Passover commemorates the oldest recorded struggle for freedom. The tradition of Passover is liberation, holiday of freedom.
More than 3,500 years ago, the Jewish people were liberated after 400 years of slavery and bondage, and the Haggadah tells us, they were not only freed, but also left Egypt with great wealth, under the aura of great miracles culminating in the parting of the Red Sea.
Moses and Aaron pleaded with Pharaoh to let the Jews free. Pharaoh refused, so God punished the Egyptians with 10 plagues. During the last plague, the angel of death carried out the slaying of every first-born Egyptian son.
Israelites were “passed over.” The blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts of all Israelites, so the angel of death passed over the Jews. This was the generation of Jews, which accepted the “Ten Commandments” of the Torah from Moses at Sinai, and so after 20 generations of slavery and bondage, a nation was born, thus this Passover season commemorates both the freedom from the bonds of slavery and the birth as a Jewish people. And after 3500 years when God related to Moses and his people, “tell thy son as I have you.”
The Jewish people continue to tell the story of Passover which is read from the Haggadah, which translated means “to tell.”
