Timeless Passover Stories

The Maggid announced: "There is a Jew who does not have matzah, and I cannot search for chametz until we find him."

“Rebbe!” she cried. “I swear that I won’t move from here until you command Heaven to bless me with a child!”

Over time, successive economic downturns diminished the couple’s wealth, and they had to resort to selling their possessions to buy food.

The festival of Passover was not far off. Households bustled happily from morning till evening with cleaning and shopping.

“I will perform a miracle akin to those which Moses himself did. Before your very eyes, I will cut off a man’s head with a sword, and then put him back together and make him live!”

One year, someone in Likova came up with a novel idea: what if they all refused to buy the Jew's vodka before Passover? In that case he would have to get rid of it... and they could have it all!

It was the afternoon before Passover, and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak was wandering through the streets of the Jewish quarter seeking out local smugglers . . .

The Rebbe looked around him. It was obvious that only he had heard the heavenly announcement. "Has anyone heard of a tzaddik called Shmerl the Tailor?" he asked. No one had

After fifteen frenzied minutes, the Finkel cousins returned to the living room. Kevin turned in the report. "Sorry, Dad. For a small house, there's a lot of places to hide a matzah"

Sickle in hand, the elderly Reb Zalman, with his broad, regal beard and face shining with joy, was swift and nimble as a lad . . .

First we drank a glass of wine. Then we ate a bit of parsley. Then they started talking, and talking, and talking. The smell of the food from the kitchen is making me insane, but they don't bring it out!

A moment of faith does not separate between long-lost loves. It holds them together...

A Seder without wine. How can it be, you ask? . . .

Only two nights before Passover, the call came to him to leave the security and peace of his home and go forth on a mission...

“You know, Chaim, there is something of value we still own. We still have Elijah’s silver wine cup. Don’t you think you should pawn it so that we can at least buy matzah, wine and potatoes?” . . .

Only Big Jim, trying to maintain his defiance, stepped forward. He blurted, "The Jews poisoned one of their field hands to use his blood for their ritual celebration tonight!"

The head of the camp's "political division" asked me if I was still abstaining from working on Sabbaths and not eating the meals served from the camp kitchen. Then she asked, "What is matza?"

"Stop them! Stop them!" yelled the huge crowd, ready to overwhelm the soldiers by the sheer weight of their large numbers. But the Baal Shem Tov signaled them to allow the soldiers to pass through.

“I suggest you approach your captain with an alternative route for the journey,” said the rebbe. “Explain that the route he has planned has many disadvantages . . .”

Zvi Elimelech's father pulled the boy aside and told him that he must promise never to tell anyone this story until the very last day of his life

"I know that you sent word that you could give only three matzahs, but nonetheless my father, the Seret-Vizhnitzer Rebbe, told me to tell you that he must have six matzahs."

Word resounded throughout the supernal worlds: "Because Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov has forced the hand of heaven to overturn the laws of nature, he has forfeited his portion in the World to Come"

The rabbi stared at the grave, noticing the most unusual headstone. Engraved on the stone, above the man's name, were the Hebrew words kasher l'pesach "Kosher for Passover."

One of the refueling stops was Dakar, as they were preparing to deplane there, the crew announced that the stay would be prolonged...

"What is it?" he snapped. In the Bronx, it's proper etiquette to snap when greeting someone. I noticed the loaf of rye bread sitting on the table, definitely not a traditional Seder food. I said, "The Rebbe sent me."

During the Russo-Japanese War, tens of thousands of Jewish conscripts found themselves in China. Collaborating with the imperial Russian government, the fifth rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch instigated a campaign to provide them with Passover matzah.

It was Passover eve of 1910. In the town of Lubavitch, every Jewish home was freshly scrubbed. The tables were bedecked with threadbare but meticulously cleaned white linen, surrounded by families about to begin their Seder celebrations...

An old man was sitting in a carriage being led by two very old horses, trekking through the evening snowstorm with ease.

The door of the decorated coach opened, and an elegantly dressed gentleman stepped out.