Preparing for Passover is a family affair, and can be daunting for one and all, no matter how experienced. Whether shopping or schlepping, learning or burning, cooking up a storm or selling the chametz (leaven)… there is lots of work to be done in preparation for the holiday. And it all has to be finished by the time the sun sets on Passover eve—with some important tasks to be completed well in advance of the holiday’s onset.
Enter Chabad.org’s Passover app.
Aptly called “Passover Assistant,” the app has just been released in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store for iOS and Android devices, respectively, and can be downloaded free of charge.
Neatly organized around a circular shmurah matzah, the "Passover Assistant” app’s features range from a Passover meal planner and shopping list to an interactive “Mah Nishtanah” trainer for learning to chant the Four Questions.
The Passover checklist allows people to customize a “To Do” list with multiple tiers of items, check the items off when they are completed and even track what percentage of Passover prep work has been done.
The eight-day Passover holiday, which begins this year at sundown on Monday, April 14, is the culmination of weeks of preparation, as homes and businesses are purged of non-Passover food and cleaned scrupulously for the holiday. The highlight is the seder feast (held the first two nights of the holiday, and on the first night in Israel), during which families gather over tables groaning with ceremonial foods and wine to recite familiar texts that date back to biblical times.
The meal planner and shopping list features are tightly integrated with Chabad.org’s selection of 150 tried-and-true Passover recipes, allowing people to choose a recipe, add it to a day’s meal and then affix the ingredients to a master shopping list.
Harnessing Chabad.org’s Jewish calendar technology, the app supplies minute-to-minute times, helping a user remember, for example, when to stop eating chametz, when to burn the chametz or what time to light the holiday candles.
From the Practical to the Spiritual
According to Dov Dukes, lead developer at Chabad.org’s app development team, users have the option of allowing their mobile device’s GPS to automatically set their location for the calendar. He explains that programmers had to pay extra attention to this detail. Many places change to Daylight Saving Time in the weeks before Passover; the app picks up on that change and moves along with them.
Other key features include a “sell your chametz” module, where people can appoint a rabbi to sell their leaven foodstuffs to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday; a seder locator, which allows users to find Passover celebrations hosted by Chabad centers just about anywhere in the world; and even an “Ask the Rabbi” option, where anyone can communicate directly with members of Chabad.org’s “Ask the Rabbi” team.
To round it all off, another feature offers a concise collection of tips for preparing for the seder, from the practical to the spiritual.
Chabad.org Apps Suite Expands
The “Passover Assistant” app joins Chabad.org’s Jewish Apps Suite, in strategically leveraging Chabad.org’s content and know-how to other platforms.
Through the vision and generosity of a group of funders, “Passover Assistant” joins the “Jewish.tv” video app, the “Shabbat Times” app, a JewishKids.org app for children, and others—all designed to help bring Jewish wisdom and tools to the fingertips of users. Additional apps are in the planning and developmental stages by an international Chabad.org team.
The drive, vision for and underwriting of the apps, which are available free of charge, come from the generous partnership of Dovid and Malkie Smetana, Alan and Lori Zekelman, the Meromim Fund, and Moris and Lillian Tabacinic—all of whom are dedicated to spreading the wisdom and practice of Judaism worldwide.
“The possibilities in app development for a Jewish audience are virtually endless,” says Chabad.org’s managing director, Rabbi Meir Simcha Kogan, “and we are determined to implement the drive and vision of our generous partners and our staff to use the best practices and highest standards in strategic planning and application.”
“Passover Assistant” is available free of charge on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store for iOS and Android devices.
