Passover begins at sundown Saturday. There will be two ritual meals, or seders, designed to imitate an ancient Roman banquet. No leavened bread will be consumed for eight days. In fact, there will be no leavened bread anywhere in the house. The idea is that just as our ancestors were too rushed to wait for bread to rise when the word came to leave Egypt, we will eat unleavened bread in their honor.
And while there is no archeological evidence to support a massive revolt of enslaved people in Egypt, the 10 plagues or an entire nation wandering in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years, Jews all over the world will commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
But Passover’s significance is more than an observation of an actual event; it is a celebration and challenge of our most essential human values. A review of the highlights of the story can reveal deeper reasons to celebrate.
The Israelites left their homeland and moved to Egypt to avoid a terrible drought. In biblical parlance, they were strangers living in a foreign land. Although the Bible recounts that the Israelites lived in Egypt for quite some time, they still are referred to as strangers. In our terms, they were immigrants.
A brutal dictator begins to rule Egypt and command the mightiest army on earth. The dictator fears that the immigrants are becoming too numerous and imposes hard labor on them. God sends an immigrant criminal living in exile to take command of the Israelites and plead with the dictator to let them go.
When the dictator refuses, a series of disasters afflict the Egyptian people. But the dictator is unmoved. Eventually the Israelites leave Egypt but are pursued by the Egyptian army. In one of the most stunning miracles in all of biblical literature, God parts the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to cross but causes the waters to rejoin when the Egyptian army enters, drowning the dictator and his army.
The first thing to notice in this story is that despite the dictator’s enormous wealth and power, God is unimpressed and sides with the immigrants instead. The standoff between God and the dictator establishes for all times that might does not make right. When it comes to the treatment of strangers, God is adamant: “You shall love the stranger as you love yourself.”
In other words, if you want to be respected as a human being and be allowed to live your life in peace and comfort, then you must see to it that the stranger (immigrant) has the same opportunity, even though they may not look like you, eat like you or speak your language.
Beyond peace and comfort, the story is a resounding defense of freedom. The people are released from hard labor and allowed to live as free men and women in a nation dedicated to the rule of law rather than the arbitrary demands of the dictator.
Seen in this light, the story has all the makings of a Hollywood epic. In 1956, Paramount released “The Ten Commandments,” starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II. It has been rereleased and remains a classic.
Passover is a celebration of our most basic values. I have already mentioned freedom and human dignity — even for people who are not natives. There is also the contrast between the brutality of the dictator and a God defined by mercy, graciousness, slowness to anger and the willingness to forgive sin.
Let us not forget, however, that the Bible is more complicated than a Hollywood epic. In their 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites commit nearly every sin imaginable. Given the choice between living as a free people with all the demands that requires and enslaved people ruled by a dictator, they routinely choose the latter. Freedom does not come easily. It may require hardship, courage and vision to achieve. The same goes for human decency.
Passover, then, is both a celebration and a challenge. It is a celebration of the values by which civilized people are supposed to live. At the same time, it is a recognition that those values cannot be handed down on a silver platter. They must be fought for, sacrificed for and renewed in every age. Needless to say, our age is no different.
Kenneth Seeskin is professor emeritus of philosophy and the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick professor of Jewish civilization at Northwestern University.
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