Folks Gather In Manayunk To Celebrate 7th Night Of Passover
By Dan Wing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - While many people were celebrating Easter Sunday, many others were marking the 7th night of passover.
At Mishkan Shalom in Manayunk, people gathered for the first ever 7th Night Seder event to put the holiday into perspective.
Jewish tradition says that the Israelites passed through the Red Sea to officially end their time as slaves in Egypt. Rabbi Shawn Zevit led the seder, which he says differs from the ones held on the first two nights of passover:
"This is actually building on a very ancient Rabbinic and then Jewish mystical tradition about charting the course of leaving Egypt. So the seders are about, kind of, getting out, breaking free from oppression, and tonight, the 7th night, is about crossing over the sea."
Also making this seder a little different is the fact that there was no food. In its place were readings, poems and conversations.
And even though the 7th Day of Passover marks the final conclusion of Egyptian bondage, Rabbi Shawn Zevit says it's not exactly a time of celebration:
"But rather we're saying, you know, what do we need to do to make sure that we do cross over. That we hang on to each other, and that we try to get to the other side, and we explore that."
Rabbi Zevit says the focus is more on what have we learned from passover, and what gets in our way from actually fulfilling our liberation?