No Khametz

It's Passover week here in Israel. Traditionally, this is the time when one cleans out all the Khametz (leaven) from the household before Passover arrives. I didn't do that and a lot of people don't really do that either. Some people simply sell their Khametz. They have a gentile buy their Khametz before Passover begins for a symbolic fee, maybe just a dollar. They close all of the Khametz up in a cupboard and simply don't open that cupboard for a week. Then at the end, they give the dollar back to the gentile and they can once again can access their Khametz.

Grocery stores have a similar tactic. Instead of throwing out and burning tons of food, they cover it up for the week of Passover.

So, for the next week I won't be able to buy anything behind these tarps. Thankfully, most of the food that I use isn't located behind them.

Blessings on you as we celebrate and remember that God has brought us out of slavery and into freedom!

Happy Passover!

This past week has been Passover. This means a big family dinner, remembering God's faithfulness and protection over us, and matzah.

I was able to celebrate the holiday with some family friends and it was truly a special event. A year ago at a Passover Seder I said the phrase "next year in Jerusalem". This is the traditional way of ending a Passover Seder. I didn't know a year ago that this would come true (but, to be perfectly honest, I hoped that it would). There was laughter, singing, prayer, chaos, and praising of the one true God.

I love the traditional Jewish holidays because they make events of retelling stories of God's faithfulness and goodness to us.

Happy Passover!

A Seder in Six Parts

Happy Passover and Easter week!

During this Lenten season Sarah and I decided to host a 6-part Seder at our house. For the past 6 Friday nights we have had a house full of ex-pats sharing in a half-hour portion of a Messianic Seder followed by soup, bread, and fellowship.

The first week Sarah made soup and I made about 11 loaves of Challah in various braided forms.

After that, every week we had different families bringing bread and soup. It was a delightful range of flavors.

We had a chart on the wall with most of the parts of the Seder written out in Hebrew. Each week we would review what we had done the previous week and the kids would suggest pictures that represented what we had talked about.

At the end of the 6 weeks our chart looked like this:

We used the same candles every week and on the final night, in almost perfect unison, we reached the end of our Seder and the candles reached the end of their wicks and went out.

It was such a blessing getting to share the Lenten season and 6 Seder meals with others as we prepared ourselves for Easter.