Passing-over, Resurrecting…Metamorphosis ♥️♥️♥️♥️

Today is the First Night of Passover, and this weekend, many of us will also celebrate Easter. What these two holidays have in common and how we are all connected and essentially, the same?????

The rituals practiced during Passover and Easter are quite different, yet the common historical meaning between the two cannot be ignored.

First, the fact that they are celebrated over the same season, spring, and historically, at times, on the same exact day! This overlap is not a random one but very symbolic and powerful as spring is a season to awaken, to renew, to be born again out of the dark of winter….to blossom…..

Indeed, Passover marks the freedom of the Jewish people from Pharaoh, from slavery, from Egypt, from exile, into freedom to become a nation in a Jewish land ( well, 40 years later….).

Similarly, Easter is a celebration of a remarkable man, Jesus; his death, his burial and his resurrection…..awakening a whole new religion that will exist for generations to come…..

Moreover, the historical events which are celebrated over Easter took place in Israel, over Passover. Jesus indeed was called to Jerusalem, following a Biblical command to appear in the Temple for a feast. The next day, he died. On the third day of Passover, he believed to have risen from the dead. This is the miracle being celebrated since that day!

In memory of Jesus and the fact that for years, he too has celebrated the holiday of Passover, many of his followers celebrate Passover in some ways, still to this day.

And…..numbers!!! You all know by now how I love the meaningful and powerful messages they store!!!

Passover appears 28 times in the New Testament. If we transform this number into words, as in the art of Jewish Gimatria, we get the word “Cohach” – strength!!! It took much strength as we tell our kids in generations to come, telling the story of the Haggadah, to preserve under Pharaoh’s brutal demands and how in G-D’S STRONG HAND we were eventually freed!

Many of Jesus followers have celebrated this holiday and Paul, one of his most devoted, taught about the significance of this holiday and have made references to Jesus as the “lamb of Passover”, pointing to the innocence, the purity and the remarkable human Jesus was, all while STRONG in the most compassionate way – how we should all strive to be – strong in our love to ourselves and our fellow man. No weak person can master such a deep sense of the sacred concept of LOVE.

There are many more connections but here is a last one that I relate to, as a Sephardic Jewish woman. In our tradition, The afikoman (a part of the matzah we hide and let the kids find it……shhhhhh we have $50 Amazon gift card for my kids and their cousins to compete over…). This afikoman, is to remember the Passover LAMB as we hold and bless over it “In remembrance of the lamb”. Decades ago, by Jesus, in his words, as he held the unleavened matzah “This is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me”.

We are one of the same!!!! Have been and always will be!!! In times of so much division and hate, go back to the source, to ancient stories, to love, and be reminded again and again – WE ARE ONE!!

To celebrate the colors of spring, of “passing over “differences, trauma, pain, and become reborn, renewed, to surrender to our own Metamorphosis, I have attached my beautiful friend, Stephanie’s print, titled “THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT”. May we all observe it, be it, go through it….colorful and unique as each of us is!!!!