The Passover sacrifice (Hebrew: Korban Pesakh קרבן פסח), also known as the "sacrifice of Passover", the Paschal Lamb, or the Passover Lamb, is the sacrifice that the Torah mandates to be brought on the eve of Passover, and eaten on the first night of the holiday with bitter herbs and matzo. According to the Torah, it was first offered on the night of the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt. Although practiced by Jews in ancient times, the ritual is today only^{[citation needed]} practiced by Samaritans at Mount Gerizim.

Although "Lamb of God " refers in Christian teachings to Jesus Christ in his role of the perfect sacrificial offering,Christological arguments dissociate the term from the Old Testament concept of a "scapegoat," which is a person or animal subject to punishment for the sins of others without knowing it or willing it.

It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Hebrew Bible[edit]

The blood of this sacrifice sprinkled on the door-posts of the Israelites was to be a sign to God, when passing through the land to slay the first-born of the Egyptians that night, that he should pass by the houses of the Israelites (Exodus 12:1-28) This is called in the Mishnah the "Passover of Egypt" (Pesaḥ Miẓrayim in M.Pesach ix. 5). It was ordained, furthermore (Exodus 12:24-27), that this observance should be repeated annually for all time once the Israelites entered into their promised land. Exodus 12:25 "It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service (NKJV). This so-called "Pesaḥ Dorot," the Passover of succeeding generations (Mishnah Pesach l.c.), differs in many respects from the Passover of Egypt (Pesaḥ Miẓrayim). In the pre-exilic period, however, Passover was rarely sacrificed in accordance with the legal prescriptions (comp. II Chron. xxxv. 18).

The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover sacrifice at its set time: you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rites and rules

— Num. 9:1–3, JPS translation

Rabbinical interpretation[edit]

According to Rashi, on Numbers 9:1, only once during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, one year after the Exodus, was the sacrifice offered. For the next 39 years there was no offering, according to Rashi, as God stipulated that it could only be offered after the Children of Israel had entered the Land of Israel. In fact, the bringing of the Pesach sacrifice resumed only after the Israelites had taken possession of the land, and then the sacrifice was made annually until during the times when Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple stood and functioned. During this time there was a definite ritual for the offering, in addition to the regulations prescribed by the Law. The following is a brief summary of the principal ordinances and of the ritual accompanying the sacrifice:

The sacrificial animal[edit]

The sacrificial animal, which was either a lamb or goat, was necessarily a male, one year old, and without blemish.[Apis Bull??] Each family or society offered one animal together, which did not require the "semikah" (laying on of hands), although it was obligatory to determine who were to take part in the sacrifice that the killing might take place with the proper intentions. Only those who were circumcised and clean before the Law might participate, and they were forbidden to have leavened food in their possession during the act of killing the paschal lamb. The animal was slain on the eve of the Passover, on the afternoon of the 14th of [[Abib^[1]]], after the Tamid sacrifice had been killed, i.e., at three o'clock, or, in case the eve of the Passover fell on Friday, at two.^[2]

The killing took place in the court of the Temple at Jerusalem, and might be performed by a layman, although the blood had to be caught by a priest, and rows of priests with gold or silver cups in their hands stood in line from the Temple court to the altar, where the blood was sprinkled. These cups were rounded on the bottom, so that they could not be set down; for in that case the blood might coagulate. The priest who caught the blood as it dropped from the victim then handed the cup to the priest next to him, receiving from him an empty one, and the full cup was passed along the line until it reached the last priest, who sprinkled its contents on the altar. The lamb was then hung upon special hooks or sticks and skinned; but if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the skin was removed down to the breast only. The abdomen was then cut open, and the fatty portions intended for the altar were taken out, placed in a vessel, salted, and offered by the priest on the altar, while the remaining entrails likewise were taken out and cleansed.^[2]

While the required quorum for most activities requiring a quorum is usually ten, the Korban Pesach must be offered before a quorum of 30. (It must be performed in front of kahal adat yisrael, the assembly of the congregation of Israel. Ten are needed for the assembly, ten for the congregation, and ten for Israel.) According to some Talmudic authorities, such as Rav Kahana IV, women counted in the minyan for offering the passover sacrifice (B.Pesachim 79b).

