Passover Holiday Names - Pesach Holiday Names

Passover as a name is traditionally associated with the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, but the story of how the name "Passover" became associated with the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt is a multifaceted one. Originally, Passover was actually two separate holidays celebrated by the Hebrews in Springtime: the first and older of the two festivals was the pastoral festival known as Chag-Ha-Pesach, meaning the "Festival of the Pesach" in Hebrew, and the second festival was known as Chag Ha-Matzot, meaning the "Festival of Unleavened Bread" in Hebrew. Neither of these festivals had any connection with the event concerning the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt which came later on. The Hebrews celebrated the arrival of the Spring season by organizing a "Festival of the Pesach". This involved sacrificing a "paschal" or "Pesach" lamb to G-d. This sacrifice was meant to give thanks to G-d for the renewal of Springtime. Therefore, the original meaning of the word "Passover" or "Pesach" meant "lamb" in reference to this sacrifice, and later came to also mean the event in the 10th plague, where G-d "passed over" the Hebrew households and instead slew the first-born sons of the Egyptians in the Egyptian households. The Hebrews also celebrated a second festival called the "Festival of Unleavened Bread" which was an agricultural festival where farmers would celebrate the beginning of the grain harvest. Before the farmers cut the grain, they would perform a ritual for this celebration by discarding all sour or fermented dough which was used instead of yeast for leavening bread. Both of these festivals were celebrated at different times during the month of Nissan. After the events of the first Passover recorded in the Book of Exodus, these two celebrations or festivals merged in time with the event of the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt which also occurred in the Springtime. The result was that all three festivals which commemorated different events were celebrated as one holiday beginning on the 15th of the month of Nissan.

What is the origin of the "Festival of the Pesach" and "Festival of Unleavened Bread" which the Hebrews celebrated as their "Passover" prior to the events of the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt? It is believed that the Hebrews borrowed the rituals associated with both the "Festival of the Pesach" and the "Festival of Unleavened Bread" from the ancient Canaanitic peoples who inhabited the area of Canaan when the Hebrews arrived there from Mesopotamia approximately 4,000 years ago.

How did the rituals from the "Festival of the Pesach Lamb" and the rituals from the "Festival of Unleavened Bread" become connected to the events of the first Passover? In the case of the "Festival of the Pesach", the paschal or Pesach lamb which was central to the "Festival of the Pesach" became associated with the events of the 10th plague which occurred just before the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt in which G-d "passed over" the Hebrew homes and instead slew the first-born sons in the Egyptian households. In the case of the "Festival of Unleavened Bread", its central aspect concerning the start of Springtime and the cultivation of grains which were used for making breads among other food items became associated with the hasty departure of the Hebrews from Egypt when the Hebrews "took their dough before it was leavened". Incidentally, the seven types of agricultural produce which were farmed by the Hebrews included wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Willows and citrons were also farmed, but were connected with the festival of Sukkot which occurs at the end of the agricultural season in Israel.

Due to the historical connections of ancient celebrations with the traditional meaning of Passover or Pesach as explained above, Passover became known by five different names. The following are the five names of Passover: each starts with the Hebrew name followed by its translation into English. Each Passover name represents an event in the Passover story, and these events occur in their proper historical order:

• Chag Ha-Pesach (alternate spelling: Hag Ha-Pesach) - The Festival of the Paschal Offering : This Passover name symbolizes the event when the Hebrews in Egypt offered the sacrifice of the lamb to G-d so that its blood could be spread over the doorposts and lintel ("beam" in Hebrew) of their homes. When the Angel of Death approached their homes, it saw the blood on the doorposts and lintel of the Hebrews' homes, causing it to "pass" over or "skip" over the Hebrews' homes as it sought to slay the first-born son of every Egyptian family as told in the 10th Passover plague.
• Chag Ha-Matzot (alternate spelling: Hag Ha-Matzot) - The Festival of Unleavened Bread : This Passover name represents matzah, the unleavened bread eaten during Passover which was baked and eaten by the Hebrews because they did not have time to wait for the bread to become leaven as they were fleeing Egypt.
• Chag Ha-Cheirut (alternate spelling: Hag Ha-Cheirut) - The Festival of Freedom or Redemption : This Passover name recalls how the Hebrews left Egypt, towards freedom and redemption.
• Chag Ha-Aviv (alternate spelling: Hag Ha-Aviv) or Zeman Cherutenu - The Festival of Spring or The Season of Our Liberation : This Passover name recalls when the Hebrews entered Cannan (Palestine) after they left Egypt during the Spring season. This 'passing over' into Cannan also represented a new phase of Jewish cultural life.

• Pesach - Passover : From the four previous Passover / Pesach names and their representations came the name Passover / Pesach. The four previous Passover / Pesach names collectively represent the transition of the Hebrews from being confined by the Egyptians in mind and heart to being free of those limitations to realize and maximize their potential as human beings. It then follows that the name Passover or Pesach symbolizes the Hebrews' leap from their former reality in Egypt to a new reality in Canaan where their rediscovered self-assertion had given them the opportunity to achieve the highest state of being, self-assertion, and self-realization.

  Linguistically-speaking, the word "Pesach" is derived from the ancient Hebrew verb "Posach", which means either to "skip" over or to "pass" over. The "Pesach" also refers to the lamb that was sacrificed by the Hebrews for each Hebrew household during the 10th and final Plague inflicted by G-d on the Egyptians, where the blood of the sacrificed lamb was spread over the doorposts and lintel of each Hebrew household so that the Angel of Death would "skip" over or "pass" over each Hebrew household, sparing each Hebrew household of the death of their first-born son.

What are some translations of the word "Passover" in other languages?

'Pesach' means 'Passover' in Hebrew and, as mentioned, it originally meant "lamb" in reference to the sacrifice of the Pesach or paschal lamb that was a ritual of the Hebrews which was established long before the events of the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. It eventually came to also be associated with the 10th Plague in the Passover story, where G-d sent the Angel of Death who "skipped" over or "passed" over the homes of the Hebrews upon seeing the blood of the sacrificed lamb on their doorposts and lintel, sparing their first-born sons.

The word "Passover" is of course the English word for the transliterated Hebrew word "Pesah" or "Pesach" or "Pess'ah". In French, the word for "Passover" is "Pessah" and in Spanish, the word for "Passover" is "Pésaj".

Why is this Jewish holiday called Passover?

An excellent question, not just because I thought of it. The 10th and final plague that G-d created in order to free the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt involved G-d instructing Moses to tell the Hebrews to spread the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintel of each Hebrew home, so that when the Angel of Death approached a household to slay the first-born son in a family as G-d had warned, it would "skip" over or "pass" over the Hebrew homes upon seeing the lamb's blood on the doorpost and lintel, and instead slay the first-born male (or a male member of the household if there was no son) of every Egyptian family. The Hebrews were saved from this tragedy, but nonetheless were later ordered by G-d to remember to say prayers for the slain Egyptian sons and later on, the drowned Egyptian army, because G-d declared that no one shall celebrate the destruction of any of His human creations.

Although the name of this festival is Pesach or Passover, which refers to the "skipping" over or "passing" over or "sparing" of the first-born sons of Hebrew families in ancient Egypt, the Hebrew bible refers to the word "Passover" with respect to the Passover lamb sacrifice which took place on the eve of the Exodus from Egypt which was on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The Hebrew bible then refers to observing eating only unleavened bread from the 15th of Nissan until the 22nd of Nissan, hence one of the names of Passover being the "Festival of Unleavened Bread".

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