CFN – Tonight marks the beginning of Passover; the Holy Jewish Holiday whereby Jews across the world eat matzoh and get constipated if they don’t eat enough prunes and fruit.
Here in Cornwall the Jewish community is nearly extinct. The synagogue is now a private home; but there is hope as a small group meets every few months now. Cornwall has quite a Jewish history, but that has been bulldozed like Horowitz Park was mostly so that a really ugly mall could be erected that faces the wrong way.
Cornwall’s most famous Jewish citizen was famous for being Mayor of Toronto. Nathan Phillips. Aaron Horowitz was the first mayor of the Incorporated City of Cornwall Ontario.
In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew topass over the first-born in these homes, hence the name of the holiday.[4] There is some debate over where the term is actually derived from.[5] When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called “The Festival of the Unleavened Bread”.[6]Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is a symbol of the holiday.
That’s some heavy stuff. Actually here’s a great link that explains a Seder in one page! LINK
It’s also the time of the year that many Jews remember Yul Brynner as Pharoah in The Ten Commandments and try and figure out ways to eat Chinese food during Passover without breaking any rules…
Charlton Heston as Moses, and Yul as Pharoah…um..classic!
And speaking of Yul, he made this great commercial asking people to stop smoking before he was stopped by Cancer from smoking.
We wish all of CFN’s Jewish friends and families a peaceful and joyous Passover & bountiful Seders!
Adam needs to add a Passover song to go along with his Channukah one!
Wishing all our Jewish friends a Happy Passover which is the real Easter.