Timing: Passover Eve on the Sabbath[edit]

Even if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the paschal lamb was killed in the manner described above, the blood was sprinkled on the altar, the entrails removed and cleansed, and the fat offered on the altar; for these four ceremonies in the case of the paschal lamb, and these alone, were exempt from the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. This regulation, that the Sabbath yielded the precedence to the Passover, was not definitely determined until the time of Hillel, who established it as a law and was in return elevated to the dignity of nasi byJudah ben Bathyra.(B.Pesachim 68a).

The three groups of lay people[edit]

The people taking part in the sacrifice were divided into three groups. The first of these filled the court of the Temple, so that the gates had to be closed, and while they were killing and offering their paschal lambs the Levites on the platform (dukan) recited the "Hallel" (Psalms 113-118), accompanied by instruments of brass. If the Levites finished their recitation before the priests had completed the sacrifice, they repeated the "Hallel," although it never happened that they had to repeat it twice. As soon as the first group had offered their sacrifice, the gates were opened to let them out, and their places were taken by the second and third groups successively.

All three groups offered their sacrifice in the manner described, while the "Hallel" was recited; but the third group was so small that it had always finished before the Levites reached Psalm 116. It was called the "group of the lazy" because it came last. Even if the majority of the people were ritually unclean on the eve of the Passover, the sacrifice was offered on the 14th of Nisan. Other sacrifices, on the contrary, called "ḥagigah," which were offered together with the paschal lamb, were omitted if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, or if the sacrifice was offered in a state of uncleanness, or if the number of participants was so small that they could not consume all the meat. When the sacrifice was completed and the animal was ready for roasting, each one present carried his lamb home, except when the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, in which case it might not be taken away.^[2]

The Home Ceremony[edit]

If the 14th of Nissan fell on the Sabbath, the first group stationed itself on the mount of the Temple in Jerusalem, the second group in the "ḥel," the space between the Temple wall and the Temple hall, while the third group remained in the Temple court, thus awaiting the evening, when they took their lambs home and roasted them on a spit of pomegranate-wood, On all other days, they could do it before nightfall (and if the 15th of Nissan fell to be on the Sabbath they would have to). No bones might be broken either during the cooking or during the eating. The lamb was set on the table at the evening banquet (see Passover Seder), and was eaten by the assembled company after all had satisfied their appetites with the ḥagigah or other food. The sacrifice had to be consumed entirely that same evening, nothing being allowed to remain overnight. While eating it, the entire company of those who partook was obliged to remain together, and every participant had to take a piece of the lamb at least as large as an olive. Women and girls also might take part in the banquet and eat of the sacrifice. The following benediction was pronounced before eating the lamb: "Blessed be Thou, the Eternal, our God, the King of the world, who hast sanctified us by Thy commands, and hast ordained that we should eat the Passover." The "Hallel" was recited during the meal, and when the lamb had been eaten the meaning of the custom was explained, and the story of the Exodus was told (see Passover Seder).^[2]

The paschal sacrifice belongs to the shelamim, thus forming one of the sacrifices in which the meal is the principal part and indicates the community between God and man. It is really a house or family sacrifice, and each household is regarded as constituting a small community in itself, not only because the lamb is eaten at home, but also because every member of the family is obliged to partake of the meal, on pain of ritual excommunication, although each man must be circumcised and all must be ritually clean. The fact that the paschal lamb might be killed only at the central sanctuary of Jerusalem, on the other hand, implies that each household was but a member of the larger community; this is indicated also by the national character of the sacrifice, which kept alive in the memory of the nation the preservation and liberation of the entire people.^[2]

Modern attempts to revive the sacrifice[edit]

In 2007, a group of rabbis led by Adin Steinsalz and supported by the Temple Mount Faithful and the New Sanhedrin Council identified a Kohenwho was a butcher, made plans for conducting a passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount, and petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice for permission. The Court sided with the government and rejected the request, holding that such an event would inflame religious tensions and would threaten security. The incident was a successor to a series of earlier attempts by various groups to perform such a sacrifice, either openly or by subterfuge.^[3][4]

In 2008 animal rights group Tnoo Lachayot Lichyot ("Let the Animals Live") sued the Temple Institute, claiming its conduct of a practice passover sacrifice demonstration would constitute animal cruelty. An Israeli court rejected the claim. ^[5]

Christianity[edit]

The Lamb of God carrying thevexillum, often found in Christian imagery.

Main article: Easter controversy

In Christianity, the Passover Lamb is generally taken to have been fulfilled by the Lamb of God (i.e.,Jesus).^[6][7] The controversy caused by the battle over whether Easter—itself known by some variant of Pascha in most European languages—should be on the Korban Pesach, on the Sunday following the Korban Pesach, or computed entirely independently of the Jewish calendar remains unresolved among the major denominations.

