Jewish Passover Information

The Jewish Passover is the name that Christians give to distinguish their type of Passover celebration from the original type of Passover celebration that has been celebrated by first the Hebrews and then the Jewish people.

To Jewish people - both inside Israel and outside Israel - the celebration of Passover is not known as the Jewish Passover; rather, it is simply known as Passover or Pesach (the word Pesach means Passover in Hebrew). So if Christians refer to the Passover of the Jews as the Jewish Passover, what do they call their own type of Passover? The answer is that the denominations of Christians who celebrate Passover refer to their type of Passover celebration as the Christian Passover. The Christian Passover is distinguished from the Jewish Passover when it comes to the interpretation of the symbols that are placed on the table for the festive meal known as the Seder. Whereas in the Jewish Passover, Jews interpret the food symbols on the Seder table according to historical events in the lives of the Hebrews when they toiled as slaves in ancient Egypt, the Christian Passover interprets the food symbols on the Seder table according to the events in the life of Joshua, which is the English translation of the Hebrew name Yeshu (also known as Yehoshua, or Yeshua for short), and who to Christians is known in English as their L-rd Jesus (taken from the Latin name, "Iesus", which in turn, derived from the Greek name, "Iesous" and in turn, from the Hebrew name, "Yashua" or "Yahshua"; the English translation replaced the "Ie" with a "Je").

In Judaism, the Jewish Passover - or simply Passover or Pesach to Jews - is observed for seven days in Israel. In addition, most Jews from the Reform Jewish stream of Judaism as well some Jews from the Conservative stream of Judaism also observe the Jewish Passover for seven days, which is the original amount of days that the Jewish Passover was celebrated and commemorated by the Hebrew people, and later on in time, by the remnant of the Hebrew people who came to be known as the Jewish people. For Jews living outside Israel and for some Reform Jewish people and most Conservative Jewish people, the Jewish Passover is celebrated and commemorated for eight days. The addition of one day for Jewish people living outside of Israel came just before the start of the Common Era and was officially approved by Rabbi Hillel II in 358 C.E. or 359 C.E. when he introduced the modern Hebrew/Jewish calendar. The extra day for the Jewish Passover for Jews living outside Israel came about because before the introduction of the modern Hebrew calendar, the date for the Jewish Passover as well as for other Jewish festivals and holidays could not be determined by the rabbinic leaders in Jerusalem, Israel until the sighting of the first crescent of the New Moon was sighted and reported to the rabbinic leaders in Israel by two independent, reliable witnesses. Mathematical calculations were then made by the rabbinic leaders to determine the date or dates for any Jewish festival and/or holidays that occurred in the new month. Once the date or dates were determined, special messengers were sent out to inform first the jewish people of Jerusalem, then Jewish residents throughout Israel, then the Jewish communities living beyond the borders of Israel. While waiting for the special messengers to arrive with news of the date or dates, there was lingering doubt among the members of the Jewish communities living outside as to whether or not the special messengers would arrive before the proper time to celebrate the Jewish Passover. So, to solve this lingering doubt, the rabbinic leaders in the Jewish communities living outside Israel would add an extra day to all Jewish festivals and holidays to ensure that Jewish festivals and holidays would be observed at their proper time.

To learn more about the Jewish Passover, you can check out our Jewish Passover Seder web page.

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