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Passover Seder

The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (i.e., at the start of the 15th; a Hebrew day begins at sunset). The day falls in late March or in April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover lasts for seven days in Israel and, among most customs, eight days in the Jewish diaspora. Where seven days of Passover are observed, a seder is held on the first night; where eight days are observed, seders are often held on the first two nights, the 15th and 16th of Nisan. The Seder is a ritual involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, taken from the Book of Exodus in the Torah. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the did for me when I came out of Egypt. (Exodus 13:8) At the seder, Jews read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient Tannaitic work.  The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, Talmudic commentaries, and Passover songs.

Seder customs include telling the story, discussing the story, drinking four cups of wine, eating matzah, partaking of symbolic foods, and reclining in celebration of freedom. The Seder is among the most commonly celebrated Jewish rituals, performed by Jews all over the world.

Etymology
Seder is a transliteration of the Hebrew סדר, which means 'order' or 'procedure'. The name also expresses the conduct of the meal, all the dishes, the blessings, the prayers, the stories and the songs, written in the Haggadah, a book that determines the order of Passover and tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt. And all the mitzvot (religious commandments or rites) in the "order" are done in a fixed order in every Jewish home.

Overview

 * 1)  (קדש) Sanctify! – recital of Kiddush blessing and drinking of the first cup of wine
 * 2)  (ורחץ) and Wash! – the washing of the hands
 * 3)  (כרפס) Vegetable – dipping of the karpas in salt water
 * 4)  (יחץ) Halving – breaking the middle matzah; the larger piece becomes the afikoman
 * 5)  (מגיד) Telling – retelling the Passover story, including the recital of "the four questions" and drinking of the second cup of wine
 * 6)  (רחצה) Washing – second washing of the hands
 * 7)  (מוציא) "Who brings out..." – blessing over the bread
 * 8)  (מצה) "...matzah" – blessing before eating matzah
 * 9)  (מרור) Bitter – eating of the maror
 * 10)  (כורך) Wraps – eating of a sandwich made of matzo and maror
 * 11)  (שלחן עורך) Set table – the serving of the holiday meal
 * 12)  (צפון) Hidden – eating of the afikoman
 * 13)  (ברך) Bless! – blessing after the meal and drinking of the third cup of wine
 * 14)  (הלל) Exalt! – recital of the Hallel, traditionally recited on festivals; drinking of the fourth cup of wine
 * 15)  (נרצה) Desired – say "Next Year in Jerusalem!"

The Seder is most often conducted in the family home, although communal Seders are also organized by synagogues, schools and community centers, some open to the general public. It is customary to invite guests, especially strangers and the needy. The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: as explained in the Haggadah, if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation. Furthermore, the words and rituals of the Seder are a primary vehicle for the transmission of the Jewish faith from grandparent to child, and from one generation to the next. Attending a Seder and eating matzah on Passover is a widespread custom even among those who are not religiously observant.

Family members come to the table dressed in their holiday clothes. There is an Orthodox Ashkenazi tradition for the person leading the Seder to wear a white robe called a kittel. For the first half of the Seder, each participant will only need a plate and a wine glass. At the head of the table is a Seder plate containing various symbolic foods that will be eaten or pointed out during the course of the Seder. Placed nearby is a plate with three matzot and dishes of salt water for dipping.

Each participant receives a copy of the Haggadah: an ancient text that contains the complete Seder service. Men and women are equally obliged and eligible to participate in the Seder. Traditionally, each participant at the Seder table recites the Haggadah in the original Hebrew and Aramaic. Halakha (the collective body of Jewish religious laws) requires that certain parts be said in language the participants can understand, and critical parts are often said in both Hebrew and the native language. The leader will often interrupt the reading to discuss different points with his or her children, or to offer an insight into the meaning or interpretation of the words.

In some homes, participants take turns reciting the text of the Haggadah, in the original Hebrew or in translation. It is traditional for the head of the household and other participants to have pillows placed behind them for added comfort. At several points during the Seder, participants lean to the left – when drinking the four cups of wine, eating the Afikoman, and eating the korech sandwich.

Jews generally observe one or two seders: in Israel, one seder is observed on the first night of Passover; traditional Diaspora communities (to the general exception of Reform and Reconstructionist Jews) also hold a seder on the second night. Seders have been observed around the world, including in remote places such as high in the Himalaya mountains in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Slavery and freedom
The rituals and symbolic foods evoke the twin themes of the evening: slavery and freedom. It is stated in the Haggadah that "In every generation everyone is obligated to see themselves as if they themselves came out of Egypt" – i.e., out of slavery.

The rendering of time for Jews is that a day began at sunset and ended at sunset. According to the Exodus narrative, at the beginning of the 15th of Nisan in Ancient Egypt, the Jewish people were enslaved to Pharaoh. After the tenth plague struck Egypt at midnight, killing all the first-born sons from the first-born of Pharaoh to the first-born of the lowest Egyptian to all the first-born of the livestock in the land (Exodus 12:29), Pharaoh let the Hebrew nation go, effectively making them free people for the second half of the night.

Thus, Seder participants recall the slavery that reigned during the first half of the night by eating matzah (the "poor person's bread"), maror (bitter herbs which symbolize the bitterness of slavery), and charoset (a sweet paste, possibly representing the mortar which the Jewish slaves used to cement bricks). Recalling the freedom of the second half of the night, they eat the matzah (the "bread of freedom" as well as the "bread of affliction") and 'afikoman', and drink the four cups of wine, in a reclining position, and dip vegetables into salt water (the dipping being a sign of royalty and freedom).

The Four Cups
There is an obligation to drink four cups of wine during the Seder. The Mishnah says (Pesachim 10:1) that even the poor are obliged to drink the four cups. Each cup is imbibed at a specific point in the Seder. The first is for Kiddush (קידוש), the second is for 'Maggid' (מגיד), the third is for Birkat Hamazon (ברכת המזון) and the fourth is for Hallel (הלל).

The Four Cups represent the four expressions of deliverance promised by God Exodus 6:6–7: "I will bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and "I will take."

The Vilna Gaon relates the Four Cups to four worlds: this world, the Messianic age, the world at the revival of the dead, and the world to come. The MaHaRaL connects them to the four Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, and Leah. (The three matzot, in turn, are connected to the three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) Abarbanel relates the cups to the four historical redemptions of the Jewish people: the choosing of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the survival of the Jewish people throughout the exile, and the fourth which will happen at the end of days.

The four cups might also reflect the Roman custom of drinking as many cups as there are letters in the name of the chief guest at a meal, which in the case of the Seder is God himself whose Hebrew name has four letters.

Seder plate
The special Passover Seder plate is the special plate containing symbolic foods used during the Passover Seder. Each of the six items arranged on the plate has special significance to the retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The seventh symbolic item used during the meal – a stack of three matzot – is placed on its own plate on the Seder table.

The six items on the Seder plate are:
 * Maror: Bitter herbs, which Gamaliel says symbolize the bitterness and harshness of the slavery which the Jews endured in Ancient Egypt. For maror, many people use freshly grated horseradish or whole horseradish root.
 * Chazeret is typically romaine lettuce, whose roots are bitter-tasting. In addition to horseradish and romaine lettuce, other forms of bitter lettuce, such as endive, may be eaten in fulfillment of the mitzvah, as well as green onions, dandelion greens, celery leaves, or curly parsley (but parsley and celery are more commonly used as the karpas or vegetable element). Much depends upon whether one's tradition is Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Mizrahi, Persian, or one of the many other Jewish ethno-cultural traditions.
 * Charoset: A sweet, brown, pebbly paste of fruits and nuts, possibly representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt. The actual recipe depends partly on ethno-cultural tradition and partly on locally available ingredients. Ashkenazi Jews, for example, traditionally make apple-raisin based charoset while Sephardic Jews often make date-based recipes that might feature orange or/and lemon, or even banana. Other Talmudic traditions claim the Charoset "recalls the apple", apparently referencing a tradition that Jewish women snuck out to apple orchards to conceive in Egypt, and that it is not obligatory but serves to nullify the poison of the maror.
 * Karpas: A vegetable other than bitter herbs, sometimes parsley or celery or cooked potato, which is dipped into salt water (Ashkenazi custom), vinegar (Sephardi custom), or charoset (Yemenite Jews) at the beginning of the Seder.
 * Zeroa: A roasted lamb or goat bone, symbolizing the (Pesach sacrifice), which was a lamb offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.
 * Beitzah: A roast egg – usually a hard-boiled egg that has been roasted in a baking pan with a little oil, or with a lamb shank – symbolizing the (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.

Focus on the children
Since the retelling of the Exodus to one's child is the object of the Seder experience, much effort is made to arouse the interest and curiosity of the children and keep them awake during the meal. To that end, questions and answers are a central device in the Seder ritual. By encouraging children to ask questions, they will be more open to hearing the answers.

The most famous question which the youngest child asks at the Seder is the – 'Why is this night different from all other nights?' After the asking of this questions, the main portion of the Seder, Magid, discusses the answers in the form of a historical review. Also, at different points in the Seder, the leader of the Seder will cover the matzot and lift their cup of wine; then put down the cup of wine and uncover the matzot – all to elicit questions from the children.

In some traditions, the questions are asked by the assembled company in chorus rather than by a child, and are put to the leader of the seder, who either answers the question or may direct the attention of the assembled company to someone who is acting out that particular part of the Exodus. Physical re-enactment of the Exodus during the Passover seder is common in many families and communities.

Families will follow the Haggadah's lead by asking their own questions at various points in the Haggadah and offering prizes such as nuts and candies for correct answers. The afikoman, which is hidden away for the "dessert" after the meal, is another device used to encourage children's participation. In most families, the leader of the Seder hides the afikoman and the children must find it, whereupon they receive a prize or reward. In other homes, the children hide the afikoman and a parent must look for it; when the parents give up, the children demand a prize (often money) for revealing its location.

