WATCH: Wine, food, and song are part of this special celebration

• Celebrating the exodus of ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt
• Hundreds gathered at The Harvest Golf Club
• Everyone is welcome to share in the experience

Connecting spiritually over food and song is how one Rabbi described a special celebration on Friday evening.

Every year, on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the Jewish community comes together for Passover - a celebration of the exodus of Israelite slaves in Egypt.

Passover includes many rituals, and gives Jewish families the chance to gather.

Rabbi Tom Samuels, told Kelowna10, he was excited to be celebrating back in-person after a two year hiatus.

“As a group, it’s been so oppressive not being able to get together in person,” he said.

Samuels added that to build a spiritual community, it can’t be done virtually.

“It has to be human being to human being, [looking] in each other's eyes,” he said.

Samuels said since the celebration is Jewish, the rituals are all based on food. Cooks were busy preparing a variety of traditional dishes and the aroma filled the air with anticipation for the meal everyone was about to share.

“All sorts of interesting foods, and songs, and it’s all based around drinking four glasses of wine,” he explained.

Samuels said everyone is required to drink the wine.

“Or grape juice for the kids,” he added.

Around 100 people gathered together for the event at The Harvest Golf Club. Everyone was happy to see each other and share this special celebration together. Kids chatted at the tables, while the adults mingled over some wine before the feast began.

For Samuels, his favourite part about the holiday is when people affirm they can be an agent for change.

“Each one of us has the capacity to actually aspire, and then work towards making a better world,” he said. “That’s incredibly empowering, [and] I find that very, very exciting,”

He explained that one of the messages the Jewish people have, and a responsibility to share with the world, is the message of having Tikvah.

“Tikvah in Hebrew means hope. To have the audacity, the chutzpah in Yiddish, [and] to have hope, even when times seem insurmountably difficult,” Samuels said.

“Jewish or not Jewish, everybody is welcome to share in this amazing experience.”