DUSHANBE, April 9, 2009, Asia-Plus — Like other Jews around the world, the Jewish community in Dushanbe that numbers more than 300 people began celebrating the spring festival of Passover yesterday evening.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Rabbi Mikhail Abdarakhmanov said that this year, the festival was marked from the evening of April 8 to the evening of April 16.
Passover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating God sparing the Hebrews when he killed the first born of Egypt, and is the seven day Feast of the Unleavened Bread (it lasts eight days in the diaspora, while in Israel, it lasts seven days) commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from slavery.
Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan (equivalent to March and April in Gregorian calendar), the first month of the Hebrew calendar’s festival year according to the Hebrew Bible.
Passover is a spring festival, so the 15th of Nisan begins on the night of a full moon after the vernal equinox. To ensure that Passover did not start before spring, the tradition in ancient Israel held that the 1st of Nisan would not start until the barley is ripe, being the test for the onset of spring. If the barley was not ripe an intercalary month (Adar II) would be added. However, since at least the 12th century, the date has been determined mathematically.
It is traditional for Jewish families to gather on the first night of Passover (first two nights in Orthodox and Conservative communities outside the land of Israel) for a special dinner called a seder — derived from the Hebrew word for “order”, referring to the very specific order of the ritual). The table is set with the finest china and silverware to reflect the importance of this meal. During this meal, the story of the Exodus from Egypt is retold. Four cups of wine are consumed at various stages in the narrative. There is a Rabbinic requirement that four cups of wine (or grape juice) are to be drunk during the seder. This applies to both men and women. Each cup is connected to a different part of the seder.
In the meantime, Mr. Abdarakhmanov noted that a house donated to the Dushanbe Jewish congregation by head of Orienbonk Hasan Asadullozoda had not yet been legally registered as a synagogue.
“Legal registration of a new synagogue will be held after arrival of representatives of the New York’s based Tajikistan in Dushanbe,” said the rabbi, “Representatives of this foundation agreed with Mr. Asadullozoda about handover of the house to our community.”
According to him, the official opening of the new synagogue will be held in early May.
