Pesach
Ever wondered what Passover is like in Israel?
Leah Garber, Director of the JCC Association's Israel office, has provided us with this fantastic information regarding this vital holiday. Learn more about Pesach and various important sites, as well as a delicious recipe for your Passover table!
Enjoy!
It’s Passover by Leah Garber
Although many claim that there are only two seasons in Israel--the wet short winter and the dry long summer--in reality (at least botanically speaking) we enjoy a lovely spring with all the vibrant colors of blossoming flowers and trees. Pesach has many names; one of them in Hebrew is Chag Ha'Aviv, the holiday of the spring.
School vacation begins a week prior to the festival and lasts throughout the whole week, so Israeli children enjoy a two-and-a-half- week break. The first week is usually dedicated to rest and some Pesach/spring cleaning; then Passover week, when most parents can join their kids, is devoted to traveling across the country,
enjoying the beauty of the spring and the pleasant weather. All Israeli nature resorts and national parks are crowded with travelers and hikers. Family vacations are as much a part of Pesach in Israel as the Seder night and matzah. Some of the most popular destinations are in the south of Israel in the Negev desert.
The largest of the three Negev craters, the Ramon Crater contains unparalleled geological formations. It is 25 miles long and 1 to 6 miles wide and shaped like an elongated heart. The crater formation began hundreds of millions years ago when the ocean that covered the Negev began to move north.
The Dead Sea, also known in Hebrew as the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are 1,388 feet below sea level, which is the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, which accounts for its name, since animals cannot flourish due to its salinity.
The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin for thousands of years. Biblically, it was a place of refuge for King David. It was one of the world's first health resorts and it has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets.
Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve, re-creates the physical setting of the Bible in all its depth and detail. Neot Kedumim draws on a variety of disciplines such as botany, zoology, geography, history, and archaeology in order to bring the Bible and its commentaries to life.
Dolphin Reef in Eilat, on the shores of the Red Sea, is a unique ecological site. At the reef, visitors can enjoy the unusual opportunity to observe dolphins in their natural habitat. A group of bottlenose dolphins maintain their daily routine of hunting, playing, courting and socializing.
The land of Israel offers a rich variety of natural phenomena in a very small space: the snowy summit of Mount Hermon in the north is only 300 miles away from the everlasting summer of Eilat. It is literarily possible to be skiing in the morning, hiking and rappelling in the desert in the afternoon, and skin diving in the evening in Israel.
Here’s a great dessert for your Passover table.
Apple Torte
Source: Dee Shkolnik's Passover Cooking Class
Serves: 12
Batter:
6 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 tsp. potato starch
2 cups matzo cake meal
Dash of salt
Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Juice of one lemon
5 (or up to 8) apples, depending on size
Nuts, toasted and chopped (optional)
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup nuts, chopped
Make Batter:
Beat the eggs with the sugar. Mix in oil. Sift the dry ingredients and add to egg-sugar mixture, blending well to form batter.
Make Filling:
Combine sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Peel, core, and slice apples, then add to sugar-cinnamon mixture. Mix well. DO NOT prepare this in advance or it will get too mushy.
Assembly:
Pour half the batter into a greased 9"x13" baking pan. Spread apple mixture on top, then pour rest of the batter over the apples and sprinkle with topping.
Bake at 350°F for one hour and 15 minutes, or until cake tests dry with a toothpick.
The following are some nice YouTube links:
Dancing from ancient Egypt to Modern Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPQrB2da2kI&feature=related
The Hebrew Version of "Deliver Us" (from the animated film Prince of Egypt) sung by Ofra Haza : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsVej9neGmQ&feature=related
March 29 is Israel's national Day of Cleaning, and this video is about preserving the environment. It was videotaped in Tel Aviv on March 25, 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A22ACeX5l8
Bon appetit and Happy Pesach!
From JCCs worldwide, have a wonderful Passover!
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