Written by Cantor Rebecca Joy Fletcher, Director of Jewish Life
Each year when Passover rolls around, many Jewish folks quicken their pace. Maybe they’re walking faster because Passover is called “the holiday of spring” and it feels so good to see buds breaking out into flowers again. Maybe, they’re racing around because their observance of Passover includes ridding their kitchens or homes of any traces of bread. Or maybe, it’s because they’re flying cross country for their extended family’s Seder (the Passover ritual meal) and they can’t find that new dress they bought for the occasion!
Though Passover is one of the oldest and most pivotal Jewish holidays, mentioned in almost every prayer and blessing, it means different things to different people today.
Passover is commonly associated with themes of freedom and liberation, and symbolic foods are plentiful. They include matzah, the traditional bread for Passover; egg, representing springtime and the cyclical nature of life, and many others found on the Seder plate.
Jewish tradition encourages asking questions, and in fact this tradition is built into the Passover Seder. Continue reading for a Q&A about Passover’s agricultural roots!
Question: Is Passover a historical or agricultural holiday?
Answer: Both!
Passover is a historical holiday that pertains to a mythic story of the Jewish people. The historical roots of Passover can be traced back to the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. We are told to observe the holiday for seven days in order to remember G-d freed from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Then we were taken out to the desert to begin the process of becoming a people and get ready to enter the promised land of Israel.
The agricultural roots of the holiday are perhaps just as old. Its agricultural meaning lies in the praying for the rain to cease. As Earth-Based Judaism teacher Jared Gellert explains, “our ancestors in ancient Israel needed the rains to cease so that the spring grain could dry out and be safely harvested and stored. These ancestors grew two main types of grain; barley (which was harvested immediately after Passover) and then wheat. The wheat harvest was finished at the upcoming holiday of Shavuot (early June). If it rained, the grain would not be sufficiently dry and would rot or mold, leading to much hardship. Grain provided at least 50% of the calories of the people of ancient Israel. A wet period grain harvesting period meant hunger and even starvation. So, Passover was all about praying that the rains would cease so that there could be a successful grain harvest.”
The agricultural roots are also about the requirement, according to the Torah, for people in ancient Israel to come in mass to Jerusalem at the start of each Passover and offer early wheat sheaves at the Temple there. They were encouraged to do this as a sign of gratitude and to remember that no one owned the land. We are always stewards and tenants on it, but in the end, the land is never ours.
Question: What is the significance of matzah?
Answer: Matzah is the crisp unleavened cracker-like bread that many folks eat during the days of Passover. Again, it has historical and agricultural roots. The Torah tells us that in their haste, the Jewish people brought with them only unleavened bread when they fled Egypt. To connect to them and to the spiritual power of these days, people are encouraged to eat matzah.
The agricultural roots are less well known but no less important. Again, as Jared Gellert explains, folks in ancient Israel ate matzah also because it is dry and thus an imitation of the rain-free land they are praying for. It’s a kind of “acting with” and “acting like” that connected people to the image of the land they desired. As we know well from our regenerative farming practices at Coastal Roots Farm, the way we eat does in the end become the land we steward. They are tied together in a circle.
Question: Is there an agricultural connection to the liberation story?
Answer: When people flocked in mass up to Jerusalem each Passover, bringing with them first grains as a thanksgiving offering, they would also each recite a passage speaking about slavery and the great freedom they now had, to work the land in safety and religious freedom, with compassion and dedication to its well-being.
Today, people are waking up to new ways to farm and feed in order to further avert the climate emergency and usher humanity into a transformed relationship with the earth. The kind of regenerate agriculture we practice at Coastal Roots Farm is one of those ways. For this reason, we connect particularly with the agricultural roots of Passover with the liberation that comes from working the land in partnership with it, always committed to feeding those in need from its bounty, and to constantly renewing its soil, just as we renew our hearts.
Question: How can I integrate the important topics of climate and hunger into my Passover seder this year?
Answer: Many people modify and modernize their Passover seder to integrate topics that are most important to them. At the Farm, we center nature, climate, the food system, and hunger into everything we do. Here is a collection of some of our favorite resources:
- Keep climate front-of-mind with this Climate Conversation Starter Seder Supplement from Dayenu
- Recognize hunger as a modern-day plague in this Hunger Seder from Mazon, a Jewish Response to Hunger
- Create a personalized Haggadah full of climate resources on Haggadot.com
May we be blessed with a holiday season of gratitude, love of land, and rededication to its well-being. And in the midst of our joy and well-being, may we also send wishes for peace to our many suffering and hungry brothers and sisters in Israel and Gaza, and to the hostages still held there.
Happy and sweet Passover to one and all!