Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
For millennia, the Jewish people have celebrated the Passover Seder—
a biblically mandated meal that commemorates the emancipation of the
ancient Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
The Passover meal
has many unique symbols, songs and rituals.
The table is typically set with festive candles, a Kiddush cup, wine and matzo.
On a special plate are symbolic foods that help illustrate the central event
of the seder—the retelling of the Exodus from Egypt.
The Seder is typically celebrated with family and friends, music and dancing,
and delectable cuisine. But the story of this holiday of hope,
begins thousands of years ago
in the desolate bitterness,
of slavery.
For more than 200 years, the Hebrew people endured the brutality
of slavery in the land of Egypt.
It was a dark time in Jewish history as their suffering was extreme.
For generations they were forced to build lavish cities
and towering monuments to the Egyptian Pharaohs.
Mothers saw their newborns
systematically roundup and thrown into the Nile River as a way of controlling
Hebrew population.
The people cried to their God for freedom.
Their pleas would not go unanswered.
The waters of the Nile spared the life of one male Hebrew infant.
Moses grew up in Pharaoh's courts but soon left Egypt
for Midian.
While living the life of a simple shepherd,
Moses was instructed by God to return to Egypt
and demand that Pharaoh release the Hebrews from enslavement.
Moses' request was ignored and
in response God unleashed a series of ten plagues that would devastate the Egyptians.
So we begin with the plague of "dom" or blood-
the rivers and all the waters in Egypt
were turned into blood, making them undrinkable and
we know very well how important
water is to all civilizations but especially to a civilization like Egypt
that finds itself in the midst of the desert and is utterly dependent on the irrigation
made available to them by the Nile.
But it was really only the beginning.
Subsequent plagues includes "tzefardei'a" the frogs that came from the rivers,
"kinim" or lice,
disease in the cattle
plagues of
boils...
the plague of "barad" or hail
"arbeh" or locusts
and then came
the ninth plague, darkness
which, as many scholars has pointed out,
shows God's complete power over even the sun, which was thought to be
associated by the Egyptians with their supreme deity, Amon Ra.
But even that ninth plague, was not enough.
Nine plagues ravaged the land of Egypt,
yet Pharaoh was not moved to grant Jewish freedom.
Egypt was to be visited by a 10th and
final plague-
the death of the first born in all the land.
To protect themselves, each Hebrew family was to choose a year-old unblemished
lamb and
slaughter it.
Then, they were to take some of its blood and mark their doorposts so that the Angel
of Death would passover their house
and their children would be spared.
As devastating as the first nine plagues were, the tenth plague was a
complete catastrophe for Egypt.
In every household, the Bible tells us, there was a least one firstborn that did not
escape
his or her death.
And it is precisely the events of this final tragic plague
that gives the holiday its name. The name "Passover"
or "Pesach"
is thought to refer to the story the tenth plague in Egypt,
when God commanded the Israelites to cover the doorposts of their homes with
the blood of the sacrificial lamb to indicate to the Angel of Death to "passover"
their households while the Angel passed through and killed all of the first born
of the Egyptians.
The word "peasch" to "passover"
gives us the name "Passover." And with that plague
Pharaoh had nothing else to do with the Israelites and insisted that they leave
immediately.
The Israelites had to leave in such haste,
that they were unable to prepare the food for the journey,
the flower and water that they had combined to prepare dough for bread didn't have
the opportunity to rise and that is the origin of the unleavened bread or the
matzo that is traditionally eaten
on the holiday of Passover.
During the Passover Seder,
the story of the Hebrew people, from the oppression of slavery, to the
exuberance of freedom is memorialized.
For thousands of years, the story of the exodus from Egypt has been told
and retold during the course of the ritual meal.
And it is precisely a Passover Seder
that most scholars believe Jesus celebrated with his Apostles in the
upper room in Jerusalem.
Although the term does not appear in scripture, this farewell meal has come to
be known as
the "Last Supper."