SPECIAL FEATURE: PESSAH AND EASTER
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PESSAH IN THE JEWISH TRADITION
It seems that in fact, the eating of the �matzot� is limited by the Scripture to the Seder evening meal according to Exodus 12:18 :� You shall eat matzot in the evening�. But the Torah points out that �You shall guard the matzot� [�Ushmartem et hamatzot�]. This means that during the first Passover night meal a certain amout of �unleavened bread� should be kept and stored in order to be used throughout the days of the Feast.
Until last century it was not possible to bake the matzot in a machine. Everything was hand-made, which is also pretty en vogue nowadays for common bread and is considered as a pious action as concern Church bread of presentation [�lekhem hapanim� in Hebrew or �prosphora� in Greek]. The oven of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is famous for the taste and quality of the bread produced in the old Hebron stone oven.
The �azymis� or �unleavened bread� has therefore a spiritual meaning recounted in the New Testament. The �matzot� are first mentioned in the Bible as �Lot baked unleavened breads = matzot� [Genesis 19:3]. They are cited in the Gospel in : Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12 and Luke 22:7. In the Acts of the Apostles 12:3, King Herod killed James the bishop of Jerusalem and arrested Peter during the day of the unleavened breads.
The spiritual significance is defined by Saint Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians 5:6 -8: �Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened [risen, resurrected as the Lord]. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast [Easter], not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
There was a harsh quarrel as time passed among the Christian communities whether to use leavened or unleavened bread for the celebration of the Christian Services, especially the Blessing/Breaking of the breads or Artoklasis and the Divine Liturgy. The Roman Latin Church stressed the importance of purging out our sins and be light as the �matzot�. The Eastern Traditions insisted on Christ as being the Bread of Resurrection and always maintained the use of �unleavened bread� firmly.
Interestingly, most rabbis would ascertain that as the shabbat bread, the �khallot� are made of �unleavened bread�, it would be normal for faithful believing in the resurrection to use �unleavened� for the celebration of a service that confesses such a creed.
THE TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD
In Greek �troparion, Slavonic �tropar�� is a poetic phrase with a variable length which expresses the main aspects of a Church event or the life of a Saint. The best known toparion is certainly the magnificent chant of the Resurrection : �Christ is risen from the dead, by death has He trampled down death, and on those in the graves has He bestowed life� which is usually sung three times. The other English version of Old Believers is : �Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
The Greek version is :
�Khristos anesti ek nekron, thanato thanaton patisas ke tis en tis mnimasi zoin kharisamenos�.
In Slavonic :
�Khristos voskrese iz mertvykh, smer�tiu smert� poprav I suschym vo grobekh zhivot darovav�.
In Hebrew :
�HaMashiakh qam miveyn hametim, bimoto mavet avad hayoshvey biqvarot hitqayam�.
This troparion is certainly widely spread in our days throughout all Christian denominations. But it expresses the core of the Christian faith as uttered by the Eastern Church which deeply focus on the Holy sign of the Resurrection.
We have seen that this hope of the Resurection is profoundly enrooted in the Jewish faith and traditions, especially as concerns the the Pharisees who believed in the Angels and the
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