Order of the Seder
The order and procedures of the Seder are stated and printed in the text of the Passover Haggadah, a copy of which is in front of all participants. Jewish children learn the following words, denoting the order of the Seder, with a rhyme and tune at their Jewish schools:

"Kaddesh (קדש). Urchatz (ורחץ). Karpas (כרפס). Yachatz (יחץ). Maggid (מגיד). Rochtzah (רחצה). Motzi Matzah (מוציא מצה). Maror (מרור). Korech (כורך). Shulchan Orech (שלחן עורך). Tzafun (צפון). Barech (ברך). Hallel (הלל). Nirtzah (נרצה)."

(blessings and the first cup of wine)
(קדש) is Hebrew Imperative for. It should be recited as soon as the synagogue services are over but not before nightfall. This is similar to that which is recited on all of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, but also refers to matzot and the exodus from Egypt. Acting in a way that shows freedom and majesty, many Jews have the custom of filling each other's cups at the Seder table. The is traditionally said by the father of the house, but all Seder participants may participate by reciting the  and drinking at least a majority of the first cup of wine. On Shabbat, it is preceded by a reading from the Book of Genesis recounting God's rest on the seventh day of creation and includes an extended doxology on the blessings of Shabbat.

(wash hands)
Technically, according to Jewish law, whenever one partakes of fruits or vegetables dipped in liquid while remaining wet, one must wash one's hands if the fruit or vegetable remains wet. However, at other times of the year, one has either already washed their hands before eating bread, or dry the fruit or vegetable, in which case one need not wash their hands before eating the fruit or vegetable.

According to most traditions, no blessing is recited at this point in the Seder, unlike the blessing recited over the washing of the hands before eating bread. However, followers of Rambam or the Gaon of Vilna do recite a blessing.

(appetizer)
Each participant dips a vegetable into either salt water (an Ashkenazi custom; said to serve as a reminder of the tears shed by their enslaved ancestors), vinegar (a Sephardi custom) or charoset (an older Sephardi custom, still common among Yemenite Jews). Another custom mentioned in some Ashkenazi sources and probably originating with Meir of Rothenburg, was to dip the karpas in wine.

(breaking of the middle matzah)
Three matzot are stacked on the seder table; at this stage, the middle matzah of the three is broken in half. The larger piece is hidden, to be used later as the afikoman, the "dessert" after the meal. The smaller piece is returned to its place between the other two matzot.

Moroccan Jewish custom is that when the matzah is split, a passage is recited describing how "in this manner God split the Red Sea" in the aftermath of the Exodus.

Before Magid, some Sephardi families have a custom to sing (translated: 'In haste we left Egypt'). While this is being sung, the head of the household walks around the table with the Seder plate and waves it over each individual's head.

(relating the Exodus)
The story of Passover, and the change from slavery to freedom is told. At this point in the Seder, Moroccan Jews have a custom of raising the Seder plate over the heads of all those present while chanting ('In haste we went out of Egypt [with our] bread of affliction, [now we are] free people').

(invitation to the Seder)

The matzot are uncovered, and referred to as the "bread of affliction". Participants declare (in Aramaic) an invitation to all who are hungry or needy to join in the Seder. Halakha requires that this invitation be repeated in the native language of the country.

(The Four Questions)
The Mishna details questions one is obligated to ask on the night of the seder. It is customary for the youngest child present to recite the four questions. Some customs hold that the other participants recite them quietly to themselves as well. In some families, this means that the requirement remains on an adult "child" until a grandchild of the family receives sufficient Jewish education to take on the responsibility. If a person has no children capable of asking, the responsibility falls to their spouse, or another participant. The need to ask is so great that even if a person is alone at the seder they are obligated to ask themselves and to answer their own questions.

 * 1)  ('Why is this night different from all other nights?')
 * 2)  ('Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either leavened bread or matza, but on this night we eat only matza?')
 * 3)  ('Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables, but on this night we eat bitter herbs?')
 * 4)  ('Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip [our food] even once, but on this night we dip them twice?')
 * 5)  ('Why is it that on all other nights we dine either sitting upright or reclining, but on this night we all recline?')

The question about reclining substitutes for a question about eating roasted meat, that was present in the mishnah but removed by later authorities due to its inapplicability after the destruction of the temple:
 * 1)  ('Why is it that on all other nights we eat meat either roasted, marinated, or cooked, but on this night it is entirely roasted?')

Roasted sacrifices were no longer possible after the destruction, and roasted meat was therefore disallowed on seder night, to avoid ambiguity.

The questions are answered with the following:
 * 1) 'We eat only matzah because our ancestors could not wait for their breads to rise when they were fleeing slavery in Egypt, and so they were flat when they came out of the oven.'
 * 2) 'We eat only Maror, a bitter herb, to remind us of the bitterness of slavery that our ancestors endured while in Egypt.'
 * 3) 'The first dip, green vegetables in salt water, symbolizes the replacing of our tears with gratitude, and the second dip, Maror in Charoses, symbolizes the sweetening of our burden of bitterness and suffering.'
 * 4) 'We recline at the Seder table because in ancient times, a person who reclined at a meal was a free person, while slaves and servants stood.'
 * 5) 'We eat only roasted meat because that is how the Pesach/Passover lamb is prepared during sacrifice in the Temple at Jerusalem.'

The four questions have been translated into over 300 languages.

The Four Sons
The traditional Haggadah speaks of "four sons" – one who is wise, one who is wicked, one who is simple, and one who does not know to ask. This is based upon the rabbis of the Jerusalem Talmud finding four references in the Torah to responding to your son who asks a question. Each of these sons phrases his question about the seder in a different way. The Haggadah recommends answering each son according to his question, using one of the three verses in the Torah that refer to this exchange.

The wise son asks "What are the statutes, the testimonies, and the laws that God has commanded us to do?" One explanation for why this very detailed-oriented question is categorized as wise, is that the wise son is trying to learn how to carry out the seder, rather than asking for someone else's understanding of its meaning. He is answered fully: "You should reply to him with [all] the laws of pesach: one may not eat any dessert after the paschal sacrifice."

The wicked son, who asks, "What is this service to you?", is characterized by the Haggadah as isolating himself from the Jewish people, standing by objectively and watching their behavior rather than participating. Therefore, he is rebuked by the explanation that "It is because God acted for sake when  left Egypt." (This implies that the Seder is not for the wicked son because the wicked son would not have deserved to be freed from Egyptian slavery.) Where the four sons are illustrated in the Haggadah, this son has frequently been depicted as carrying weapons or wearing stylish contemporary fashions.

The simple son, who asks, "What is this?" is answered with "With a strong hand the Almighty led us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage."

The one who does not know to ask is told, "It is because of what the Almighty did for me when I left Egypt."

Some modern Haggadahs mention "children" instead of "sons", and some have added a fifth child. The fifth child can represent the children of the Shoah who did not survive to ask a question or represent Jews who have drifted so far from Jewish life that they do not participate in a Seder.

For the former, tradition is to say that for that child one asks "Why?" and, like the simple child, has no answer.

"Go and learn"
Four verses in Deuteronomy (26:5–8) are then expounded, with an elaborate, traditional commentary. ("And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God: 'A wandering Aramean was my parent, and they went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And we cried unto the Lord, the God of our parents, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders.")

The Haggadah explores the meaning of those verses, and embellishes the story. This telling describes the slavery of the Jewish people and their miraculous salvation by God. This culminates in an enumeration of the Ten Plagues:

 * 1)  (blood) – All the water was changed to blood
 * 2)  (frogs) – An infestation of frogs sprang up in Egypt
 * 3)  (lice) – The Egyptians were afflicted by lice
 * 4)  (wild animals) – An infestation of wild animals (some say flies) sprang up in Egypt
 * 5)  (pestilence) – A plague killed off the Egyptian livestock
 * 6)  (boils) – An epidemic of boils afflicted the Egyptians
 * 7)  (hail) – Hail rained from the sky
 * 8)  (locusts) – Locusts swarmed over Egypt
 * 9)  (darkness) – Egypt was covered in darkness
 * 10)  (killing of the first-born) – All the first-born sons of the Egyptians were slain by God

With the recital of the Ten Plagues, there is a late custom, which arose in German-Jewish circles, that each participant removes a drop of wine from their cup using a fingertip at the mention of each of the ten plagues. Although this night is one of salvation, Don Isaac Abravanel explains that one cannot be completely joyous when some of God's creatures had to suffer. A mnemonic acronym for the plagues is also introduced:, while similarly spilling a drop of wine for each word.

At this part in the Seder, songs of praise are sung, including the song Dayenu, which proclaims that had God performed any single one of the many deeds performed for the Jewish people, it would have been enough to obligate us to give thanks. Some sing instead The Women's Dayenu, a feminist variant of Dayenu, by Michele Landsberg.

After Dayenu is a declaration (mandated by Rabban Gamliel) of the reasons of the commandments of the Paschal lamb, Matzah, and Maror, with scriptural sources. Then follows a short prayer, and the recital of the first two psalms of Hallel (which will be concluded after the meal). A long blessing is recited, and the second cup of wine is drunk.

(ritual washing of hands)
The ritual hand-washing is repeated, this time with all customs including a blessing.

(blessings over the Matzah)
Two blessings are recited.

First one recites the standard blessing before eating bread, which includes the words "who brings forth" ( in Hebrew).

Matzah
Then one recites the blessing regarding the commandment to eat Matzah.

An olive-size piece (some say two) is then eaten while reclining to the left.

Maror (bitter herbs)
The blessing for the eating of the maror (bitter herbs) is recited and then it is to be eaten.

Korech (sandwich)
The maror (bitter herb) is placed between two small pieces of matzo, similarly to how the contents of a sandwich are placed between two slices of bread, and eaten. This follows the tradition of Hillel, who did the same at his Seder table 2000 years ago (except that in Hillel's day the Paschal sacrifice, matzo, and maror were eaten together.)

Shulchan Orech (the meal)
The festive meal is eaten. Traditionally it begins with a hard boiled egg dipped in salt water, referencing the charred egg on the Seder plate. In Yiddish, there is a saying: מיר צוגרייטן די טיש און עסן די פיש, which means "We set the table and eat the fish".

Tzafun (eating of the afikoman)
The afikoman, which was hidden earlier in the Seder, is traditionally the last morsel of food eaten by participants in the Seder.

Each participant receives an olive-sized portion of matzo to be eaten as afikoman. After the consumption of the afikoman, traditionally, no other food may be eaten for the rest of the night. Additionally, no intoxicating beverages may be consumed, with the exception of the remaining two cups of wine.