See also[edit]

• Passover
• Korban

References[edit]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.

1. Jump up^ Leviticus 23
2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e}  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board, Jacob Zallel Lauterbach(1901–1906). "Passover Sacrifice". Jewish Encyclopedia.
3. Jump up^ Shargai, Nadav; Barkat, Amiram (2007-02-04), Court prevents groups from sacrificing live animals at Temple Mount, Haaretz, retrieved 2008-10-07
4. Jump up^ Rabbis aim to renew animal sacrifices, Jerusalem Post, 2007-02-28, retrieved 2008-10-07
5. Jump up^ Judge Rules Paschal Sacrifice Practice 'Proper,' Appeal Filed, Israeli National News, 2008-04-08, retrieved 2008-10-07
6. Jump up^ Karl Gerlach (1998). "The Antenicene Pascha: A Rhetorical History". Peeters Publishers. p. 21. "Long before this controversy, Ex 12 as a story of origins and its ritual expression had been firmly fixed in the Christian imagination. Though before the final decades of the second century only accessible as an exegetical tradition, already in the Paulin letters the Exodus saga is deeply involved with the celebration of bath and meal. Even here, this relationship does not suddenly appear, but represents developments in ritual narrative that mus have begun at the very inception of the Christian message. Jesus of Nazareth was crucifed during Pesach-Mazzot, an event that a new covenant people of Jews and Gentiles both saw as definitive and defining. Ex 12 is thus one of the few reliable guides for tracing the synergism among ritual, text, and kerygma before the Council of Nicaea."
7. Jump up^ Matthias Reinhard Hoffmann (2005). "The Destroyer and the Lamb: The Relationship Between Angelomorphic and Lamb Christology in the Book of Revelation". Mohr Siebeck. p. 117. ISBN 3161487788. "1.2.2. Christ as the Passover Lamb from Exodus A number of features throughout Revelation seem to correspond to Exodus 12: The connection of Lamb and Passover, a salvific effect of the Lamb's blood and the punishment of God's (and His people's) opponents from Exodus 12 may possibly be reflected within the settings of the Apocalypse. The concept of Christ as a Passover lamb is generally not unknown in NT or early Christian literature, as can for instance be seen in 1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Peter 1:19 or Justin Mar

H. P. Lovecraft
Lovecraft in 1934
Born	Howard Phillips Lovecraft August 20, 1890 Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Died	March 15, 1937 (aged 46) Providence, Rhode Island
Resting place	Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island
Pen name	Lewis Theobald Humphrey Littlewit Ward Phillips Edward Softly
Occupation	Short-story writer, editor, novelist, poet
Period	Early 20th century
Genre	Horror, science fiction, fantasy,weird, gothic, dark fantasy
Literary movement	Cosmicism
Notable works	"The Call of Cthulhu" The Shadow Out of Time At the Mountains of Madness
Spouse	Sonia Greene (1924–1926)
Signature

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (/ˈlʌvkræft, -ˌkrɑːft/;^[1] August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) — known as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and only published in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre.

Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. His father was confined to a mental institution when Lovecraft was three years old. His grandfather, a wealthy businessman, enjoyed storytelling and was an early influence. Intellectually precocious but sensitive, Lovecraft began composing rudimentary horror tales by the age of eight, but suffered from overwhelming feelings of anxiety. He encountered problems with classmates in school, and was kept at home by his highly strung and overbearing mother for illnesses that may have been psychosomatic. In high school, Lovecraft was able to better connect with his peers and form friendships. He also involved neighborhood children in elaborate make-believe projects, only regretfully ceasing the activity at seventeen years old. Despite leaving school in 1908 without graduating — he found mathematics particularly difficult — Lovecraft had developed a formidable knowledge of his favored subjects, such as history, linguistics, chemistry, and astronomy.

Although he seems to have had some social life, attending meetings of a club for local young men, Lovecraft, in early adulthood, was established in a reclusive 'nightbird' lifestyle without occupation or pursuit of romantic adventures. In 1913 his conduct of a long running controversy in the letters page of a story magazine led to his being invited to participate in an amateur journalism association. Encouraged, he started circulating his stories; he was 31 at the time of his first publication in a professional magazine. Lovecraft contracted a marriage to an older woman he had met at an association conference. By age 34, he was a regular contributor to newly founded Weird Tales magazine; he turned down an offer of the editorship.

