Passover sacrifice

What it is

The Passover sacrifice is a lamb or goat offering set out in the Torah, known in Hebrew as Qorban Pesach and in English as the Paschal or Passover lamb. The word used for the animal is seh, which can mean either a sheep or a goat. It had to be a male, one year old, with no blemish. A household chose it on the tenth day of the year's first month, kept it four days, then killed it at twilight on the fourteenth. The meat was eaten that night, inside one house, with matzo and bitter herbs, and nothing was kept until morning.

In the Torah

Exodus chapter 12 gives the first account. The blood went on the doorposts and the lintel, as a sign that God would pass over those houses when the firstborn of Egypt were struck. The text calls the rite a statute for every generation, to be kept once the people reached the land promised to them. Numbers 9 describes a second chance, a month later, for anyone who was ritually impure or away on a journey. Rashi reads that chapter as saying the offering was made just once in the forty years of wandering. Joshua 5 places another observance after the crossing of the Jordan, before the campaigns in Canaan began.

At the Temple

Later sources set out how the rite was carried out in Jerusalem. The lamb was killed in the Temple courtyard on the afternoon of Nisan 14, after the daily Tamid offering, around three o'clock, or at two if the eve of Passover fell on a Friday. Anyone could do the killing, but the blood and the fat belonged to the priests. Priests stood in rows and passed the blood along to the altar in cups rounded at the base, so that they could not be put down and the blood would not thicken. The animal was hung, skinned, and its fatty parts burned. The Mishnah sets the Passover of Egypt apart from the Passover of Generations and lists the legal differences between the two.

The night of the meal

Those taking part were split into three groups, which went into the court one after the other while Levites sang the Hallel psalms. The last group was small and finished before the singers reached Psalm 116, so people called it the group of the lazy. The sacrifice often fell on a Sabbath eve, and even then the lamb was killed, the blood sprinkled, and the fat burned. Afterwards each person carried the meat to where they were staying. It was roasted on a spit cut from pomegranate wood, and no bone could be broken. The lamb came to the table after the company had eaten its fill of other food, and all of it was finished that night. Women and girls joined the meal and ate from the offering.

Today and change

Most Rabbinic Jews do not bring the offering now, because the Temple in Jerusalem no longer stands and there is no altar for it. What remains is the Passover Seder, the home meal of the first night, which the sources link to the evening banquet where the lamb was once set on the table. The rite itself is still performed by Beta Israel, Karaite and Samaritan communities, for whom it remains part of Passover. The Torah also allows a later date, a month after the first, for anyone who was ritually impure or far away when the appointed day came.

How Passover sacrifice is kept

The lamb is chosen on the tenth of Nisan, kept four days and checked for blemishes. On the afternoon of the fourteenth it is slaughtered, in the Temple courtyard in former times, and today by the communities that still keep the rite. A priest collects the blood and sprinkles it on the altar, and the fat is burned. Those taking part divide into three groups while the Hallel is sung. The animal is roasted whole, with no bone broken, and eaten the same night by the company gathered in one house, with matzo and bitter herbs. Nothing is left over.

When and where

The offering belongs to the fourteenth of Nisan, at twilight, with the lamb eaten that night, the first night of Passover on the fifteenth. The animal is set apart on the tenth. The Torah gives a second date, a month later, for those who could not come at the appointed time.

In the Exodus account each household keeps the rite at home, with blood on its own doorposts. Deuteronomy ties the offering to the single place God would choose for his name, and later practice places that at the Temple in Jerusalem. Observances are recorded there under Hezekiah, Josiah and after the exile. Today the rite survives among Beta Israel, Karaite and Samaritan communities.

What Passover sacrifice means

The blood on the doorposts is a sign, marking the houses that were passed over on the night of the Exodus, so the offering speaks of rescue and of belonging. Eating it together, inside one house and leaving nothing, makes it a shared act rather than a private one. The Torah calls it a statute for all generations, which ties every household that keeps it to that first night in Egypt. For the communities that still perform it, the offering is a duty they carry, not only a memory.

Days Passover sacrifice is marked

Questions people ask about Passover sacrifice

See also

PassoverA Jewish spring festival celebrating freedom from slavery with ritual mealsYom KippurThe holiest day in Judaism, dedicated to fasting, prayer and atonementRosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year marked by shofar horn blasts, prayer and sweet foodsSukkotA seven-day autumn Jewish festival of temporary booths, harvest prayers and hospitality

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Passover sacrifice on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-09.