Welcome to our study of the festival of Pesach/Passover.  Before proceeding to read this lesson, please take your Bible and open to the book of Shemot/Exodus.  Read Chapter 12: 3-29

While all the biblical feasts commemorate and relive a principal event in the history of the children of Israel, Pesach stands alone and is unique. Why?

Without Pesach, there would be no other holidays for without Pesach, there would be no Jewish people. It was the Exodus, the liberation of the Israelite slaves from Eyptian bondage which produced a congregation of eternal people. Until that occasion in history, no enslaved peoples ever went free, nor did a nation of slaves ever live to establish a great civilization that would impact the entire world for the rest of time.

The Exodus is the pivotal event in Jewish history which defined forever the character and nature of the children of Israel. It is the Exodus that established our unique relationship with Hashem as a miraculous people, people who would survive the most outrageous of circumstances throughout history; people who would discover that walking in true and living faith expressed in obedience is the true essence of life.

The Exodus is also the ultimate act of separation – separation from the oppressors whom they watched perish in the Sea ‘never to be seen again'. But it is more than a ‘separation from'; the Exodus is the ultimate act of separation TO Hashem. To be delivered from slavery, would simply make us ‘ex-slaves'. The Exodus made us more than that – it made us, not just individuals like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had a powerful relationship with Hashem. It made us a community, a congregation, a people consecrated and separated unto Hashem with an eternal mission and an eternal covenant.

Question:  What is the relationship between identity and separation?

Furthermore, the Exodus was not a secret event. It was accomplished in full view of the world of that time who saw and heard of the great miracles that the G-d of Israel performed for His people – miracles which their false gods could not perform. Therefore, whether they acknowledged the One True G-d or not, they could no longer deny that He existed and that He is able to alter the course of nature at will in order to save His chosen ones.

Part of the commandment to keep the Passover is “You shall tell your child on that day, ‘Because G-d did this for me when I went out of Egypt .' (Exod. 13:8) This is one of the 248 positive commandments of the Torah. It is a commandment to remember the Exodus in the same way that we are commanded to remember the Sabbath. The story is to be told in all its detail every year so that every generation will know our roots and our mission; so that every generation will have the opportunity to say in their hearts and with their lives what the children of Israel said at that time, ‘We will do and we will hear'; so that every generation will understand that of a truth, every Jewish soul was spiritually present at Sinai.

Question:  Why is it important to tell the story, not just to mentally remember it?

In addition, in telling the story of the Exodus every year, we do not only look back, but very importantly, we look forward, for in the Exodus is the pattern and the prophecy for the Ultimate Redemption for which we wait and which in our day is fast approaching.

The story of the Exodus begins in Egypt which in Hebrew is Mitzrayim , from the root word ,

tzar , which means narrow and confined. Egypt was like a prison camp and the Israelites were confined lest they escape. But ‘G-d took us out of there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm.' While Egypt had for generations depended on its multiple gods and its occult powers, Hashem completely overturned Egypt 's destiny. For all time and eternity, we declare that it was Hashem through His own power who brought us out of Egypt and if He had not, we today would still be enslaved and therefore every generation must celebrate as if we had been alive at that time and seen the miracles with our own eyes.

Therefore, everytime that the story is told, we glorify Hashem; we express our gratitude; we forget present troubles or problems for a time and we recount Hashem's great miracles on our behalf, publicizing once again His greatness to the world around us while reminding ourselves that He is the same today as He was then.

As we approach Pesach this year, we are keenly aware that conditions in our world are quickly taking on more and more parallels to the days of Pharaoh in Egypt . While the ‘conditions' can be frightening in themselves, the promise they hold is exhilarating for the closer we come to paralleling the days of old, the more assured we are that Redemption is but moments away as Hashem counts 'moments'.

Question:  Make a list of the various ways in which slavery affects a human being. Keep the list for future reference as we continue with our study.

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