Simcha Rabba, Simcha Rabba, Aviv Hee’gee’ah, Pesach Bah!
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[rough translation]
There’s a Great Joy, There’s a Great Joy
Spring has come, Passover has come!
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Many people all over the world are blessed of holding both Jewish and Christian holidays within one week. Today we meet Passover, the most important, in my opinion, day for all Jewish people.
The word Pesach [HEB], comes from a Hebrew word PaSaCH which means PASSED OVER which is a literal translation of Passover.
I am sure that the history of Passover is widely publicized in tones of media sources. Being exposed to those stories in the media on almost on a yearly basis, I have found that they are pretty lengthy and indigestible, in a sense. Thus I came to my own short interpretation of the holiday.
To make a long story short, Jews were living in Egypt and cried out to the local Pharaoh that he would let the people go, as it described in the following song.
Needless to say that Moses‘s appeals to the Pharaoh weren’t heard — the ruler despised the Jewish longing for freedom. Then Jews had nothing to do but complain to God about the injustice. Being a Jewish God, the God sent 10 plagues to Egypt, on the spur of the moment.
Having tested nine plagues out of set of the ten, Pharaoh hadn’t been convinced of the reason why he should have allowed Jews to go. At that point both Jews and God were sick and tired of the Pharaoh’s stupid obduracy — the Pharaoh wasn’t aware that God were with Jews. So, when all nine plagues failed to bring to reason that pour Pharaoh, God had reluctantly to come down to killing all firstborns in Egypt. It’s important to mention that playing on the side of the Jews, God revealed to them a catch of the last plague — the tenth one.
This is what the LORD says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. (Exodus 11:4-6)
God told Moses that in order to all Jewish firstborns to survive the Jews had to mark lamb’s blood on their doorposts so that Angel of Death would PASS OVER that home. Jews did what God told them and, subsequently, escaped the blind rage of God in His 10the plague; the Pharaoh was a moron and got what he paid for.
Not sooner had the Pharaoh changed his mind and let that people go before he tasted the tenth plague.
Eventually the people gone… That’s basically the story of Passover.
The joy of the holiday comes from the fact that Passover was a crucial event in Jewish history; it was a day of birth a Jewish nation. In my view, Passover is one of few Jewish holidays when both religious and secular Jews draw round the table.
Bonus: Listen to the two-part podcast chewing over the exodus of Jews from Egypt.
AleXXays 