Lovecraft returned to Providence from New York in 1926, and over the next nine months he produced some of his most celebrated tales including "The Call of Cthulhu", canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor, Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died at the age of 46.^[2]

Cochin Jews

Total population
7,000-8000 (estimated)
Regions with significant populations
Israel	7,000-8000 (estimated)[1]
India	100+[2]
Languages
Traditionally, Judeo-Malayalam, now mostly Hebrew in Israel
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Paradesi Jews Knanaya Sephardic Jews in India Bene Israel Baghdadi Jews

Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews, are of Mizrahi heritage. They are the oldest group of Jews in India, with possible roots claimed to date to the time of King Solomon.^[3][4] The Cochin Jews settled in theKingdom of Cochin in South India,^[5] now part of the state of Kerala.^[6][7] As early as the 12th century, mention is made of the Black Jews in southern India. The Jewish traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, speaking ofKollam (Quilon) on the Malabar Coast, writes in his Itinerary: "...throughout the island, including all the towns thereof, live several thousand Israelites. The inhabitants are all black, and the Jews also. The latter are good and benevolent. They know the law of Moses and the prophets, and to a small extent the Talmud and Halacha."^[8] These people later became known as the Malabari Jews. They built synagogues in Keralabeginning in the 12th and 13th centuries.^[9][10] They are known to have developed Judeo-Malayalam, a dialect of Malayalam language.

Following expulsion from Iberia in 1492 by the Alhambra Decree, a few families of Sephardic Jews eventually made their way to Cochin in the 16th century. They became known as Paradesi Jews (or White Jews). The European Jews maintained some trade connections to Europe, and their language skills were useful. Although the Sephardim spoke Ladino (i.e. Spanish or Judeo-Spanish), in India they learned Judeo-Malayalam from the Malabar Jews.^[11] The two communities retained their ethnic and cultural distinctions.^[12] In the late 19th century, a few Arabic-speaking Jews, who became known as Baghdadi, also immigrated to southern India, and joined the Paradesi community.

After India gained its independence in 1947 and Israel was established as a nation, most Cochin Jews emigrated from Kerala to Israel in the mid-1950s.^[13] Most of their synagogues have been sold and adapted for other uses. The Paradesi synagogue still has a congregation and also attracts tourists as a historic site. The synagogue at Chennamangalam was reconstructed in 2006.^[14] The one at Parur is currently being reconstructed.^[15][16]

Descendants of Cochin Jews have had their DNA analyzed. A 2009 DNA report states that Cochin Jews "cluster with neighbouring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite a clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant.^[17]

History[edit]

Further information: History of Kochi

First Jews in South India[edit]

The inscription from the Sasanam outlining the grant of rights to Joseph Rabban

P. M. Jussay wrote that it was believed that the earliest Jews in India were sailors from King Solomon's time.^[18] It has been claimed that following the destruction of the First Temple in the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BC, some Jewish exiles came to India.^[19] Only after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE are records found that attest to numerous Jewish settlers arriving at Cranganore, an ancient port near Cochin.^[20]Cranganore, now transliterated as Kodungallur, but also known under other names, is a city of legendary importance to this community. Fernandes writes, it is "a substitute Jerusalem in India."^[21] Katz and Goldberg note the "symbolic intertwining" of the two cities.^[22]

In 1768, a certain Tobias Boas of Amsterdam had posed eleven questions to Rabbi Yehezkel Rachbi of Cochin. The first of these questions addressed to the said Rabbi concerned the origins of the Jews of Cochin and the duration of their settlement in India. In Rabbi Yehezkel’s hand written response (Merzbacher's Library in Munich, MS. 4238), he wrote: “…after the destruction of the Second Temple (may it soon be rebuilt and reestablished in our days!), in the year 3828 of anno mundi, i.e. 68 of the Christian Era, about ten thousand men and women had come to the land of Malabar and were pleased to settle in four places; those places being Cranganore, Dschalor, ^[23] Madai^[24] [and] Plota.^[25] Most were in Cranganore, which is also called Mago dera Patinas; it is also called Sengale.”^[26]

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St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, is believed to have visited India while proselytizing.^[27] Many of the Jews who converted to Christianity at that time were absorbed by what became the Nasrani or Saint Thomas Christians.^[28]

