Skip to main content

Pesach Poem: Four Holidays in One!

Free printable PDF version here!

Also, be sure to check out my Pesach homeschool resources roundup page here!


בס״ד

 
Pesach /  פֶּסַח

 

Four holidays in one, four times as super fun.

It comes just once a year, for eight days, then it’s done.

In English, we know it as Passover, too,

But it has four more names that you wish you knew!

 

imageThe first is Chag HaAviv, because of when it comes;

Every year in springtime, the earth (but not the crumbs),

Comes to life with green anew and so we call it that

The festival of springtime, so shed your winter hat!

 

imageThe shortest name is Pesach, it reminds us of a lamb –

The korban that we offered, a male goat or a ram;

We sing of it in Chad Gadya, but don’t bring it anymore –

Reminded by the shankbone, but no blood upon our door.

 

imageBut wait, there’s more; our freedom tale chimes;

Z’man Cheruteinu – set free from harsher times,

Slaves we were and would be still, except Hashem stepped in,

Rescued us so long ago, and helped us to begin.

 

imageThe final name is crunchy, it’s thin and crisp and flat –

We call it Chag HaMatzos, for our breads cannot be fat.

Matzah which we eat each year for more than just one reason –

It’s poor bread, plus we left so fast, that ancient Pesach season.

 

So every year it comes again, by every different name;

A holiday which teaches us the tale of how we came –

Out of slavery so sad and grew to be a nation;

Whatever name you call it by… enjoy your celebration!

 

חַג שָׂמֵחַ!

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You,...

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful....

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused o...