Passover 2008 Your Pesach Guide

This section of the holysparks website is your Passover 2008 guide.

Before the Passover 2008 Festival

Passover 2008 Date: Thursday, April 17 – Nissan 12
Fast of the Firstborn.
To be exempt from fasting, one must participate in a meal marking the fulfillment of a mitzvah; such a meal is generally held in a synagogue after morning prayers on this day.

If you haven't already done so, sell your chametz.
Your local Chabad rabbi can help. You can download your

Before the Passover holiday

Last chance to sell your chametz.
Burn your remaining (unsold) chametz before the fifth seasonal hour. Leave behind challah that will be eaten during night and morning Shabbat meals. It isn’t forbidden to eat chametz until the end of the fourth seasonal hour on Saturday morning, but since it is impossible to destroy chametz on Shabbat – the chametz must be destroyed on Friday.

This year, when burning the chametz, we do not recite the passage wherein we declare all chametz in our possession to be null and void. Instead this passage is recited the next morning. [The Yehi Ratzon, however, is recited while burning the chametz.]

Both Shabbat meals should be completely kosher for Passover with the exception of two ounces of challah per person per meal. (It is forbidden to eat matzah on the day before Passover.) If the Challah is very fresh, it shouldn't be too crumbly. You can eat it over a tissue, being careful to consume or contain the crumbs and then flush the tissue. Be sure that no challah crumbs fall on the table or the floor.

18 Minutes Before Sundown Friday
Light Shabbat candles, reciting the regular Shabbat candlelighting blessing.
(Click here for local Shabbat candle lighting times.}

The Morning Before the Passover Festival

The morning Shabbat services are recited early in the morning in order to allow enough time to start the Shabbat meal and eat the challah before the end of the fourth seasonal hour.

Once again, The challah is carefully consumed over a tissue. Afterwards, flush the tissue with any remaining chametz crumbs. Be sure that no challah crumbs fall on the table or the floor.After the fourth seasonal hour, it is forbidden to consume any chametz.

During the fifth seasonal hour of the morning Recite the nullification of the chametz (Kol Chamira) that is normally recited while burning the chametz.

The First Passover 2008 Feast
and Passover Seder Meal

First Passover Seder: The Jewish Passover Seder meal contains many Mitzvot, including: eating the special Passover Matzah, eating Marror (bitter herbs), drinking four cups of kosher for Passover wine, relating the story of the exodus to our children from the Haggadah, reclining as a symbol of freedom, etc. (Click here for a How-To Seder guide.) To locate a public Passover seder meal near you, click here.

The Second Feast of Passover Seder

Passover 2008: Sunday April 20 – Nissan 15
First day of the Passover Festival
There is a Passover Festival meal but not a seder meal.

Following the evening Passover service we begin the “Counting of the Omer.” We count the 1st day of the Omer. The counting of the Omer is recited during each of the next forty-nine days, leading up to the holiday of Shavuos on the fiftieth day.

Light candles for the second day of the Passover holiday after dark, using an existing flame, and recite the Passover blessings.

The feast of Passover 2008 on the second night begins with the seder meal and reading of the Haggadah

Second Passover Seder Meal

The Second Day of the Passover Festival

There is a Passover Festival meal but not a seder meal.
After nightfall, perform the Havdalah ceremony, omitting the blessings on the spices and on the candle flame.

Nightfall marks the beginning of chol hamoed, the intermediate days of the Passover Festival. Between the first two and the last two days of Passover, we may resume much, but not of our regular, workday activities except on Shabbat, when we keep the regular Shabbat observances are kept.We continue to eat kosher for Passover foods exclusively. One of the Passover traditions is to drink a glass of wine or grape juice each day, in celebration of the Passover festival.

Third-Sixth Day of the Passover Holiday

The Intermediate Days are observed with limited work restriction.The entire Passover week is a festive time. Many families spend the entire Passover week at special kosher for Passover resortsor go on relaxing Passover vacations to interesting places, enjoying many fun activities together.

Seventh day of Passover

It is one of the Passover traditions in many communities to remain awake all night, studying Torah, commemorating the great miracle of the Splitting of the Sea, which occurred on the 7th day of Passover.

Seventh day of Passover — Shevi'i Shel Pesach
Shabbat Saturday, April 26 – Nissan 21
Shabbat and Passover service in the morning and the afternoon.
There is a Festive lunch meal.

Final Day of Passover — Acharon Shel Pesach

On this final day of Passover we strive for the highest level of freedom, and focus on the Final Redemption. Following the Baal Shem Tov’s custom, we end Passover with “Feast of Moshiach” — a festive meal complete with matzah and four cups of wine, during which we celebrate the imminent arrival of the Messiah. The feast begins before sunset and continues until after nightfall with inspiring stories and encouraging words of Torah.Count the 8th day of the Omer during the evening Passover service, after the Amidah.After nightfall, perform the Havdalah ceremony, omitting the blessings on the spices and on the candle flame.

Nightfall is the official end of the Passover Festival.Wait an hour to give the rabbi enough time to buy back your Chametz before eating it.

Isru Hag

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