Bareich (Grace after Meals)
The recital of Birkat Hamazon.

Kos Shlishi (the Third Cup of Wine)
The drinking of the Third Cup of Wine.

Note: The Third Cup is customarily poured before the Grace after Meals is recited because the Third Cup also serves as a Cup of Blessing associated with the Grace after Meals on special occasions.

Kos shel Eliyahu ha-Navi (cup of Elijah the Prophet); Miriam's cup
In many traditions, the front door of the house is opened at this point. Psalms 79:6–7 is recited in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions, plus Lamentations 3:66 among Ashkenazim.

Most Ashkenazim have the custom to fill both a fourth and a fifth cup at this point. This relates to a Talmudic discussion that concerns the number of cups that are supposed to be drunk. Given that the four cups are in reference to the four expressions of redemption in Exodus 6:6–7, some rabbis felt that it was important to include a fifth cup for the fifth expression of redemption in Exodus 6:8. All agreed that five cups should be poured but the question as to whether or not the fifth should be drunk, given that the fifth expression of redemption concerned being brought into the Land of Israel, which – by this stage – was no longer possessed of an autonomous Jewish community, remained insoluble. The rabbis determined that the matter should be left until Elijah (in reference to the notion that Elijah's arrival would precipitate the coming of the Moshiach (Jewish Messiah), at which time all halakhic questions will be resolved) and the fifth cup came to be known as the Kos shel Eliyahu ("Cup of Elijah"). Over time, people came to relate this cup to the notion that Elijah will visit each Jewish home on Seder night as a foreshadowing of his future arrival at the end of the days, when he will come to announce the coming of the Moshiach, and that the door is opened for him to enter.

Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam. Miriam's cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim (living waters) and used it in a feminist ceremony of guided meditation. Miriam's cup is linked to the midrash of Miriam's well, which "is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt".

Hallel (songs of praise)
The entire order of Hallel which is usually recited in the synagogue on Jewish holidays is also recited at the Seder table, albeit sitting down. The first two psalms, 113 and 114, were recited before the meal. The remaining psalms 115–118, are recited at this point. Psalm 136 (the Great Hallel) is then recited, followed by Nishmat, a portion of the morning service for Shabbat and festivals.

There are a number of opinions concerning the paragraph Yehalelukha which normally follows Hallel, and Yishtabakh, which normally follows Nishmat. Most Ashkenazim recite Yehalelukha immediately following the Hallel proper, i.e. at the end of Psalm 118, except for the concluding words. After Nishmat, they recite Yishtabakh in its entirety. Sephardim recite Yehalelukha alone after Nishmat.

Afterwards the Fourth Cup of Wine is drunk and a brief blessing for the "fruit of the vine" is said.

Nirtzah
The Seder concludes with a prayer that the night's service be accepted. A hope for the Messiah is expressed: "L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim! – Next year in Jerusalem!" Jews in Israel, and especially those in Jerusalem, recite instead "L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim hab'nuyah! – Next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem!" Jerusalem is the holiest city in the Bible; it has become symbolic of the idea of spiritual perfection. The tradition of saying "Next year in Jerusalem" is similar to the tradition of opening the door for Elijah: it recognizes that “this year” we live in an imperfect world outside of “Jerusalem,” but we patiently await a time, hopefully “next year,” in which we live in spiritual perfection.

Although the 15 orders of the Seder have been complete, the Haggadah concludes with additional songs which further recount the miracles that occurred on this night in Ancient Egypt as well as throughout history. Some songs express a prayer that the Beit Hamikdash will soon be rebuilt. The last song to be sung is Chad Gadya ("One Kid Goat"). This seemingly childish song about different animals and people who attempted to punish others for their crimes and were in turn punished themselves, was interpreted by the Vilna Gaon as an allegory to the retribution God will levy over the enemies of the Jewish people at the end of days.

Following the Seder, those who are still awake may recite the Song of Songs, engage in Torah learning, or continue talking about the events of the Exodus until sleep overtakes them.

Feminist Seders
In 1976, the first of a series of women-only Passover seders was held in Esther M. Broner's New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's haggadah for use at this seder. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this "Women's Haggadah" in Ms. Magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women's Questions, the Women's Plagues, and a women-centric "Dayenu". The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well. Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam. Miriam's cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim (living waters) and used it in a feminist ceremony of guided meditation. Miriam's cup is linked to the midrash of Miriam's well, which "is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt". Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people. An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate). Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out and repudiating what they see as the homophobia of traditional Judaism.

Furthermore, many Haggadah now use gender-neutral English translations.

Public Seders
The group of people who hold a Passover Seder together is referred to in the Talmud (tractate Pesachim) as a chavurah (group). In the Far East, for example, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries regularly conduct Seders for hundreds of visiting students, businesspeople and Jewish travelers. The Chabad Seder in Kathmandu regularly attracts more than 1,200 participants. In 2006, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and Baltic Countries organized over 500 public Seders throughout the Former Soviet Union, led by local rabbis and Chabad rabbinical students, drawing more than 150,000 attendees in total.

In Israel, where permanent residents observe only one Seder, overseas students learning in yeshivas and women's seminaries are often invited in groups up to 100 for "second-day Seders" hosted by outreach organizations and private individuals.

Christian Seders
Some Christians, especially but not only Evangelical Protestants, have recently taken great interest in performing Seders according to. Many churches host Seders, usually adding a Messianic Christian Passover message, and many times inviting Messianic Jews to lead and teach on it. The Gospels place the Last Supper at Passover, so that some Christians have interpreted it as a Seder; in consequence some Christian Seders are on Maundy Thursday as part of commemorating the Last Supper. Many Christians cite the meal as a way to connect with the heritage of their own religion and to see how the practices of the ancient world are still relevant to Christianity today. However, the current form of the Passover Seder dates from the Rabbinic period, after Christianity and Judaism had already gone their separate ways. Some Jews and Christians consider Christian Seders an inappropriate cultural appropriation of Jewish ritual for non-Jewish purposes.

Interfaith Seders
A number of churches hold interfaith Seders where Jews and non-Jews alike are invited to share in the story and discuss common themes of peace, freedom, and religious tolerance. During the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, interfaith Seders energized and inspired leaders from various communities who came together to march for equal protection for all. The first of these, the Freedom Seder, was written by Arthur Waskow, published in Ramparts magazine and in a small booklet by the Micah Press and in a later edition (1970) by Holt-Rinehart-Winston, and was actually performed on April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the third night of Passover, at Lincoln Memorial Temple in Washington, DC. It celebrated the liberation struggle of Black America alongside that of ancient Israel from Pharaoh, and was the first Haggadah to go beyond the original Biblical story. It sparked a large number of Haggadahs celebrating various other forms of liberation – feminism, vegetarianism, the liberation movements in Latin America in the 1970s, ecological healing, etc.. Today, many Unitarian Universalist congregations hold annual interfaith community Seders. A number of Interfaith Passover Seder Haggadahs have been written especially for this purpose.

White House Passover Seder
In 2009 President Barack Obama began conducting an annual Passover seder in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, marking the first time that a sitting US president hosted a Seder in the White House. The private dinner for about 20 guests, both Jewish and non-Jewish – including the President and his family, members of the President's and First Lady's staffs, and friends and their families – features the reading of the Haggadah, traditional rituals such as the hiding of the afikoman and the cup of Elijah, and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Virtual Seders
When people wish to participate in a shared Seder but are unable to be physically together, technology such as videoconferencing software can be used to facilitate a "virtual" Seder. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a surge of virtual Seders, as many Jews sought to practice social distancing during the holiday, or lived in jurisdictions where they were legally required to do so, and thus could not visit the homes of friends and family who were hosting Seders. The website OneTable saw a fourfold increase in the number of virtual seders it hosted from 2019 to 2020, and Zoom was widely used to host virtual Seders. Virtual seders were endorsed by Progressive rabbis but eschewed by Orthodox rabbis. The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism issued guidance (though not an official Conservative responsum) specific to 2020 on using videoconferencing to facilitate Seders while avoiding or minimizing violations of Yom Tov restrictions that limit the use of electronic devices on holidays.

Seder in space
In 2022, the Israeli astronaut, Eytan Stibbe, participating in the first privately sponsored trip to the International Space Station as part of the "Rakia" mission to conduct science and technology experiments for a number of universities and startups in Israel. As part of the “Rakia” mission, Stibbe held the first Seder in space on the first night of the holiday. This included reciting kiddush, drinking grape juice, eating matzah, and relating to his fellow astronauts about the values that the Seder tradition and the reading of the Haggadah can teach, noting that the story of the exodus from Egypt of the people of Israel "from slavery into freedom" shows that "no dream is beyond reach".

title: Passover Seder


text:
Nisan

Nisan (or Nissan; נִיסָן from 𒁈) in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although it ultimately originates in Sumerian nisag "first fruits". In the Hebrew calendar it is the first month of the ecclesiastical year, called the "first of the months of the year" (Exodus 12:1-2), "first month" (Ex 12:14), and the month of Aviv (Ex 13:4) בְּחֹ֖דֶשׁ הָאָבִֽיב ḥōḏeš hāʾāḇîḇ). It is called Nissān in the Book of Esther. It is a month of 30 days. In the year 2024, 1 Nisan will occur on 9 April. Counting from 1 Tishrei, the civil new year, it would be the seventh month (eighth, in leap year), but in contemporary Jewish culture, both months are viewed as the first and seventh simultaneously, and are referred to as one or the other depending on the specific religious aspects being discussed.

Name and origin
The biblical Hebrew months were given enumerations instead of names. The new moon of Aviv, which in Hebrew means "barley ripening" and by extension "spring season"(Exodus 9:31) is one of the few called both by name and by its number, the first. Nisan and other Akkadian-origin names for the equivalent lunar months in the Babylonian calendar came to be applied to the Hebrew calendar during the Babylonian captivity, in which the month of Aviv's name was Araḫ Nissānu, the "month of beginning".

