Remembering God’s miracles this Passover

Rabbi Chaim Blachman

Passover commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. It is observed by avoiding leaven, and highlighted by the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzo and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus.

In Hebrew it is known as Pesach, which means “to pass over,” because God passed over the Jewish homes when killing the Egyptian firstborn on the very first Passover eve.

As told in the Bible, after many decades of slavery to the Egyptian pharaohs, during which time the Israelites were subjected to backbreaking labor and unbearable horrors, God saw the people’s distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: “Send forth My people, so that they may serve Me.” But despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed God’s command, and God sent upon Egypt ten devastating plagues, afflicting them and destroying everything from their livestock to their crops.

At the stroke of midnight of the 15 of Nissan in the year 2448 from creation, or 1313 BCE, God visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, God spared the children of Israel, “passing over” their homes — hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh’s resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand adult males, plus many more women and children, left Egypt on that day and began the trek to Mount Sinai.

Today, Passover is divided into two parts. The first two days and last two days (the latter commemorating the splitting of the Red Sea) are full-fledged holidays in which candles are lit at night, and the Jewish people enjoy a sumptuous holiday meals. We don’t go to work, drive, write or switch on or off electric devices. The middle four days, however, are semi-festive “intermediate days,” when most forms of work are permitted.

Throughout the holiday, Jews do not eat — or even retain in our possession—any chometz (leavened grain) from midday of the day before Passover until the conclusion of the holiday.

Ridding our homes of chometz is an intensive process. It involves a full-out spring-cleaning search-and-destroy mission during the weeks before Passover, and culminates with a ceremonial search for chometz on the night before Passover, and then a burning of the chometz ceremony on the morning before the holiday. Chometz that cannot be disposed of can be sold to a non-Jew (and bought back after the holiday).

Instead of chometz, we eat matzo — flat unleavened bread. It is a mitzvah to partake of matzo on the two Seder nights, and during the rest of the holiday it is optional.

The highlight of Passover is the Seder, observed on each of the first two nights of the holiday. The Seder is a fifteen-step family-oriented tradition and ritual-packed feast. 

The focal points of the Seder are:

Eating matzah.

Eating bitter herbs — to commemorate the bitter slavery endured by the Israelites.

Drinking four cups of wine or grape juice — a royal drink to celebrate our newfound freedom.

The recitation of the Haggadah, a liturgy that describes in detail the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah is the fulfillment of the biblical obligation to recount to our children the story of the Exodus on the night of Passover. It begins with a child asking the traditional “Four Questions.”

As such, Passover is a time to celebrate the greatest series of miracles ever experienced in history, and a time to reach above nature to the miraculous. But how are miracles achieved? Let’s take our cue from the matzo. Flat and unflavored, it embodies humility. Through ridding ourselves of our inflated egos, we are able to tap into the miraculous well of divine energy we all have within our souls.

Rabbi Chaim Blachman is the spiritual leader of the Elmont Jewish Center.