Central to the history of the Cochin Jews was their close relationship with Indian rulers. This was codified on a set of copper plates granting the community special privileges.^[29] The date of these plates, known as "Sâsanam",^[30] is contentious. The plates are physically inscribed with the date 379 CE,^[31] but in 1925, tradition was setting it as 1069 CE.^[32] Indian rulers granted the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban the rank of prince over the Jews of Cochin, giving him the rulership and tax revenue of a pocket principality in Anjuvannam near Cranganore, and rights to seventy-two "free houses".^[33] The Hindu king gave permission in perpetuity (or, in the more poetic expression of those days, "as long as the world and moon exist") for Jews to live freely, build synagogues, and own property "without conditions attached".^[34][35] A family connection to Rabban, "the king of Shingly" (another name for Cranganore), was long considered a sign of both purity and prestige within the community. Rabban's descendants led this distinct community until a chieftainship dispute broke out between two brothers, one of them named Joseph Azar, in the 16th century.

The oldest known gravestone of a Cochin Jew is written in Hebrew and dates to 1269 CE. It is near the Chendamangalam (also spelled Chennamangalam) Synagogue, built in 1614.^[9] It is now operated as a museum.^[36]

In 1341 a disastrous flood silted up the port of Cranganore, and trade shifted to a smaller port at Cochin (Kochi). Many of the Jews moved quickly, and within four years, they had built their first synagogue at the new community.^[37] The Portuguese Empire established a trading beachhead in 1500, and until 1663 remained the dominant power. They continued to discriminate against the Jews, although doing business with them. A synagogue was built at Parur in 1615, at a site that according to tradition had a synagogue built in 1165. Almost every member of this community emigrated to Israel in 1954^[9]

"Black Jew" of Cochin with payot

In 1524, the Muslims, backed by the ruler of Calicut (today called Kozhikode and not to be confused with Calcutta), attacked the wealthy Jews of Cranganore because of their primacy in the lucrative pepper trade. The Jews fled south to the Kingdom of Cochin, seeking the protection of the Cochin Royal Family (Perumpadapu Swaroopam). The Hindu Raja of Cochin gave them asylum. Moreover, he exempted Jews from taxation but bestowed on them all privileges enjoyed by the tax-payers.^[38]

The Malabari Jews built additional synagogues at Mala and Ernakulum. In the latter location, Kadavumbagham Synagogue was built about 1200 and restored in the 1790s. Its members believed they were the congregation to receive the historic copper plates. In the 1930s and 1940s, the congregation was as large as 2,000 members, but all emigrated to Israel.^[39]

Thekkambagham Synagogue was built in Ernakulum in 1580, and rebuilt in 1939. It is the synagogue in Ernakulam sometimes used for services if former members of the community visit from Israel. In 1998, five families who were members of this congregation still lived in Kerala or in Madras.^[40]

A Jewish Traveler's Visit to Cochin[edit]

The following is a description of the Jews of Cochin by 16th century Jewish traveler, Zechariah Dhahiri (recollections of his travels in circa 1558)

“

...I travelled from the land of Yemen unto the land of India and Cush, in order to search out a better livelihood. I had chosen the frontier route, where I made a passage across the Great Sea by ship for twenty days… I arrived at the city of Calicut, which upon entering I was sorely grieved at what I had seen, for the city’s inhabitants are all uncircumcised and given over to idolatry. There isn’t to be found in her a single Jew with whom I could have, otherwise, taken respite in my journeys and wanderings. I then turned away from her and went into the city of Cochin, wherein I found what my soul desired, insofar that a community of Spaniards is to be found there who are derived of Jewish lineage, along with other congregations, although they are proselytes.[41] They had been converted many years ago, of the natives of Cochin and Germany.[42] They are adept in their knowledge of Jewish laws and customs, acknowledging the injunctions of the Divine Law (Torah), and making use of its means of punishment. I dwelt there three months, among the holy congregations.[43]

”

1660 to Independence[edit]

The Paradesi Jews, also called "White Jews", settled in the Cochin region in the 16th century and later, following the expulsion from Iberia due to forced conversion and religious persecution in Spain and then Portugal. Some fled north to Holland but the majority fled east to the Ottoman Empire.

Some went beyond that territory, including a few families who followed the Arab spice routes to southern India. Speaking Ladino language and having Sephardic customs, they found the Malabari Jewish community as established in Cochin to be quite different. According to the historian Mandelbaum, there were resulting tensions between the two ethnic communities.^[44] The European Jews had some trade links to Europe and useful languages to conduct international trade,^[12] i.e. Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish, later on maybe Dutch. These attributes helped their position both financially and politically.