Holidays and observances

 * 1 Nisan Lunar new year, marking the month of Aviv meaning spring, as the first month of the year, which month was later called Nisan. The first national mitzvah that was given to the Jewish people to fix the calendar to the new moon of Aviv, according to the Book of Exodus 12:1–2, 12:18. (c. 1456 BCE)
 * 10 Nisan – Yom HaAliyah – Aliyah Day, Israeli national holiday
 * 14 Nisan – Fast of the Firstborn - When the 14th falls on Sabbath, Ashkenazim observe it on 12 Nisan and Sephardim do not observe it at all
 * 14 Nisan - Passover seder meal and Haggadah on the going out of the 14th and eve of the 15th
 * 15–21 Nisan (22 Nisan outside of Israel) – Feast of Matzot - Passover week
 * 23 Nisan – Mimouna – a Maghrebi Jewish celebration of the end of the Passover prohibition on eating chametz, on 22 Nisan within Israel
 * 27 Nisan – Yom HaShoah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) – on 26 Nisan or 28 Nisan when the 27th falls on Friday or Sunday respectively, interfering with Shabbat

Moveable holidays and observances

 * Shabbat HaGadol is the sabbath which immediately precedes the 15 Nisan, the first day of Pesach, which changes due to the leap year in the Hebrew calendar.

In history and tradition

 * 1 Nisan The day the floodwaters receded from the earth, after the dove was sent out by Noah and returned with an olive branch, according to Genesis 8:10-13
 * 1 Nisan (c. 1638 BCE) – Death of Abraham according to the Talmud
 * 1 Nisan (c. 1533 BCE) – Death of Isaac according to the Talmud
 * 1 Nisan (c. 1506 BCE) – Death of Jacob according to the Talmud
 * 1 Nisan (c. 1455 BCE) – Tabernacle (Mishkan) inaugurated on the second year
 * 1 Nisan (c. 1455 BCE) death of Nadab and Abihu
 * 1 Nisan (c. 3761 BCE) – Creation of the Universe according to Joshua ben Hananiah's opinion in the Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 10b–11a).
 * 1 Nisan (1772) – Birth of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
 * 1 Nisan (1892) – Death of Rabbi Elimelech Szapira of Grodzhisk
 * 2 Nisan (1920) – Death of Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe. His last words are recorded as, "I'm going to heaven; I leave you the writings."
 * 3 Nisan (1492) – The Alhambra Decree orders the expulsion of Spanish Jews from Castile and Aragon (but not Navarre).
 * 7 Nisan (c. 1416 BCE) – Joshua sends two spies to Jericho.
 * 8 Nisan (1948) – Birth of Yaakov Yechezkiya Greenwald II, the present Pupa Rebbe
 * 10 Nisan (c. 1456 BCE) – The first Shabbat HaGadol was celebrated by the Israelites in Egypt five days before The Exodus.
 * 10 Nisan (c. 1417 BCE) – Yahrzeit of Miriam the prophetess, 39 years after the Exodus.
 * 10 Nisan (c. 1416 BCE) – The Israelites cross the Jordan River into Canaan (Book of Joshua, 4)
 * 11 Nisan (1270) – Death of Nachmanides
 * 11 Nisan (1902) – Birth of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson
 * 13 Nisan (c. 474 BCE) – Haman's decree to annihilate the Jews is passed.
 * 13 Nisan (1575) – Death of Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch.
 * 13 Nisan (1866) – Death of Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe.
 * 14 Nisan (1135) – Birth of Maimonides
 * 14 Nisan (1943) – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. The uprising would last until 3 Iyar, and is now commemorated in Israel on 27 Nisan.
 * 14 Nisan (c. 1456 BCE) - On the going out thereof, the eve of the 15th, was the first Passover meal, and the 10th plague on Egypt, the slaying of the firstborn.
 * 15 Nisan (c. 1456 BCE) – The Exodus from Egypt, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm
 * 15 Nisan (c. 1713 BCE) – Birth of Isaac
 * 15 Nisan (474 BC) – Esther appears before Ahasuerus unsummoned and invites him and Haman to a feast to be held the same day. During the feast she requests that the king and Haman attend a second feast the next day.
 * 16 Nisan (c. 1273 BCE) – The Israelites stop eating manna six days after entering the Holy Land.
 * 16 Nisan (c. 474 BCE) – Esther's second feast, during which she accuses Haman regarding his plot to annihilate her nation. Ahasuerus orders his servants to hang Haman.
 * 17 Nisan (c. 24th century BCE) – Noah's Ark came to rest on mountains of Ararat
 * 17 Nisan (c. 474 BCE) – Haman hanged after Esther's second drinking party.
 * 21 Nisan (c. 1456 BCE) – The Red Sea splits, allowing Israel to escape the Egyptian army.
 * 26 Nisan (c. 1386 BCE) – Traditional yahrzeit of Joshua son of Nun.
 * 28 Nisan (c. 1415 BCE) – Battle of Jericho by Joshua (Book of Joshua ch. 6).
 * 29 Nisan (1620) – Death of Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, a Kabbalist and a disciple of Isaac Luria.
 * 29 Nisan (1699) – In Bamberg, Germany during a commercial crisis in 1699, the populace rose up against the Jews, and one Jew saved himself by throwing prunes from a gable-window down upon the mob. That event, the 29th of Nisan, called the Zwetschgen Taanit "Plum-Fast", was commemorated by a fast and a Purim festivity until the extermination of the Jewish community there.

Table of civil dates when 1 Nisan occurs
The list below gives a time which can be used to determine the day the Jewish ecclesiastical (spring) year starts over a period of nineteen years. These are not Nisan molad times, although the offset necessarily remains constant. (The fractions shown are fractions of a minute.)

 * 17:49 Wednesday, 22 March 2023
 * 15:21 $$\tfrac{13}{18}$$ Tuesday, 9 April 2024
 * 00:10 $$\tfrac{7}{18}$$ Sunday, 30 March 2025
 * 08:59 $$\tfrac{1}{18}$$ Thursday, 19 March 2026
 * 06:31 $$\tfrac{14}{18}$$ Wednesday, 7 April 2027
 * 15:20 $$\tfrac{8}{18}$$ Sunday, 26 March 2028
 * 00:09 $$\tfrac{2}{18}$$ Friday, 16 March 2029
 * 21:41 $$\tfrac{15}{18}$$ Wednesday, 3 April 2030
 * 06:30 $$\tfrac{9}{18}$$ Monday, 24 March 2031
 * 15:19 $$\tfrac{3}{18}$$ Friday, 12 March 2032
 * 12:51 $$\tfrac{16}{18}$$ Thursday, 31 March 2033
 * 21:40 $$\tfrac{10}{18}$$ Monday, 20 March 2034
 * 19:13 $$\tfrac{5}{18}$$ Sunday, 8 April 2035
 * 04:01 $$\tfrac{17}{18}$$ Friday, 28 March 2036
 * 12:50 $$\tfrac{11}{18}$$ Tuesday, 17 March 2037
 * 10:23 $$\tfrac{6}{18}$$ Monday, 5 April 2038
 * 19:12 Friday, 25 March 2039
 * 04:00 $$\tfrac{12}{18}$$ Wednesday, 14 March 2040
 * 01:33 $$\tfrac{7}{18}$$ Tuesday, 2 April 2041

Every nineteen years this time is 2 days, 16 hours, 33 1/18 minutes later in the week. That is either the same or the previous day in the civil calendar, depending on whether the difference in the day of the week is three or two days. If 29 February is included fewer than five times in the nineteen – year period the date will be later by the number of days which corresponds to the difference between the actual number of insertions and five. If the year is due to start on Sunday, it actually begins on the following Tuesday if the following year is due to start on Friday morning. If due to start on Monday, Wednesday or Friday it actually begins on the following day. If due to start on Saturday, it actually begins on the following day if the previous year was due to begin on Monday morning.

The table below lists, for a Jewish year commencing on 23 March, the civil date of the first day of each month. If the year does not begin on 23 March, each month's first day will differ from the date shown by the number of days that the start of the year differs from 23 March. The correct column is the one which shows the correct starting date for the following year in the last row. If 29 February falls within a Jewish month the first day of later months will be a day earlier than shown.

For long period calculations, dates should be reduced to the Julian calendar and converted back to the civil calendar at the end of the calculation. The civil calendar used here (Exigian) is correct to one day in 44,000 years and omits the leap day in centennial years which do not give remainder 200 or 700 when divided by 900. It is identical to the Gregorian calendar between 15 October 1582 CE and 28 February 2400 CE (both dates inclusive).

To find how many days the civil calendar is ahead of the Julian in any year from 301 BCE (the calendar is proleptic [assumed] up to 1582 CE) add 300 to the year, multiply the hundreds by 7, divide by 9 and subtract 4. Ignore any fraction of a day. When the difference between the calendars changes the calculated value applies on and from 1 March (civil date) for conversions to Julian. For earlier dates reduce the calculated value by one. For conversions to the civil date the calculated value applies on and from 29 February (Julian date). Again, for earlier dates reduce the calculated value by one. The difference is applied to the calendar one is converting into. A negative value indicates that the Julian date is ahead of the civil date. In this case it is important to remember that when calculating the civil equivalent of 29 February (Julian), 29 February is discounted. Thus if the calculated value is −4 the civil equivalent of this date is 24 February. Before 1 CE use astronomical years rather than years BCE. The astronomical year is (year BCE) – 1.

Up to the 4th century CE, these tables give the day of the Jewish month to within a day or so and the number of the month to within a month or so. From the 4th century, the number of the month is given exactly and from the 9th century the day of the month is given exactly as well.

In the Julian calendar, every 76 years the Jewish year is due to start 5h 47 14/18m earlier, and 3d 18h 12 4/18m later in the week.

 * Example calculation

On what civil date does the eighth month begin in CE 20874–5?

20874=2026+(248x76). In (248x76) Julian years the Jewish year is due to start (248x3d 18h 12 4/18m) later in the week, which is 932d 2h 31 2/18m or 1d 2h 31 2/18m later after removing complete weeks. Allowing for the current difference of thirteen days between the civil and Julian calendars, the Julian date is 13+(248x0d 5h 47 4/18m) earlier, which is 72d 21h 28 16/18m earlier. Convert back to the civil calendar by applying the formula.

 * 20874+300=21174
 * 211x7=1477
 * 1477/9=164 remainder 1
 * 164-4=160.
 * 160d-72d 21h 28 16/18m=87d 2h 31 2/18m.

