http://JewishHistory.org The Passover Story. The great holiday of Passover is one of the central days in the Jewish Calendar. The Jewish people came down to Egypt through Joseph. Joseph was at one point the viceroy of Egypt, but after he died, the Jewish people sink into slavery. This slavery was very harsh- both physically and spiritually, yet somehow there is a core of the Jewish people that survives and remains loyal to the ideas of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses is the great redeemer, who was himself raised in the Egyptian court through the Princess having adopted him. Through a series of events involving G-d miracles and plagues, Moses becomes the messenger of freedom- and the Jewish people leave Egypt.
Not all the Jews make it out of Egypt. According to a Midrash, 80% of the Jewish people stayed and died in Egypt. Whatever the Exact numbers, there was still a massive exodus- and the Jewish people (along with some others who left Egypt with them) were freed and begin their wandering in the Desert. Freedom must have a purpose, and the purpose of the Jewish people was to spread the concept of G-d, morality, charity, Monotheism, and goodness throughout the world.
In the Sinai Desert, the Jewish people receive the Torah and become a nation- the beginning of a long journey of spreading light throughout the world. The Passover holiday is re-enacted every year and tells us the value of freedom, purpose, faith, and family.
At Rabbi Wein’s Passover table- there was sometimes a span of over 300 years sitting at the table (the Rabbi’s great-grandfather who witnessed generations before him, and his great grandson who will G-d willing witness generations after him). Going back in History, it would only take 10 more tables like this to connect the Jewish people back to the time of the Exodus. This is an example of how Passover is a family holiday.
By sitting together, we testify to our past, to our commitment to the future, to our faith, to the fact that we are an eternal people. And to the fact that freedom means discipline and purpose- only a person who accepts upon themselves the yoke of Torah and morality is truly free.
The first law of Passover is to give charity to the poor so that they can also have a Seder (Passover meal).
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