This past weekend, many Christians celebrated Easter. Additionally, one of the Jewish religion’s most sacred and widely observed holidays was observed this week as well. Passover, Pesach in Hebrew, is the religious holiday that commemorates the story of the Israelites’ departure from ancient Egypt. This weeklong festival is observed with important rituals, including traditional Passover meals known as Seders, the removal of leavened products from the home, and the substitution of matzo for bread. The retelling of the exodus tale is also completed.
The story of Passover can be found in the Hebrew Bible’s books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. According to the Hebrew Bible, Jewish settlement in ancient Egypt first occurred when Joseph, the son of the patriarch Jacob and founder of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, moved his family there during a severe famine in their homeland of Canaan. For many years the Israelites lived in harmony in the province of Goshen, but as their population grew, the Egyptians begin to see them as a threat. After the death of Joseph and his brothers, a particularly hostile pharaoh ordered their enslavement and the systematic drowning of their firstborn sons in the Nile. One of these doomed infants was rescued by the pharaoh’s daughter, given the name Moses, and adopted into the Egyptian royal family.
When he reached adulthood, Moses became aware of his true identity and the Egyptians’ brutal treatment of his fellow Hebrews. He killed an Egyptian slave master and escaped to the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived as a humble shepherd for 40 years. One day, however, Moses received a command from God to return to Egypt and free his kin from bondage. Along with his brother Aaron, Moses approached the reigning pharaoh several times, explaining that the Hebrew God requested a three-day leave for his people so that they may celebrate a feast in the wilderness. When the pharaoh refused, God unleashed 10 devastating plagues on the Egyptians, ending in the slaying of every firstborn son by an avenging angel. The Israelites marked the doorframes of their homes with lamb’s blood so that the angel will recognize and “pass over” each Jewish household.
Terrified of further punishment, the Egyptians convinced their ruler to release the Israelites, and Moses quickly led them out of Egypt. The pharaoh changed his mind, however, and sent his soldiers to retrieve the former slaves. As the Egyptian army approached the fleeing Jews at the edge of the Red Sea, a miracle occurred; God caused the sea to part, allowing Moses and his followers to cross safely, then closed the passage and drowned the Egyptians. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jews—now numbering in the hundreds of thousands—then moved through the Sinai desert for 40 tumultuous years before finally reaching their ancestral home in Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel.
One of the most important Passover rituals for observant Jews is removing all leavened food products from their home before the holiday begins and abstaining from them throughout the holiday itself. Instead of bread, religious Jews eat a type of flatbread called matzo; according to tradition, this is because the Hebrews fled Egypt in such haste that there was no time for their bread to rise, or perhaps because matzo was lighter and easier to carry through the desert than regular bread.
On the first two nights of Passover, families and friends gather for a religious feast known as a Seder. During the meal, the story of the exodus from Egypt is read aloud from a special text called the Haggadah, and rituals corresponding to various aspects of the narrative are performed. For example, vegetables are dipped into salt water representing the tears Jews shed during their time as slaves and bitter herbs (usually horseradish) symbolizing the unpleasant years of their bondage are eaten. A Seder plate at the center of the table contains Passover foods with particular significance to the exodus story, including matzo, bitter herbs, a lamb shankbone, and a mixture of fruit, nuts, and wine.