So, in 20874 CE, the Jewish year is due to begin 87d 2h 31 2/18m later than in 2026 CE and 1d 2h 31 2/18m later in the week. In 20874 CE, therefore, the Jewish year is due to begin at 11.30 3/18 A.M. on Friday, 14 June. Because of the displacements, it actually begins on Saturday, 15 June. Odd months have 30 days and even months 29, so the starting dates are 2, 15 July; 3, 13 August; 4, 12 September; 5, 11 October; 6, 10 November; 7, 9 December, and 8, 8 January.

The rules are based on the theory that Maimonides explains in his book Rabbinical Astronomy. The times in the list are those calculated by Gauss with an offset of -14 days as his calculation gives the civil date of Passover rather than the start of the month. Gauss's calculation has been rigorously proved.

Other uses

 * There is also a month in the Assyrian calendar called Nisanu with a similar root of the word that Nisan which comes from of which Nisanu comes from the Akkadian of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia nisānu, which derives from Sumerian nisag "First fruits".
 * "Nisan" is also the name for the month of April in Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic (نيسان), a later Semitic language (see Arabic names of Gregorian months), in Kurdish languages and modern Turkish. Maghrebi and Gulf state Arabic use the modified Latin name "Ibril".
 * In the story of Xenogears, "Nisan" is the name of a country, named after the Hebrew month.
 * Quartodecimanism

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Nisan


text:
Hubert van Eyck

Hubert van Eyck or Huybrecht van Eyck (c. 1385/90 – 18 September 1426) was an Early Netherlandish painter and older brother of Jan van Eyck, as well as Lambert and Margareta, also painters. The absence of any single work that he can clearly be said to have completed continues to make an assessment of his achievement highly uncertain, although for centuries he had the reputation of being an outstanding founding artist of Early Netherlandish painting.

Life and career
He was probably born in Maaseik, in what is now the Belgian province of Limburg, into a family in the gentry.

As the name was not a very common one, he is probably the "Magister Hubertus, Pictor" recorded as having been paid in 1409 for panels in the church of Onze Lieve Vrouwe, Tongeren. He is probably also Master Hubert who had painted a panel bequeathed in 1413 by Jan de Visch van der Capelle to his daughter, a Benedictine nun near Grevelingen; however he does not appear in guild records, and his heirs did not include any children, so it has been suggested that he may have been in minor orders, perhaps attached to what was then the abbey, now the cathedral, of St Bavo at Ghent, where his Ghent Altarpiece still remains, settling in Ghent by c. 1420.

Around the time of his settlement, or shortly afterward, he began his only surviving documented work, the Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo's. However, the painting was not finished until six years after his death, in 1432, so the degree to which the surviving altarpiece reflects his work, rather than that of Jan who took it over, remains much discussed. An inscription on the frame, which was destroyed in the beeldenstorm in 1566, stated that Hubert van Eyck "maior quo Nemo reports" (greater than anyone) started the altarpiece, but that Jan van Eyck – calling himself "arte Secundus" (second-best in the art) – completed it in 1432.

Writing in 1933, art historian Bryson Burroughs, who at that time attributed to Hubert the Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych, describing him as "the fountainhead of northern painting", suggests he did the underdrawing for the Ghent Altarpiece with Jan painting in after his brother's death; some form of this view remains common among specialists. Modern scientific investigation reveals various changes between the finished work and the lower painted levels and the underdrawing. Today the inscription is often regarded as an overgenerous fraternal tribute. Given the circumstances, the Ghent Altarpiece is a difficult work to use for comparison when assessing other attributions, especially as several other artists from the brothers' workshops probably worked on it as well. The town magistrates of Ghent visited his workshop in 1425; the city had commissioned two designs for a painting from him. He died on or before 18 September 1426, probably still in his thirties, and was buried in Saint Bavo's Cathedral, next to his sister Margareta according to the 16th-century writer van Vaernewijck, who says she was also a painter and unmarried. His heirs paid taxes relating to properties in Ghent. A copper inscription recording his date of death was engraved on the tombstone, but is now missing. According to a tradition from the 16th century, his arm was preserved as a relic in a casket above the portal of Saint Bavo of Ghent. Van Vaernewijck also records the local tradition that Jan van Eyck was trained by his brother, though when Jan is first documented in August 1422 he was already a "master" and working in The Hague.

Legacy
The division of surviving works between Hubert, early Jan van Eyck, and other painters has been the subject of great debate among art historians, involving the Ghent Altarpiece, the many different hands that can be detected in the Turin-Milan Hours, and other pieces. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the inscription on the Ghent Altarpiece was usually taken at face value, and most unsigned works now given to the early years of his brother Jan were attributed to Hubert. After a period in the mid-20th century when there was a strong tendency to attribute work away from Hubert, he has made something of a comeback in recent decades, but there is still a wide range of opinion among specialists. He is likely to have begun The Three Marys at the Tomb now in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, but this seems to have been finished by another artist some decades later and has suffered from the restoration. Drawings in the Albertina, Vienna of the Apostles have been attributed to him and the British Museum has a drawing copying a lost Capture of Christ that relates to parts of the Ghent Altarpiece.

title: Hubert van Eyck


text:
Shemini Atzeret

Shemini Atzeret (—"Eighth [day of] Assembly") is a Jewish holiday. It is celebrated on the 22nd day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei in the Land of Israel, and on the 22nd and 23rd outside the Land, usually coinciding with late September or early October. It directly follows the Jewish festival of Sukkot which is celebrated for seven days, and thus Shemini Atzeret is literally the eighth day. It is a separate—yet connected—holy day devoted to the spiritual aspects of the festival of Sukkot. Part of its duality as a holy day is that it is simultaneously considered to be both connected to Sukkot and also a separate festival in its own right.

Outside the Land of Israel, this is further complicated by the additional day added to all Biblical holidays except Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The first day of Shemini Atzeret therefore coincides with the eighth day of Sukkot outside the Land of Israel, leading to sometimes involved analysis as to which practices of each holiday are to apply.

The celebration of Simchat Torah is the most distinctive feature of the holiday, but it is a later rabbinical innovation. In the Land of Israel, the celebrations of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are combined on a single day, and the names are used interchangeably. In the Diaspora, the celebration of Simchat Torah is deferred to the second day of the holiday. Commonly, only the first day is referred to as Shemini Atzeret, while the second is called Simchat Torah.

Karaite Jews and Samaritans also observe Shemini Atzeret, as they do all Biblical holidays. However, it may occur on a different day from the conventional Jewish celebration, due to differences in calendar calculations. Karaites and Samaritans do not include the rabbinical innovation of Simchat Torah in their observance of the day; and do not observe a second day (of any holiday) in the Diaspora.

Biblical origins
According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, atzeret (or in Biblical Hebrew aṣereth) is the name given to this day in four different locations in the Hebrew Bible. It is not mentioned in Deuteronomy 16, and is found only in those parts of the Bible known as the Priestly Code. Like atzarah, atzeret denotes "day of assembly", from atzar = "to hold back" or "keep in"; hence, also the name atzeret given to the seventh day of Pesaḥ. Owing, however, to the fact that both Shemini Atzeret and the seventh day of Pesaḥ are described as atzeret, the name was taken to mean "the closing festival".

Shemini: "Eighth Day" of Sukkot
When Shemini Atzeret is mentioned in the Torah (Pentateuch), it is always mentioned in the context of the seven-day festival of Sukkot, which it immediately follows. For example, Sukkot is described in detail in Leviticus 23:33–43. Shemini Atzeret is mentioned there only in verses 36 and 39.

The Hebrew word shemini means eighth. This refers to the date of Shemini Atzeret relative to Sukkot; it falls on the eighth day. It is therefore often assumed that Shemini Atzeret is simply the eighth day of Sukkot. That characterization, however, is only partly accurate.

The celebration of Sukkot is characterized by the use of the sukkah (booth or tabernacle) and the Four Species (tree branches and fruit used in the celebration). However, the Torah specifies use of those objects for seven days only, not eight. The observance of Shemini Atzeret therefore differs in substantial ways from that of Sukkot. The Talmud describes Shemini Atzeret with the words "a holiday in its own right" (regel bifnei atzmo).

The Talmud describes six ways in which Shemini Atzeret differs from Sukkot. Four of these relate principally to the Temple service. Two others remain relevant to modern celebration of the holiday. First, the blessing known as Shehecheyanu is recited on the night of Shemini Atzeret, just as it is on the first night of all other major Jewish holidays. Second, the holiday is referred to distinctively as "Shemini Atzeret" and not as "Sukkot" in the prayer service.

Immediately below that discussion, however, the Talmud describes Shemini Atzeret as the "end holiday of the festival [of Sukkot]". The context here is that the Sukkot obligations of joy and recitation of Hallel (Psalms 113–118) last eight days. This is also why one of Sukkot's liturgical aliases, "Time of Our Happiness" (zman simḥatenu), continues to be used to describe Shemini Atzeret (and by extension Simchat Torah) in prayers.

Shemini Atzeret is therefore simultaneously "a holiday in its own right" and the "end holiday of [Sukkot]".

Atzeret: A day for assembly—or pause
Spiritually, Shemini Atzeret can also be seen to "guard the seven days of Sukkot". The Hebrew word atzeret is generally translated as "assembly", but shares a linguistic root with the word atzor, meaning "stop" or "tarry". Shemini Atzeret is characterized as a day when the Jewish people "tarries" to spend an additional day with God at the end of Sukkot. Rashi cites the parable of a king who invites his sons to dine with him for a number of days, but when the time comes for them to leave, he asks them to stay for another day, since it is difficult for him to part from them. According to this idea, Sukkot is a universal holiday, but Shemini Atzeret is only for the Jewish people. Moreover, Shemini Atzeret is a modest holiday, just to celebrate [God's] special relationship with His beloved nation.

A different, but related, interpretation is offered by Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, who translates atzeret as "retain": "During the holiday season, we have experienced a heightened religious fervor and a most devout spirit. This last day is devoted to a recapitulation of the message of these days, with the hope that it will be retained the rest of the year".

