c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Even though America is saturated with religiosity, recent studies indicate many people lack accurate knowledge about the beliefs and rituals of world religions, including their own.

Passover, Judaism’s eight-day festival of freedom, begins April 2. The following test will reveal how much you know about the holiday. If your correct score is less than eight, you need to immediately contact a synagogue near you to receive tutorial help.

1. When did the Hebrew slaves leave Egypt, “the house of bondage”?

2. How many times is Moses mentioned in the Haggadah, the Passover narrative booklet read during the first two nights of Pesach at the family Seder meals?

3. Name two unique holiday foods found at every Seder.

4. Which Passover food and beverage entered into Christian liturgy?

5. The book of Exodus describes the Hebrews’ escape through a body of water with Pharaoh’s army in pursuit. “Red Sea” is an incorrect translation of that waterway. What is the correct translation?

6. The Hebrew name for Egypt is “Miztrayim.” Where does that word come from?

7. Name eight of the 10 plagues that beset Egypt before Pharaoh reluctantly allowed the Hebrew slaves to leave for freedom.

8. Twelve hundred years after the Exodus, why did Jesus and other Jews travel to Jerusalem during Passover?

9. Following the Exodus, why did the Hebrew slaves wander 40 years in the Sinai wilderness before entering the land of Israel?

10. Is it appropriate for a church to conduct its own Seder?

And the envelope, please …

1. While scholars cannot pinpoint the precise date of the Exodus, most agree that it took place around the year 1230 B.C., about a hundred years after the reign of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut.

2. The surprising answer is that Moses does not appear in the Haggadah text, although he and his brother Aaron were the leaders of the Hebrew slaves. It took extraordinary courage for them to utter the famous demand _ “Let my people go!” But the rabbis who compiled the Haggadah centuries ago feared that Moses would be worshipped by the grateful Jewish people, creating a “cult of personality.” Instead, the Haggadah makes clear that God is the ultimate hero of the Passover story.

3. There are many special foods. Some of the best known are the unleavened bread (matzo) that was baked in haste as the Hebrews fled Egypt; the horseradish symbolizing the bitterness of slavery; and the haroset, a pasty mixture of wine, apples, nuts and spices to recall the cement used by Hebrew slaves to build the structures of imperial Egypt.

4. The Seder’s matzo and wine entered into Christian worship as a central part of the Eucharist and Communion service. Scholars continue to debate whether the Last Supper was in fact a Passover Seder meal.

5. The correct translation is the “Sea of Reeds,” which provides a clearer understanding of how a ragtag group of slaves escaped the Egyptian horses and armed chariots. Forget Cecil B. DeMille’s cinematic parting of the sea. Think instead of swampy marshland that became an anti-chariot obstacle course.

6. The root of the Hebrew word for Egypt is “narrow.” We all live in narrow places in our emotional and physical lives. Passover offers the hope and possibility for a personal exodus from constricted psychological slavery or addiction.

7. Blood, frogs, vermin, beasts, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the slaying of firstborn Egyptian males.

8. Passover is one of three annual festivals when Jews _ especially those living in Israel _ are commanded to celebrate the holiday in Jerusalem, the Holy City.

9. A new generation _ one born in freedom, and not suffering from centuries-old slave mentality _ was required before the Hebrews could enter the land of Israel.

10. It is a form of religious imperialism and highly inappropriate for churches to expropriate the Jewish Seder by giving Christological meanings to authentic Jewish rituals, symbols and liturgy. However, many synagogues and Jewish schools welcome visitors to an educational “model Seder” usually conducted during the week before Passover. It is also customary for families to host guests at the Seder.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/PH END RUDIN

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