DAVID GOLINKIN: Acting out on Pessah
Pack your bags and split the sea - this is one festival that should be experienced to be appreciated. The writer is the president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

LEVI COOPER: Erev Pessah forgetfulness
Pessah on a Sunday is a rare occurrence and includes unique halachot that depart from the usual pre-Pessah routine, since erev Pessah falls on a Shabbat. The last time we had such a constellation was in 2001 and we can expect it again in 2008.

MAURICE STEINHART: Not passed-over
Pesach in our family begins very shortly after the last Purim disguise has been put away. Then, cleaning the house from top to bottom begins and usually doesn't finish until 5 minutes before burning the hametz.

ANN KLEINBERG: Pessah is upon us
AH, the joys of Passover preparation. For anyone celebrating this holiday with some semblance of observance, the arrangements necessary to ready the house often seem like another plague. As I scan my brain for personal recollections, I can almost feel the backaches coming on.

SHOSHANA ZUCKER: Why is this Haggada different?
It's fascinating to compare haggadot and see how different authors react to the same fundamental text and tradition. Box at end of text.

Moshe Kohn: Remember to Be Free
The connection between liberty and responsibility ’Remembrance is the key to Redemption,"said Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov, the 18th-century founder of Hassidism.

Gail Lichtman: Beans of Contention
Legumes separate Ashkenazim from Sephardim during Pessah. It has been called the "Pessah divide" - differentiating Ashkenazim from Sephardim and creating chaos at the Seder tables of ethnically mixed families.

Richard H. Schwartz: Vegetarian Pessah -
for goodness sake!
Pessah and vegetarianism: Are the two compatible? After all, what is a Seder without gefilte fish, chicken soup, chopped liver, chicken and other meats? A shankbone is needed to commemorate the paschal sacrifice, and Halacha mandates that Jews eat meat to rejoice on Pessah and other Jewish festivals.

Ruth E. Gruber: An Italian Pessah
Kashrut meets culinary art. A recent book provides a fascinating - and mouth-watering - glimpse at how Italian Jews sat down to the seder 100, 200 and even 500 years ago.

Ronda Robinson: Filmmaker and father of the 'Neighborhood Seder'
On a snowy morning in Woodstock, New York, retired filmmaker David Tapper is sitting comfortably inside Storybook, his country Tudor-style house. Surrounded by family photos and fresh-cut flowers in a vase, he tells a tale.

Moshe Kohn: Ritual and Reminiscence
From the first Pessah, celebrated on the eve of the Exodus, Seders have given us food for thought. The Pessah Seder is really meant to be a little pageant reenacting our liberation from enslavement some 33 centuries ago and not just another sumptuous banquet.