Connections to the prior Jewish holy days
The day prior to Shemini Atzeret is the last day of Sukkot. Called Hoshana Rabbah, it is unique and different from the other days of Sukkot. While it is part of the intermediate Sukkot days known as Chol HaMoed, Hoshana Rabbah has extra prayers and rituals and is treated and practiced much more seriously and festively than the previous days of Chol HaMoed. In particular during the morning prayer service of Hoshana Rabbah, there are seven hoshanot with their own seven hakafot, the "seven processions". This sets the stage, in ritual, mood, tenor and a heightened sense of festivity, for the days that follow it—namely, of Shemini Atzeret, when seven hakafot are again performed.

The Jewish Encyclopedia states that during the time of the Second Temple, the festival of Shavuot received the specific name of "'Atzarta" as cited by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews (iii. 10, § 6) and in the Talmud's tractate Pesahim (42b, 68b), signifying "the closing feast" of Passover. and commenting on this fact, the Rabbis in tractate Pesahim say that:

"The closing feast of Sukkot (i.e., Shemini Atzeret) ought rightly to have been, like that of Passover (i.e., Shavuot) on the fiftieth day; but, in order not to force the people to make another journey to Jerusalem in the rainy season, God fixed it as early as the eighth day."

These religious celebrations conclude the process that had begun on the days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, observed ten days after the start of Rosh Hashanah. Five days after the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Sukkot begins, regarded as the celebration of the anticipated Divine "good judgment" that was hopefully granted on the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah + the Ten Days of Repentance + Yom Kippur) and then Hoshana Rabbah + Shemini Atzeret + Simchat Torah culminate the process of open celebration and festivity with joyous prayers, festive meals, and hours of dancing holding the Torah scroll(s) at the center of attention during the hakafot in the synagogue.

Evolution of observances and customs
The Torah explicitly mentions Shemini Atzeret three times, all in the context of Sukkot. Only two observances are specified for Shemini Atzeret. One relates to the Temple service, and is not relevant to modern observance. The other is the avoidance of "servile labor" (melechet avodah), as on other major Jewish holidays. (See also Jewish holidays — "Work" on Sabbath and biblical holidays.) No other specific rituals or ritual objects are specified, making Shemini Atzeret unique in that regard among the festivals mentioned in the Torah.

Two observances of Shemini Atzeret are mentioned in the Prophets and Writings portions of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The first occurred at the time of the dedication of the First Temple by Solomon. The second came at the time of the Jews' return from the Babylonian exile. In both cases, however, the mention is limited to the observation that an "assembly [atzeret] was held on the eighth day".

According to the Apocryphal Second Book of Maccabees, the first celebration of Hanukkah mimicked that of Sukkot, which the Maccabees and their followers had been unable to celebrate earlier that year. However, the only allusion to Shemini Atzeret in that narrative is that the Hanukkah celebration was fixed for eight days—in remembrance of both the seven days of Sukkot and the additional day of Shemini Atzeret.

Like most Jewish holidays of Biblical origin, Shemini Atzeret is observed for one day within the Land of Israel, and traditionally for two days outside Israel. Reform and Reconstructionist communities generally celebrate this and most Biblical holidays for one day, even outside Israel. The second day observed outside Israel is called Simchat Torah (see next section).

Simchat Torah
The practice of reading the last of the weekly Torah portions on Shemini Atzeret is documented in the Talmud. That Talmudic source does not refer to the occasion as "Simchat Torah", but simply as [the second day of] Shemini Atzeret.

The Simchat Torah celebration of today is of later rabbinic and customary origin. The day (but not the name) is mentioned in the siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (9th century CE); the assignment of the first chapter of Joshua as the haftarah of the day is mentioned there. The reading of the first section of Genesis immediately upon the conclusion of the last section of Deuteronomy—as well as the name "Simchat Torah"—can be found in the 14th century halachic work Arba'ah Turim. By the 16th century CE, most of the features of the modern celebration of Simchat Torah were in place in some form. The Simchat Torah celebration is now the most distinctive feature of this festival—so much so that in the Land of Israel, where Shemini Atzeret lasts only one day, it is more common to refer to the day as "Simchat Torah" than as "Shemini Atzeret".

In the 20th century, Simchat Torah came to symbolize the public assertion of Jewish identity. The Jews of the Soviet Union, in particular, would celebrate the festival en masse in the streets of Moscow. On October 14, 1973, more than 100,000 Jews took part in a post-Simchat Torah rally in New York city on behalf of refuseniks and Soviet Jewry. Dancing in the street with the Torah has become part of the holiday's ritual in various Jewish congregations in the United States as well. In Israel, many communities conduct Hakafot shniyot, or "Second hakafot", on the day after Shemini Atzeret. In part, this shows solidarity with Jewish communities outside Israel, which are still celebrating Simchat Torah (on the second day of the festival). At the same time, it allows for a Simchat Torah celebration unconstrained by festival work restrictions, since the festival is over in Israel according to Jewish law.

Outside Israel, where Shemini Atzeret is observed for two days, Simchat Torah is deferred to the second day, when all agree there is no obligation of sukkah.

Carryover of Sukkot observances outside the Land of Israel
In Israel—and for different reasons in Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism—none of the unique observances of Sukkot (sukkah, lulav and etrog) carry over to Shemini Atzeret. Shemini Atzeret is a holiday in its own right, without sukkah, lulav and etrog. At the same time, by the rabbinic decree to add one day to all holidays outside the Land of Israel, both Passover and Sukkot, although described in the Torah as seven-day holidays, are observed outside the Land of Israel for eight days. Accordingly, the "eighth day of Sukkot" outside Israel coincides with the separate holiday of Shemini Atzeret.

Psalm 27, which is recited in most communities twice daily starting at the beginning of Elul, continues to be recited on Shemini Atzeret outside the Land of Israel. When Shemini Atzeret falls on the Shabbat, the Scroll of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet (קהלת, otherwise read in Ashkenazi synagogues on the Shabbat of Sukkot), is read on that day outside the Land of Israel. In the Land of Israel, it would have been read on the first day of Sukkot, which would also have been on Shabbat. The Torah reading (Deuteronomy 14:22–16:17) is the same as on the Final Day of Passover and Second Day of Shavuot. However, unlike Passover and Shavuot, the full length of the Torah reading is included on Shemini Atzeret even when the day does not fall on the Shabbat because the reading refers to separation of agricultural gifts (like tithes and terumah), which are due at this time of the year. The Haftarah describes the people's blessing of King Solomon at the end of the dedication of the First Temple.

Taking the lulav and etrog and sleeping in the sukkah
The prevalent practice is that one eats in the sukkah on the eighth day, but without reciting the blessing (berakhah) for sitting in a sukkah. However, one does not take the lulav and etrog (nor does one sleep in the sukkah according to most opinions) on the eighth day. If someone sees a neighbor on the street with a lulav and etrog on the eighth day, the rabbis reason, they might mistakenly assume that it is still the seventh day (ḥol hamoed), when the lulav and etrog are still needed. They might then violate prohibitions of the yom tov of the eighth day. For that reason, the rabbis ruled that one should not take the lulav and etrog on the eighth day, even outside the Land of Israel. They are therefore muktzah; that is, one may not even move them on a holiday where they are not needed. Sleeping in the sukkah brings a similar discussion. Additionally, most people would prefer to sleep indoors at this point in the year due to the weather, so sleeping in the sukkah may impinge on one's own joy during the festival. This is why the rabbis ruled that one does not sleep in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeret, even outside the Land of Israel. Other rabbis, such as the Vilna Gaon, ruled that one should sleep in the sukkah on Shemini Atzeret outside the Land of Israel.

Eating in the sukkah
Eating in the sukkah does not cause a parallel problem because many people simply enjoy eating outdoors in the shade of a sukkah. Hence, seeing someone eating in a sukkah does not per se lead one to assume it is still ḥol hamoed. Likewise, eating in the sukkah does not per se impinge on one's own celebration of Shemini Atzeret. Therefore, the prevalent practice is to eat in the sukkah on Shemini Azeret outside the Land of Israel, but not to recite the berakhah for sitting in a sukkah, as reciting it would "impinge" on the unique status of Shemini Atzeret.

There are, however, those who have different minhagim (customs). Many Hasidic groups have a tradition to recite the morning kiddush and then have refreshments (such as cake) in the sukkah, but to eat both the evening and morning main meals inside, notwithstanding the Talmudic ruling to the contrary. Others eat the evening meal of Shemini Atzeret indoors but the day meal in the sukkah. Each of these approaches addresses aspects of the dual nature of Shemini Atzeret.

Other customs
The Land of Israel's agriculture depends heavily on rains that come only seasonally, so Jewish prayers for rain, such as Tefillat Geshem or Tikun Geshem (Rain Prayer) are prominent during the Land of Israel's rainy (winter) half of the year. The rainy season starts just after the fall Jewish holidays. Because of that, and because the sukkah (and, by extension, pleasant weather) is no longer required on Shemini Atzeret, Jews begin to ask for rain starting with the Musaf amidah prayer of Shemini Atzeret. This prayer is recited in a traditional, distinctive, plaintive melody during the cantor's repetition of the amidah. In most Ashkenazi synagogues, the cantor is clad in a white kittel, a symbol of piety, owing to the vitality of a positive judgment for rain. A brief mention of rain continues to be inserted in the amidah until Passover. The Yizkor memorial service is also recited in Ashkenazi synagogues on this day. Recital of the Yizkor prayer is said to bring the person "closer to the cold and brittle part of mourning", and is necessary to promote the healing of a broken heart.

Observance in non-rabbinical Jewish traditions
As a biblically-mentioned holiday, Shemini Atzeret is also observed by Karaites and Samaritans:

In Karaite Judaism
For Karaites, followers of a branch of Judaism that accepts the Written Law, but not the Oral Law, Shemini Atzeret is observed as a single day of rest, not associated with the practices of Simchat Torah, which are a rabbinic innovation. Nevertheless, the Karaite cycle of weekly Torah reading, like the Rabbinic cycle, reaches its conclusion on Shemini Atzeret. Accordingly, in at least some Karaite circles, this day is referred to by the name of Simchat Torah. Additionally, calculation of the Karaite calendar is not based on astronomical calculations, but only on direct observation of the New Moon and the ripening of barley. Because of that, the 22nd day of the 7th month does not necessarily fall on the same date as 22 Tishrei in the (conventional, Rabbinic) Jewish calendar. In 2015, Shemini Atzeret fell on October 7 for Karaites, two days later than in the conventional Jewish calendar. In 2016, Shemini Atzeret fell on the same day according to both calendars.

