Passover

Passover identification

Records the participants' identification of the observance and distinguishes its overall scope from associated meals or services.

1. What establishes this occurrence as Jewish Passover or Pesach? definition
2. Does this record represent the whole festival observance, a seder within it, or another associated activity? boundary

Practice and decision basis

Records declared customs, their supporting guidance and who resolves differences among participants.

1. Which community customs and guidance sources have the participants chosen for this Passover? provenance
2. Who should resolve a disagreement about a Passover requirement or a proposed adaptation? action

Festival boundaries

Records the applicable interval, locality and calendar evidence, including any travel-related uncertainty.

1. What local start and end times apply to this occurrence, and which calendar source supplies them? measurement
2. Do location, adopted practice or travel create uncertainty about the festival's duration or applicable boundaries? boundary

Passover deadlines and transitions

Tracks relevant preparation deadlines and transitions between days with differing declared commitments.

1. Which deadlines apply to chametz preparation, seder preparation and other adopted pre-festival practices? measurement
2. Which pending actions require attention before the next locally applicable festival boundary? action

Chosen seder practice

Records the Haggadah or other declared guide and derives preparation needs from that choice.

1. Which seder occasions are planned, and which Haggadah, language and customs will guide each? definition
2. Which ritual foods, objects and texts are required by that plan, and which remain unavailable or unresolved? action

Accessible Exodus retelling

Records how participants will engage with the Exodus narrative and how participation barriers will be addressed.

1. How will this seder make room for retelling the Exodus, asking questions and discussing its meaning? definition
2. What language, age-related or accessibility adaptations do participants request, and who will prepare them? action

Chametz preparation account

Records relevant spaces and items, intended handling and evidence that the chosen preparation was completed.

1. Which spaces and possessions fall within the participants' adopted chametz preparation responsibilities? boundary
2. Which search, removal, disposal, sale or other handling steps are adopted, and what confirms their completion? action

Passover suitability decisions

Records the basis for accepting matzah, other foods, utensils and preparation arrangements, including differing customs.

1. What guidance or certification supports acceptance of the planned foods and kitchen arrangements for these participants? provenance
2. Which choices involving matzah, kitniyot, utensils or shared preparation remain disputed or undecided? boundary
3. What menu or preparation changes are needed to meet the participants' declared standards and dietary requirements? action

Observance and schedule fit

Identifies conflicts between planned activities and participants' declared festival-day practices.

1. Which prayer, gathering, work, travel or technology commitments do participants adopt on each festival day? definition
2. Which proposed activities conflict with those commitments and require rescheduling or participant review? action

Participation and assistance boundaries

Records hosting arrangements, guest needs and the decisions an agent is authorised to execute.

1. Who is hosting or attending each seder, and what food contributions or participation needs require agreement beforehand? action
2. Which arrangements may the agent make directly, and which religious or custom-sensitive decisions require a named person's judgment? boundary

Kinds and varieties

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Temple-era sacrificial Passover (korban Pesach on 14 Nisan)
• Rabbinic home-seder Passover (post-Temple, Haggadah-centred)
• Israeli seven-day observance (one seder)
• Diaspora eight-day observance (two seders)
• Ashkenazi kitniyot-restrictive practice
• Sephardi and Mizrahi kitniyot-permissive practice
• Samaritan Passover (paschal lambs still offered on Mount Gerizim)
• Karaite Passover (non-rabbinic lunar calendar and rules)

1. Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Identifiers and schemes

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Wikidata - Q41980 - Item for the Jewish festival Passover / Pesach.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings - Passover - Authorized heading; related headings include Seder, Haggadot, and Matzos.
• Hebrew name - פסח - Also called Chag HaMatzot (Festival of Unleavened Bread) and Chag HaAviv (Festival of Spring).
• Jewish calendar date - 15-21 Nisan (Israel); 15-22 Nisan (most Diaspora communities) - The offering itself is associated with 14 Nisan afternoon/evening; the festival meal begins 15 Nisan at nightfall.

1. Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Standards and regulation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Torah: Exodus 12; Leviticus 23:4-8; Deuteronomy 16:1-8 (paschal offering, unleavened bread, pilgrimage).
• Mishnah and Babylonian Talmud, tractate Pesachim (chametz, the offering, and the seder).
• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim §§429-494 (Joseph Karo, with later glosses; governing code for rabbinic practice).
• Kosher-for-Passover industrial rules of certifiers such as the Orthodox Union (OU-P), OK, and Star-K (chametz and kitniyot control in food and medicine).
• Israel: first and seventh days of Passover as national rest days under the Hours of Work and Rest Law, 1951, with Chol HaMoed as a distinct intermediate-day regime.

1. Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Real-world use

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Family or communal seder on 15 Nisan (and 16 Nisan in the Diaspora), using a Haggadah, four cups of wine, matzah, maror, and a seder plate.
• Household and commercial purge or sale of chametz before 14 Nisan, including synagogue-brokered mechirat chametz.
• Annual supermarket and factory reset to kosher-for-Passover lines; hotel, cruise, and military Passover programs.
• Synagogue liturgy (Hallel, festival Torah readings) and, in Israel, school and workplace closure on the holy days.
• Samaritan communal slaughter and roast of paschal lambs on Mount Gerizim, attended as a living biblical rite.
• Interfaith, political, and educational seders that reuse the Haggadah as a liberation script outside strictly halakhic settings.

1. Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Typical measurements

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Festival length - 7 (Israel and many Reform communities) or 8 (most Orthodox Diaspora) - day
• Seder cups of wine or grape juice - 4 (Elijah's cup is a fifth vessel, not drunk in standard practice) - cup
• Matzah dough time from water contact to oven - ≤18 - minute
• Minimum matzah eaten (kezayit, authority-dependent) - about 15-50 - g
• Civil date of 15 Nisan (Gregorian, modern cycle) - late March to late April - calendar date

1. Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Failure modes and hazards

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Inadvertent chametz in a home, kitchen, factory, or medication, which under rabbinic law can invalidate food and the household's observance.
• Kitniyot (rice, beans, corn, and similar) treated as forbidden by Ashkenazim but permitted by most Sephardim, producing communal dispute and accidental breach.
• Civil-calendar conversion error so that the seder is held on the wrong night.
• Foodborne illness at large communal seders (perishable salads, eggs, wine, and roasted meat).
• Historical blood-libel accusations and associated violence clustered around the festival in Christian Europe.
• Cost barrier: kosher-for-Passover food priced beyond some households, producing exclusion rather than ritual failure in the narrow sense.

1. Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Regional variation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Israel: seven days and one seder; most Orthodox Diaspora communities: eight days and two seders (yom tov sheni).
• Ashkenazim avoid kitniyot; most Sephardi and Mizrahi communities eat them.
• Distinct seder foods and recitation customs among Yemenite, Iraqi, Moroccan, and other communities (kitniyot dishes, wrapping or carrying the afikoman, different dippings).
• Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) historically kept Fasika/Magdala practices now largely aligned with rabbinic Israeli norms.
• Samaritans still sacrifice on Mount Gerizim on 14 Nisan of their calendar.
• Karaites date the month by lunar observation and often diverge from the rabbinic 15 Nisan.
• Many Reform and some Conservative Diaspora communities keep seven days.

1. Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Easter / Pascha - Christian feast of the resurrection; English Pascha and some 'Passover' usages share the pesach→pascha etymology, but the commemorated event, liturgy, and dating (Nicaea/computus versus 15 Nisan) differ.
• Festival of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot) - Biblically a seven-day grain festival from 15 Nisan; the paschal offering is the 14 Nisan night rite. Later Judaism fused the two names; the test is whether the object is the offering-night or the leaven-free week.
• Fast of the Firstborn (Ta'anit Bechorot) - Daytime fast on 14 Nisan for firstborns, ending before the seder; it is a eve-of-festival practice, not Passover itself.
• Shavuot (Weeks / Pentecost) - Pilgrimage festival reached by counting the omer fifty days after the omer offering; no Passover chametz ban and a different agricultural and revelation theme.
• Eucharist / Lord's Supper - Christian sacrament using Last Supper and paschal typology; the test is church sacrament versus Jewish seder and Haggadah in a household or synagogue.
• Purim - Jewish festival on 14 Adar (late winter) of reversal and feasting, with no chametz prohibition and a different biblical book (Esther).
• Ramadan - Islamic month of dawn-to-dusk fasting on a lunar calendar; outsiders sometimes analogize the two, but law, food rules, and commemorated events are unrelated.

1. Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of Passover this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance