30 Mar/ 1 Apr: Shabbat and Pesach (Days 1 & 2) comes in 7:16 pm, Day 2 ends 8:22 pm
The Torah places commands that the Passover holiday should occur only in the spring. At this time of year, the first sheaf of newly cut barley was offered up as a sacrifice. It has been suggested that the elimination of Chametz which Jews undertake before Passover, may have originated as a precaution against infecting the new crop. Thus, Chag Ha-Matzot (the feast of unleavened bread), which is a name for Passover, may have originally carried this agricultural meaning.
Chag Ha-Aviv, or Spring Festival, is another name for the festival of Pesach – and it is suggested that this is the proper season for deliverance. The blossoming of life is easily tied to the major existential requirement for a full life — liberty. The Torah envisions a world in which moral and physical states coincide, when nature and history, in harmony, confirm the triumph of life. The rebirth of earth after winter is nature’s indication that life is triumphant: spring is nature’s analogue to redemption.
Written by Rabbi Paul Arberman.