In the Samaritan tradition
Samaritans, i.e. the northern Israelites who split from Jews during the reign of King Rehoboam, recognise only the first five (or six) books of the Bible as canonical, and thus celebrate only one day of Shemini Aṣereth.

"Shortly after midnight, prayers are made in the synagogue for more than ten hours. No work is permitted on this day. At the end of the holiday, the succahs are dismantled. Their poles and nets will be stored until the next Harvest Festival. The fruits will be squeezed into sweetened juice and some will be eaten by the children."

title: Shemini Atzeret


text:
Magenta

Magenta is a purplish-red color. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in color printing by an inkjet printer, along with yellow, cyan, and black to make all the other colors. The tone of magenta used in printing, printer's magenta, is redder than the magenta of the RGB (additive) model, the former being closer to rose.

Magenta took its name from an aniline dye made and patented in 1859 by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, who originally called it fuchsine. It was renamed to celebrate the Italian-French victory at the Battle of Magenta fought between the French and Austrians on 4 June 1859 near the Italian town of Magenta in Lombardy. A virtually identical color, called roseine, was created in 1860 by two British chemists, Edward Chambers Nicholson, and George Maule.

The web color magenta is also called fuchsia.

In optics and color science

Magenta is an extra-spectral color, meaning that it is not a hue associated with monochromatic visible light. Magenta is associated with perception of spectral power distributions concentrated mostly in two bands: longer wavelength reddish components and shorter wavelength blueish components.

In the RGB color system, used to create all the colors on a television or computer display, magenta is a secondary color, made by combining equal amounts of red and blue light at a high intensity. In this system, magenta is the complementary color of green, and combining green and magenta light on a black screen will create white.

In the CMYK color model, used in color printing, it is one of the three primary colors, along with cyan and yellow, used to print all the rest of the colors. If magenta, cyan, and yellow are printed on top of each other on a page, they make black. In this model, magenta is the complementary color of green. If combined, green and magenta ink will look dark brown or black. The magenta used in color printing, sometimes called process magenta, is a darker shade than the color used on computer screens.

In terms of physiology, the color is stimulated in the brain when the eye reports input from short wave blue cone cells along with a sub-sensitivity of the long wave cones which respond secondarily to that same deep blue color, but with little or no input from the middle wave cones. The brain interprets that combination as some hue of magenta or purple, depending on the relative strengths of the cone responses.

In the Munsell color system, magenta is called red-purple.

If the spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, magenta (additive secondary) appears midway between red and violet. Violet and red, the two components of magenta, are at opposite ends of the visible spectrum and have very different wavelengths. The additive secondary color magenta is made by combining violet and red light at equal intensity; it is not present in the spectrum itself.

Fuchsia and magenta
The web colors fuchsia and magenta are identical, made by mixing the same proportions of blue and red light. In design and printing, there is more variation. The French version of fuchsia in the RGB color model and in printing contains a higher proportion of red than the American version of fuchsia.

Fuchsine and magenta dye (1859)
The color magenta was the result of the industrial chemistry revolution of the mid-nineteenth century, which began with the invention by William Perkin of mauveine in 1856, which was the first synthetic aniline dye. The enormous commercial success of the dye and the new color it produced, mauve, inspired other chemists in Europe to develop new colors made from aniline dyes.

In France, François-Emmanuel Verguin, the director of the chemical factory of Louis Rafard near Lyon, tried many different formulae before finally in late 1858 or early 1859, mixing aniline with carbon tetrachloride, producing a reddish-purple dye which he called "fuchsine", after the color of the flower of the fuchsia plant. He quit the Rafard factory and took his color to a firm of paint manufacturers, Francisque and Joseph Renard, who began to manufacture the dye in 1859.

In the same year, two British chemists, Edward Chambers Nicholson and George Maule, working at the laboratory of the paint manufacturer George Simpson, located in Walworth, south of London, made another aniline dye with a similar red-purple color, which they began to manufacture in 1860 under the name "roseine". In 1860 they changed the name of the color to "magenta", in honor of the Battle of Magenta fought by the armies of France and Sardinia against Austrians at Magenta, Lombardy the year before, and the new color became a commercial success.

Starting in 1935 the family of quinacridone dyes was developed. These have colors ranging from red to violet, so nowadays a quinacridone dye is often used for magenta. Various tones of magenta—light, bright, brilliant, vivid, rich, or deep—may be formulated by adding varying amounts of white to quinacridone artist's paints.

Another dye used for magenta is Lithol Rubine BK. One of its uses is as a food coloring.

Process magenta (pigment magenta; printer's magenta) (1890s)
In color printing, the color called process magenta, pigment magenta, or printer's magenta is one of the three primary pigment colors which, along with yellow and cyan, constitute the three subtractive primary colors of pigment. (The secondary colors of pigment are blue, green, and red.) As such, the hue magenta is the complement of green: magenta pigments absorb green light; thus magenta and green are opposite colors.

The CMYK printing process was invented in the 1890s, when newspapers began to publish color comic strips.

Process magenta is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there may be variations in the printed color that is pure magenta ink.

Web colors magenta and fuchsia
The web color magenta is one of the three secondary colors in the RGB color model. On the RGB color wheel, magenta is the color between rose and violet, and halfway between red and blue.

This color is called magenta in X11 and fuchsia in HTML. In the RGB color model, it is created by combining equal intensities of red and blue light. The two web colors magenta and fuchsia are exactly the same color. Sometimes the web color magenta is called electric magenta or electronic magenta.

While the magenta used in printing and the web color have the same name, they have important differences. Process magenta (the color used for magenta printing ink—also called printer's or pigment magenta) is much less vivid than the color magenta achievable on a computer screen. CMYK printing technology cannot accurately reproduce on paper the color on the computer screen. When the web color magenta is reproduced on paper, it is called fuchsia and it is physically impossible for it to appear on paper as vivid as on a computer screen.

Colored pencils and crayons called "magenta" are usually colored the color of process magenta (printer's magenta).

In art

 * Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) used a shade of magenta in 1890 in his portrait of Marie Lagadu, and in some of his South Seas paintings.
 * Henri Matisse and the members of the Fauvist movement used magenta and other non-traditional colors to surprise viewers, and to move their emotions through the use of bold colors.
 * Since the mid-1960s, water based fluorescent magenta paint has been available to paint psychedelic black light paintings. (Fluorescent cerise, fluorescent chartreuse yellow, fluorescent blue, and fluorescent green.)

In literature

 * The color plays a central role in Craig Laurance Gidney's novel A Spectral Hue.

In film

 * The titular alien entity in the 2019 horror film Color Out of Space, an adaptation of the 1927 H. P. Lovecraft short story The Colour Out of Space, is depicted as being magenta due to the color’s extra-spectral status.

In astronomy

 * Astronomers have reported that spectral class T brown dwarfs (the ones with the coolest temperatures except for the recently discovered Y brown dwarfs) are colored magenta because of absorption by sodium and potassium atoms of light in the green portion of the spectrum.

In botany
Magenta is a common color for flowers, particularly in the tropics and sub-tropics. Because magenta is the complementary color of green, magenta flowers have the highest contrast with the green foliage, and therefore are more visible to the animals needed for their pollination.

In business
The German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom uses a magenta logo. It has sought to prevent use of any similar color by other businesses, even those in unrelated fields, such as the insurance company Lemonade.

In public transport
Magenta was the English name of Tokyo's Oedo subway line color. It was later changed to ruby. It is also the color of the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.

In transportation
In aircraft autopilot systems, the path that pilot or plane should follow to its destination is usually indicated in cockpit displays using the color magenta.

In numismatics
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a Magenta colored banknote of ₹2000 denomination on 8 November 2016 under Mahatma Gandhi New Series. This is the highest currency note printed by RBI that is in active circulation in India.

In vexillology and heraldry
Magenta is an extremely rare color to find on heraldic flags and coats of arms, since its adoption dates back to relatively recent times. However, there are some examples of its use:

In politics

 * Throughout much of Europe, the color of magenta or variants of such, such as Pink or Amaranth, is used to symbolise social liberalism or classical liberalism
 * The color magenta is used to symbolize anti-racism by the Amsterdam-based anti-racism Magenta Foundation.
 * In Danish politics magenta is the color of Det Radikale Venstre, the Danish social-liberal party.
 * In Austrian Politics, it is used to represent NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum, a social liberal party.
 * In Belgium it is used by DéFI, a social liberal party.
 * In Germany, Magenta is one of the colors of the Free Democratic Party, or FDP.

title: Magenta


text:
Talk:General agreement on tariffs and trade

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 * Looks fine to me. What kind of problem are you experiencing? Brion VIBBER, Thursday, March 28, 2002
 * Had another look - the problem is the page GATT that is redirecting to another redirect, which doesn't seem to work - I'm not sure how to change that Enchanter, Thursday, March 28, 2002
 * (Fixed it.) Juse click the "redirected from X" link, then hit "edit this page". Brion VIBBER
 * By the way, it's considered a feature that redirects to redirects don't work. This keeps loops from happening, and helps get people to keep their links maintained.


text:
YMCK

YMCK is a Japanese chiptune band, composed of Midori Kurihara (vocals), Takeshi Yokemura (music, lyrics, arrangement), and Tomoyuki Nakamura (composition, music video).

Their work has not been confined to Japan, having released albums in Korea, Thailand and the United States as well as appearing at various events around East Asia and Europe.

YMCK's name is derived from the CMYK subtractive color model.

History
YMCK was formed in May 2003 when Kurihara joined Yokemura and Nakamura. They soon released their first work; a CD-R containing 6 tracks.

In 2004, YMCK appeared at Microdisko in Stockholm, Sweden. In the same year they released their first full album, Family Music.

In 2005, YMCK again appeared outside Japan, this time at the Formoz Festival in Taipei, Taiwan and at the Fat Festival in Bangkok, Thailand. This year also marks the first release of the Magical 8bit Plug, a synthesizer developed by Yokemura himself, motivated by frustration with the quality of game sounds available in the synthesizers used for Family Music. Now making use of the Magical 8bit Plug, they released their second album: Family Racing.

In 2006, they again appeared at the Formoz Festival in Taiwan.

In 2008, YMCK released their third album Family Genesis, now under pop label Avex Trax, made available for the first time on the iTunes Store in the United States. Later that year and under the same label, they would release their first cover album, the YMCK Songbook, a collection of covers of Japanese music from the era before the NES.

In January 2009, they appeared in Sweden once again, this time at UppCon in Uppsala, and also played in the opening ceremonies for Katsucon 15 in Arlington, Virginia (DC). In that same month they also released Family Cooking. In 2009, YMCK also remixed the No. 1 hit song Days by Japanese mega-star Ayumi Hamasaki.

During 2013, YMCK released Family Days, this time through not records. The theme of this album was said to be YMCK describing their own ordinary lives.

In 2015, they released Family Dancing.

In 2017, Family Swing was released, and for the first time they also released through Bandcamp, under U.K. chiptune label Hyperwave.

Discography
Note: The English is not necessarily a direct translation of the Japanese. The English titles are taken from the English version of the website. For example, track one on "FAMILY RACING" was actually titled "FAMILY RACING" instead of "Opening" on the Japanese release.

Studio albums
FAMILY MUSIC (CD-R edition) (2003, self-released)
 * 1) Opening
 * 2) Pastel Colored Candy [パステル・キャンディーは悪魔のささやき]
 * 3) Darling
 * 4) Pow * Pow
 * 5) Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round? [ジョン・コルトレーンは回転木馬の夢を見るか]
 * 6) Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black (Theme of YMCK) [Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black (YMCKのテーマ)]

Family Music (2004, Usagi-Chang (Japan)/Pastel (South Korea)/Records of the Damned (United States))
 * 1) Fanfare [ファンファーレ]
 * 2) Magical 8bit Tour
 * 3) Pastel Colored Candy [パステル・キャンディーは悪魔のささやき]
 * 4) Darling
 * 5) POW * POW
 * 6) Interlude
 * 7) SOCOPOGOGO (YMCK Version)
 * 8) Synchronicity
 * 9) Tetrominon -From Russia with Blocks-
 * 10) Does John Coltrane Dream of a Merry-go-round? [ジョン・コルトレーンは回転木馬の夢を見るか]
 * 11) Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black (Theme from YMCK) [Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black (YMCKのテーマ)]
 * 12) Your Quest is Over

Family Racing (2005, Usagi-Chang (Japan)/Pastel (South Korea)/smallroom (Thailand)
 * 1) Opening [ファミリーレーシング]
 * 2) Panic Racer 005 [パニックレーサー005]
 * 3) Go YMCK, Go!
 * 4) Come on! Swing all stars. [カモン！スウィングオールスターズ]
 * 5) Rock'n Roll rendezvous feat. Takahashi Meijin [ロッケンロール･ランデブー featuring 高橋名人]
 * 6) Sakana no Mabataki [魚のまばたき]
 * 7) Milky Blue -Riddle In Wonderland- [Milky Blue ～不思議の国のリドル～]
 * 8) Kira * Kira [キラ＊キラ]

Family Genesis (2008, avex Group (Japan)/Records of the Damned (United States))
 * 1) Prologue [プロローグ]
 * 2) Sabita Tobira no Dai 8 Tengoku [錆びた扉の第8天国]
 * 3) Pleiades [プレアデス]
 * 4) Starlight
 * 5) Izukata no Fue [何方（いずかた）の笛]
 * 6) Carving the Rock
 * 7) Future Invasion [フューチャー・インヴェージョン]
 * 8) Rain
 * 9) System Reboot [システム・リブート]
 * 10) Floor 99
 * 11) Major Swing
 * 12) 8 Ban me no Niji [8番目の虹]
 * 13) Jidai Okure no Sora [時代遅れの空]
 * 14) Finale ~Welcome to the 8-bit World~ [フィナーレ ～Welcome to the 8bit world～]

YMCK SONGBOOK: songs before 8bit (2008, avex Group (Japan) - Covers album; original artists listed in parentheses)
 * 1) Yume no Naka e (Inoue Yosui)
 * 2) Bokutachi no Shippai (Morita Doji)
 * 3) Ningen Nante (Yoshida Takuro)
 * 4) Kasa ga Nai (Inoue Yosui)
 * 5) Shunkashuto (Izumiya Shigeru)
 * 6) Manzoku Dekirukana (Endo Kenji)
 * 7) Kotoba ni Dekinai (Oda Kazumasa)
 * 8) Jinsei o Katarazu (Yoshida Takuro)
 * 9) Marude Shojikimono no Yoni (Tomobe Masato)

Family Cooking (2009, Avex Group (Japan))
 * 1) Omocha no Heitai no March [おもちゃの兵隊のマーチ]
 * 2) Curry da yo! [カレーだよ！]
 * 3) Sarada Shabadaba [サラダ・シャバダバ]
 * 4) Mitsuboshi Chef no Uta [三ツ星シェフの歌]
 * 5) Gourmet na Aitsu [グルメなアイツ]
 * 6) Fuwafuwa Tamago no Omu Rice [ふわふわ卵のオムライス]
 * 7) Kaerimichi, Bangohan [帰り道、晩ご飯]
 * 8) Wonderful Chocolate [ワン！ダブル・チョコレート]
 * 9) Ban Ban Cooking [バンバンクッキング]

Family Days (2013, not records (Japan))
 * 1) Yozora Ha Machino
 * 2) Sakaraigataki Unmei No Naka
 * 3) Mirai No Natsumero (feat. P.O.P ORCHeSTRA)
 * 4) Dot No Hibi
 * 5) Neko Ni Kakomarete Kurashitai
 * 6) Sasetsushite Usetsushite
 * 7) Mata Aruki Dasu Tameni

Family Dancing (2015, not records (Japan))
 * 1) Los Colors de la Vida
 * 2) Neo Identity
 * 3) Disko Kitsch
 * 4) Time Bomb
 * 5) Perfect Device
 * 6) 52 Futures
 * 7) Unity
 * 8) You Can Be a Star

Family Swing (2017, not records (Japan))
 * 1) National Anthem of Retrojuego
 * 2) Glory in my hands (Theme song of YMCK the phantom thieves)
 * 3) Emerald tact
 * 4) Great mission Yeah-yeah
 * 5) Teatime
 * 6) Thrill me (Theme song of the swingers the phantom thieves)
 * 7) Melancholic swingers
 * 8) Slapstick car chase
 * 9) Random parade
 * 10) A world waits for me
 * 11) Annoying swingers
 * 12) Sound of music

Family Circus (2019, not records (Japan))

[''Note: Some of the names listed are a direct translation as the official English Names couldn't be found. Those with a directly translated name will be marked with an asterisk (*) and have the original name beside it in parentheses separated by a line.'']

 * 1) *Welcome to the Circus  | (サーカスへようこそ)
 * 2) We're the Circus
 * 3) *Secret Showtime | (秘密のショータイム)
 * 4) *Mystery Clown | (迷宮ピエロ) [Note: This could be read as "Labyrinth Pierrot"]
 * 5) *Millionaires' Roaring Laughter | (ミリオネアたちの高笑い)
 * 6) *Dream | (夢)
 * 7) Wild Wild Caravan
 * 8) *Family Circus Theme | (ファミリーサーカスのテーマ)
 * 9) Floor99 (Soichi Terada House Remix)
 * 10) You Can Be A Star (パソコン音楽クラブ Go Go General MIDI Remix) [Note: This is a remix by パソコン音楽クラブ (Pasocom Music Club) ]

PiCTOBiTS
YMCK composed the music for the DSiWare downloadable puzzle game PiCTOBiTS, which features 8-bit music from Nintendo games.

title: YMCK


text:
Executive producer

Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In films, the executive producer generally contributes to the film's budget and their involvement depends on the project, with some simply securing funds and others being involved in the filmmaking process.

Motion pictures
In films, executive producers may finance the film, participate in the creative effort, or work on set. Their responsibilities vary from funding or attracting investors into the movie project to legal, scripting, marketing, advisory and supervising capacities.

Executive producers vary in involvement, responsibility and power. Some executive producers have hands-on control over every aspect of production, some supervise the producers of a project, while others are involved in name only.

The crediting of executive producers in the film industry has risen over time. In the mid-to-late 1990s, there were an average of just under two executive producers per film. In 2000, the number jumped to 2.5 (more than the number of standard "film producers"). In 2013, there were an average of 4.4 executive producers per film. One reason for the increase in executive producers per film is the desire to spread risk, whether due to increasing cost of film making for larger budget films, often met by multiple studios banding together, or alternatively the need to attract multiple smaller investors for lower budget independent films.

Television
In television, the executive producer credit is often applied to individuals who are involved with the production in a hands-on capacity; an executive producer usually supervises the creative content, plans and schedules the filming with the producer and team and may be involved in the financial budgeting of a production. Some writers, like Aaron Sorkin, Stephen J. Cannell, Tina Fey, and Ryan Murphy, have worked as both the creator and the producer of the same show.

As in film, executive producer credits in television are also commonly applied to individuals who are involved in the production in a more hands-off capacity, such as the owner of the show's production company. In the case of multiple executive producers on a television show, the one responsible for day-to-day production is usually called the showrunner, or the leading executive producer.

Music
In recorded music, record labels distinguish between an executive producer and a record producer. The executive producer is responsible for business decisions and more recently, organizing the recordings along with the music producer, whereas the record producer makes the music. Sometimes the executive producer organizes the recording and selects recording-related crew, such as sound engineers and session musicians.

Video games
In the video game industry, the title "executive producer" is not well-defined. It may refer to an external producer working for the publisher, who works with the developers.

For example, in 2012, Jay-Z was announced as executive producer for NBA 2K13. His role consisted of appearing in an introduction, picking songs for the game's soundtrack and contributing to the designs of its in-game menus "and other visual elements".

Radio
An executive radio producer helps create, develop, and implement strategies to improve product and ratings.

title: Executive producer