The eight days of Passover begin Wednesday.
Passover celebrates the freedom and remembers the release of the children of Israel from enslavement in Egypt.
A handful of Greenwood families will celebrate the Passover on Wednesday and Thursday. That includes the Goldberg family.
"It's my personal favorite," says Gail Goldberg, who cherishes Passover as an expression of faith accompanied by the experience of belonging.
Passover specifically refers to last of 10 plagues that Egypt suffered because its king, or pharaoh, would not release the Jews. Before the final plague, in which all first-born sons would be slain, God told Moses to instruct his people to protect themselves by marking their doors with lamb's blood.
The sons of those who did as Moses instructed survived, and the pharaoh relented. The children of Israel fled so quickly they left almost all they had behind, including yeast for bread.
When Goldberg, her family, friends and other believers eat unleavened bread and lamb, they remember what she calls a "watershed event of our Judaism."
"It links Jews everywhere to each other," she said. "We do exactly the same thing that Jews all over the world do."
The extended Goldberg family and friends - as many as 30 or more people in recent years - will gather after sundown Wednesday and Thursday in the Goldbergs' garage, which has been converted into a banquet room especially set up for the observance.
One of the key elements of the Passover is the meal consumed the first two nights of the Passover. It's known as the Seder.
During the Seder, the story of the slavery and emancipation of the children of Israel is told and remembered through a variety of symbols, including the dishes, implements and foods.
The dishes, implements, and foods are steeped in symbolism.
On Wednesday it's likely that the Goldbergs and their company will sit down at a table with a Seder plate as its centerpiece. That plate will contain the five foods that serve as a reminder of the Israelites struggle and journey to freedom.
First there is the matzoh, or bread made without yeast. Three pieces are placed in a Matzoh Cover, usually a cloth sleeve or an envelope and placed in the Seder table's center. Before the meal begins the middle matzoh is taken and broken into two pieces. One piece is hidden, so the children can hunt for it at the end of the meal. The other piece is placed back inside the Matzoh Cover.
The Seder plate's foods have special meanings, too.
There's the Haroseth, a mixture of chopped walnuts, wine, cinnamon and apples. The Haroseth represents the mortar the slaves used to make the pharaoh's bricks. Parsley and eggs symbolize spring. The parsley is dipped in salt water to remind celebrants of the tears of the slaves.
Also included on the Seder plate is a shank bone from whatever the family is eating, usually lamb. It is a reminder of the sacrificial lamb offering. Freshly grated horseradish reflects the bitter affliction of slavery.
During the Seder, four glasses of wine are poured to represent the four stages of the exodus: freedom, deliverance, redemption and release. A fifth cup of wine is poured and placed on the Seder table. It's called the Cup of Elijah, an offering for the prophet. During the meal, the door is left open for the prophet to come in.
After the meal, the children find the piece of matzoh and everyone takes a piece.
But the Seder is more than a meal. There's the reading of the Haggadah, the book of Exodus.
"Everybody has their own books, actually take turns reading. We have a complete organized service that we got through," Goldberg said.
Children ask ritual questions, and adults give the answers. These focus on the agony of involuntary servitude and the joy of freedom.
"We give thanks to God, above all that we were able to leave and we became a free people," Goldberg said.
She recently read that Passover has more participation than other holidays.
"All Jews pretty much find themselves at a Seder on Wednesday night," Goldberg said.
Goldberg's son Ricky and his wife, Rachel, are in town now for Passover.
They live in south Florida, where he is in medical school and she works for the Jewish Federation of Fort Lauderdale.
Many Jews live in their area, and she grew up in New Jersey and Memphis, Tenn., where there are large Jewish communities.
"It's nice to live in that environment, but people take it for granted," she said.
"It's the same in Greenwood, where the feeling is "warmer" and Jewish people must go to more effort to celebrate, she said.
Her mother-in-law acknowledges that Passover in Greenwood is harder to organize. But Passover "is special. It is so unbelievably special. It is a wonderful holiday."
