Back to business

Yeah, its time to upload pictures from our vacation ~ outings. First of all, the week long vacation is for Pesach (see paragraph below). We drove down to some interesting places. I mean its so easy out here, the whole country is of the size of Kerala where N to S is about 450 km approx and getting to anywhere would not take more than 3 or 4hrs.

We planned to explore the northern parts of Israel - the Golan Heights, north eastern bordering Syria and then the Rosh Hanikra - northwestern bordering Lebanon. Well, little A also needs some entertainament and we visited a National Park - the Hay Park. We trekked a bit in Nimrod and Banyas in the Golan, found fossils of Star fish and experienced a cable car ride at Rosh Hanikra - they say its the place where the love story between the mountains and the sea is never ending. And at Hay Park, little A took a pony ride, spotted kangaroos, penguins and ostriches and their huge eggs!

Pictures will follow in a couple of days...

Summary of the below for foreigners in Israel - these are the NO-bread days!

Passover - Passover is a holiday that commemorates the liberation of the ancient Israelites from 400 years of slavery in Egypt (approximately 3000 years ago). Since that time, the holiday has come to represent the universal value of freedom. It is the holiday where family and friends gather around the seder table to celebrate, and by the use of certain symbols, to see themselves as commanded, "as though each one of us has also just come out of Egypt". Egypt is of course symbolical of leaving bondage for freedom.
One of the major customs of this holiday is the prohibition against eating any leavened products and the commandment to eat Passover Matzos. When the Children of Israel hurriedly left Egypt, they had no time to bake leavened bread, and thus the matzo, flat and unleavened, came into being. Whilst in their wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years, the people lived as Desert people, and would sit and lean against cushions on the sand, and the Haggada - the book of Pesach, reminds the participants that they too should lean on cushions at some point in the Seder.
The Ten Plagues that God sent to convince Pharoah to release His children, the Israelites, are also remembered by dipping a finger in salt water, and flicking drops of water onto a plate, reciting with each dip the list of the Plagues. In more secular Seders, the motif of Spring is also included. On the Seder night, the first night of the Passover holidays, Jewish families the world over sit together, very often with invited guests, and those who have no family to be with, to commemorate their freedom, and to recall the miracle of the passing over the Red Sea, and the beginning of a life of freedom.

seder - ritual dinner that begins the holiday

The haggadah - is the story of the Jews leaving Egypt, but much more. It also explains many of the traditions of Judaism, and the wisdom of its teachings. The Haggadah has been present at the Seder for many centuries, sometimes changing its format, but basically keeping its essence.

Matza = unleavened bread – that the Jews ate when fleeing from Egypt. We continue to eat only matzoth during the 8 days of Passover to symbolise our unity with our Forefathers.

Chametz = leaven bread - Before the holiday begins, all “Chametz" – ie. Foods that are made with flour, have to be cleared out of the house

- The Bible tells us of ten plagues The plagues that God used to convince the Egyptian Pharaoh to let

the Jews leave Egypt. The final one – the death of the first born in every family, did make Pharoah consent

Seder plate - an arrangement of the traditional foods that symbolize happenings in the Jewish history.