The Passover Story

Every year in the Jewish month of Nisan (March-April in the Gregorian calendar), Jews from around the world gather for the annual celebration of Passover. It is a time when they contemplate and celebrate their release from slavery in Egypt. Exodus, the second book of the Pentateuch, recounts the Passover story. But the story is more than the roots of an important Jewish holiday. It is the story of a people, of their enslavement and liberation, of their journey to freedom, and their birth as a nation.

According to Jewish tradition, the Passover story has its roots more than 3,000 years ago, when the forefather of the Jews, Jacob, came to Egypt to be reunited with his son, Joseph. At this time Joseph had became a viceroy to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Jacob (also called Israel), his other sons, and their families then settled in Egypt, and over the years, the Israelites grew in number.

Many years later, a new Pharaoh (some sources suggest it was Rameses II, who ruled from 1279-1213 B.C.E.), assumed the throne and feared the Israelites. He was afraid that they had become far too powerful and too large in population for him to control. He ordered all of the Israelites to be enslaved which he intended to use as a means of control. The Egyptian taskmasters forced the Israelites to construct cities, monuments, and roads. They were made to endure many hardships and given little food to sustain them. Despite this harsh treatment, however, the Hebrew people continued to multiply and they thrived amongst the adverse and bitter conditions. The Egyptian pharaoh then decreed that all male newborns that had been born to the Israelites were to be killed.

One Hebrew mother known as Yochaved had three children, a daughter, Miriam, a son, Aaron and a newborn baby boy. Fearing for the life of her third child, a newborn son, she placed him in a basket and hid the basket among the reeds at the edge of the Nile River. The pharaoh's daughter would bathe in the river water daily and she discovered the basket floating in the edge of the water near the rushes. She sent her handmaiden in to fetch the basket for her. When she found that it was a baby boy she declared that she was keeping the baby and naming him Moses, which meant "drawn from out of the water".

The baby's sister, Miriam, had been hiding nearby and she came to the Pharaoh's daughter and told her that she knew an Israelite woman who could be hired as the wet-nurse for the baby. Thus it was that the daughter of the pharaoh hired the boy's own mother, Yochaved to nurse and care for him. It was his mother who taught him about his Jewish heritage and culture as he grew to manhood.

As Moses was growing, the suffering of the Israelites worsened at the hands of the Egyptians. One fateful day, Moses lashed out at an Egyptian who he saw giving a brutal beating to a Hebrew slave. Moses was furious and killed the Egyptian. There was no choice for Moses except to flee from his home because the penalty for what he had done was his own death. He then fled to the land of Midian. Here he found refuge with his uncle and he decided to become a shepherd.

One day, Moses was stunned to see a blazing bush in the desert land and from the blaze came a voice. This voice explained to Moses that he was the only true G-d of Israel. His voice commanded Moses to return to Egypt and he was to go and tell the Pharaoh to free all of the Israelites from their bondage of Egyptian slavery. Moses returned to Egypt, and with his brother, Aaron, went to Pharaoh and told him that the G-d of Israel commanded that the Israelites be freed. A stubborn Pharaoh, however, refused to do this and laughed at the threat. He refused even when Moses warned him that G-d would punish him and the whole country of Egypt for his prideful refusal.

G-d unleashed a series of plagues, each more severe than the previous one, upon Egypt. In the first plague, all of the waters in Egypt turned to blood. The second plague brought hordes of invading frogs. In the third plague, lice and gnats infected the entire land. Still, the willful pharaoh refused to free the Israelites. Next was the fourth plague: millions of flies came to Egypt and they were on the food, the people and in the water. People were sick and dying from the masses of flies and also from diseases. The fifth plague brought fatal illnesses to all of the livestock. At this point the pharaoh called to Moses and agreed to free all of his fellow Israelites. The plague departed, but then the haughty ruler reneged on his promise

This brought far worse troubles to all of the Egyptians. In the sixth plague, boils infected all the Egyptians and their animals. The seventh plague unleashed violent storms that destroyed everything that was in their path. The pharaoh then offered to allow only the Israelite men to leave Egypt, but not the women and children. Moses rejected this offer and promised more hardships. The eighth plague brought locusts that blacked out the sun and devoured all of the crops. This was followed by the ninth plague, which plunged Egypt into heavy and unrelenting darkness. Still, the ruler refused to obey the command of Yahweh.

On the 15th day of Nisan, G-d unleashed the final plague, but not before instructing the Israelites to prepare to flee. Each Israelite home was to sacrifice a lamb and to mark their doors with its blood, then roast the lamb and eat its meat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This mark of the blood would protect the household and the inhabitants from the avenging angels that would be sent to destroy the ruler and punish Egypt.

That very night, G-d's wrath was visited upon all of Egypt, striking down the first born of every Egyptian household, including that of the Pharaoh himself. But because the Israelites had marked their houses with the lamb's blood as instructed, G-d "passed over" their houses; this is where the name of this religious holiday came from.

Finally, the ruler was broken and he told Moses and Aaron to gather the people of Israel and leave Egypt forever. The Israelites fled in haste because they did not trust the pharaoh. But after three days, the pharaoh regretted his decision and in anger he ordered his army to retrieve his former slaves. The pharaoh's army pursued the Israelites across the desert to the shores of the Red Sea, where G-d instructed Moses to stretch out his wooden staff over the waters. When he did so, the sea divided, creating a dry path for the Israelites to cross safely. When the Egyptians followed, the sea closed over them and they were all destroyed. Moses had fulfilled his destiny to free his people and lead them to freedom.