The seven-day holiday of Passover (eight days outside Israel) begins tomorrow night. Lubavitcher-Chabad Hassidim will conduct some 20 Passover Seders for Israeli backpackers in Asia and South America tomorrow night. Three of them will be held in Thailand alone, with the participation of some 1,350 people, and others will held in Bolivia, Shanghai, and Tokyo...



The Chief Rabbis of Israel, in the name of Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, sold the State\'s chametz this morning to a resident of Abu Ghosh. The Torah forbids Jews from owning chametz - leaven or yeast products - beginning tomorrow afternoon and throughout the holiday, until sundown on April 3 (April 4, outside of Israel). The Abu Ghosh resident made a down payment of 20,000 shekels...



The Machpelah Cave in Hevron will be fully open to Jews on Sunday and Monday of Passover, and the Jewish Community there is preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of visitors. The holy site will be closed a month from now for at least two weeks for renovations. A Hevron Jewish Community spokesman said, \"Just as it is unthinkable to close the Kotel (Western Wall), so too it is absurd to close such a holy site to worship and visitors from around the world...\"



The Shai (Samaria and Judea) District Police will help out in guarding synagogues throughout Yesha during the holiday...