grain?

Wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt; anything else is considered to spoil rather than leaven.

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

Sephardim have always eaten them; the Reform movement allowed them in the 19th century and the Conservative movement in 2015.

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

The Haggadah also calls it the bread of freedom, since the Israelites left Egypt too fast for dough to rise.

In the search for chametz on the night before Passover, crumbs are traditionally swept with what?

Ten wrapped pieces of bread are often hidden first so the search finds something, a custom recorded around 1300.

Which fast on the eve of Passover is unique in applying to only one class of people?

Taanit Bechorot, the Fast of the Firstborn, commemorates the Israelite firstborn being spared during the tenth plague and is the only Jewish fast limited to firstborn children.

The song Dayenu, whose title means roughly 'it would have been enough', is at least how old?

Its earliest full text appears in the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram, the first medieval Haggadah.

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

The song mixes Aramaic and Hebrew and first appeared in Prague Haggadahs of 1527 and 1590; the two zuzim are often read as the two tablets.

'Echad Mi Yodea' (Who Knows One?) counts up through how many verses?

It runs from one God to thirteen divine attributes and was first printed in the 1590 Prague Haggadah.

A cup poured but not drunk at the Seder, with the front door often opened, is set out for which prophet?

Some families now add a Miriam's cup as well; the fifth cup relates to a Talmudic debate over a fifth expression of redemption.

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

The line first appears in the Birds' Head Haggadah around 1300; in Jerusalem itself people say 'next year in Jerusalem rebuilt'.

Which famous 14th-century illustrated Seder manuscript is named for a Balkan city?

The Golden Haggadah from Barcelona and the Birds' Head Haggadah are other celebrated medieval manuscripts.

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

Corporate Haggadahs doubled as marketing and as proof that certain products were kosher.

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

An earlier 1482 printing in Guadalajara, Spain is suspected but unconfirmed.

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

Yiddish linguist Marvin Herzog dubbed the border between sweet Galician and peppery Litvak versions 'the Gefilte Fish Line'.

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

Its regular Concord wine contains corn syrup, so it bottles a special kosher-for-Passover version sweetened with cane sugar.

Which sacrificial animal did the Torah require for the original Passover offering?

None of its bones could be broken, and it had to be roasted; today only Samaritans, Karaites and some Beta Israel still perform the sacrifice.

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

The Counting of the Omer stems from the biblical barley sheaf offering; Lag BaOmer breaks the semi-mourning on day 33.

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

Tradition reads its love poetry as an allegory of God and Israel; Ruth is read at Shavuot and Esther at Purim.

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

The festival is now widely celebrated in Israel too.

The four Gospels place the Last Supper during which festival week?

The meal came days after Jesus's entry into Jerusalem and before the crucifixion on Good Friday.

Which 1956 DeMille epic starring Charlton Heston has aired on ABC every spring since 1973?

Yul Brynner played Rameses; the film has skipped its annual Passover-Easter broadcast only once, in 1999.

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

Stephen Schwartz wrote the songs, Hans Zimmer the score, and Val Kilmer voiced Moses.

Which sect still slaughters Passover lambs each year on Mount Gerizim?

Their calendar sometimes puts Passover on the same day as the rabbinic date and sometimes a whole month later.

Why is Passover always celebrated in spring, even though the Hebrew calendar is lunar?

In ancient Israel the new year could not begin until the barley was ripe, the test for the onset of spring.

Reclining at the Seder table is meant to symbolise what?

In the ancient world only free people reclined to eat; dipping vegetables was likewise a sign of royalty.

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

Korech literally means 'wraps'.

The Passover festival is also known in the Torah as the Feast of what?

Exodus commands seven days of eating unleavened bread starting on the fifteenth of the month.