PASSOVER (Pesah). One of the PILGRIM FESTIVALS (with SHAVU'OT and SUKKOT) when Jews were commanded to make PILGRIMAGE to the TEMPLE in Jerusalem (Ex. 23:14). Passover is celebrated for eight days (seven days in Israel and by Reform Jews) commencing on 15 Nisan. Outside Israel, the first two and the last two days are holy days, while the middle four are HOL HA- MO'ED, the intermediate working days. In Israel, only the first day and the last day are holy, while the middle five days are working days.   

Like the other two Pilgrim Festivals, Passover has both an historical and an agricultural motif. Historically, it commemorates the EXODUS of the Children of Israel from Egyptian slavery. Its agricultural significance is as a spring festival, celebrated at the beginning of the barley harvest.   

The various names of the festival point to its different aspects.   

1. Hag ha-Matsot, the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12: 15). This stems from the commandment to eat unleavened bread (MATSAH) and the prohibition against eating HAMETS or leavened food, in commemoration of the Israelites' hasty exodus from Egypt when they had time to prepare only unleavened bread. While the prohibition against hametz applies to the entire festival, the commandment to eat matsah applies, strictly speaking, to the first night only.   

2. Pesah, Passover. This is related to the biblical record of the angel of death who "passed over" the houses of the Children of Israel when he slew all the first-born of the Egyptians (Ex. 12:27). The term was also applied to the paschal lamb (korban pesah). In the biblical record, each family was commanded to be prepared with a lamb, a few days before the Exodus. Then, on the eve of the departure from Egypt, the animal was to be slaughtered and some of its blood sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of their houses as a sign to the ANGEL OF DEATH to "pass over" these houses on his way to slay the Egyptian first-born. The lamb then had to be roasted and eaten in haste that same night, together with matsah and bitter herb (MAROR). Subsequently, the ritual of the korban pesah, or the paschal lamb, was observed as a sacrificial festal meal on Passover eve in the wilderness (Num. 9:1-5) and throughout the Temple period. The Talmud (Pes. 64ff.) gives a detailed description of the laws and customs pertaining to the paschal sacrifice that were prevalent in the period of the Second Temple.   

3. Zeman Herutenu, The Season of our Freedom. So described, particularly in the festival liturgy, because Passover celebrates the liberation of the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and their emergence as a free nation.  

4. Hag ha- Aviv, The Festival of Spring, marking the beginning of the barley harvest.   

The Preparation for Passover. No other festival calls for such extensive preparation. Based on the explicitly strict biblical prohibition against leavened foodstuff from Passover eve throughout the entire festival, Jewish law emphasizes that even the tiniest morsel of leaven is prohibited. The smallest amount of leaven disqualifies a mixture of permitted food, however large. Hence, the care and thoroughness with which the Jewish household is cleaned in preparation for the festival. The single objective is to get rid of every particle of prohibited leaven.