Celebrating Passover
Passover provides us with an annual opportunity to renew our commitments and teach our story to the next generation. We do so through a series of acts intended to help us internalize and live the wisdom of our tradition. From cleaning our homes to getting ready for the seder, everything we do to prepare for and to celebrate Passover is imbued with substantial spiritual significance.
To register for the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires second night community seder, please click here. (Space is limited, RSVP by April 6.)
There is diversity in how K.I. households observe Passover; all are welcome to participate in the following meaningful acts.
Cleaning the House
Cleaning our homes of hametz-leaven-is a metaphor for searching inside ourselves to rid our lives of pride, self-centeredness, materialism, and other character traits that interfere with our living our lives as meaningfully as we are able. Accordingly cleaning for Passover is a thorough process. Generally speaking, it is best to run down stocks of hametz in our cabinets, refrigerators, and freezers at this time of year to enable a fresh start after Passover.
Passover Shopping
Many of us have memories of special Passover foods prepared in the home of parents or grandparents-matza balls, gefilte fish, haroset, brisket, matza meal cakes, etc ... In Berkshire County, the best source for kosher-for-Passover groceries is the Stop & Shop on Dan Fox Drive.
The Rabbinical Assembly's Passover Guide - updated annually - may help you economize or broaden your family's menu for Passover. In particular, please note the movement's rescinding of restrictions on kitniyot, which permits the preparation and eating of rice, beans, soy, and other legumes, and the attendant permission to use products on the holiday that are certified kosher, labeled gluten-free and contain no oats. KI will maintain the Ashkenazi strictures in the synagogue building, but congregants are welcome to adopt the leniency.
Search for Hametz
After dark, Thursday night, April 10: The cleaning complete, one member of the household 'hides' a few pieces of bread for the others to find by candlelight. Consult a Haggadah for the blessings.
Burning of Hametz
Friday, April 11, no later than 10 AM: As soon as your house is as free of hametz as it will get, set the bread from the previous night's search a safe distance from the house in a receptacle outdoors and light it on fire. Witness the hametz burning, recite the declaration printed in most Haggadot, then tend to the fire until it burns out.
*Important - Use Passover dishes and kosher-for-Passover food (ideally minimizing matza products = gebrukhts) for shabbat. Use egg matza for Hamotzi at shabbat dinner and shabbat lunch.
Selling of Hametz & Passover Fund
Email the Knesset Israel office to sell your Hametz by clicking here. Make a contribution of Passover funds by clicking here. (This sale only works for those whose property is in the Eastern time zone.)
Siyum
By custom, firstborn Jews fast on the day before Pesach, with the understanding that only circumstances of birth prevented us from death the eve of the first Pesach in Egypt. Attending a siyum, a celebration of the completion of a unit of Torah study, overrides the commandment to fast. This year the observance takes place on Thursday morning, April 10 (rather than on Friday). KI will not be offering a siyum this year; please tune in to one online.
Passover Services – 2025
Services will be held on the first, second, seventh and eighth mornings of Passover. All services held in the sanctuary will be livestreamed. Yizkor is on Sunday, April 20. Please see the Knesset Israel Calendar for service times.
Additional resources about Passover and Seder are available here.