Passover thread

Passover thread

Tonight is the first night of the festival of Passover (Pesach), commemorating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. We mark it with a ritualised meal called a seder and recount the Exodus story.

This is the most important and defining holiday in the Jewish year, why is that? 1/

The primary purpose and theme of Pesach is that it's "the time of our freedom", but how did all those plagues accomplish that? Couldn't God have just taken us out and left the Egyptians alone?

Actually, complete freedom isn't just freedom from slavery, but freedom from idolatry. Each plague was designed to destroy the trust of the Egyptians in each of their gods or divine forces, culminating in the sacrifice of their divine sheep - the Paschal Lamb 3/

Our sages say that Egypt was 9 times as idolatrous as the whole rest of the world combined, but that attitude doesn't come from nowhere. It builds up over time, as people incorrectly thought that the angelic and planetary servants of God deserve worship for serving him, 4/

which evolved from the time of Enosh into full-blown service of material beings by Noah's time, which continued into the exodus period. This error is based on the mistaken idea that God is too lofty to directly interact with and direct the world, delegating it to other forces. 5/

This is the same attitude that drives one to sin: if the Ultimate Creator is uninvolved & the lower beings are imperfect & in conflict, how is justice enforced in the world? Thus, Egypt at this time was the most immoral and degenerate society on earth, especially with sexual sins

Being completely addicted to sinful behaviour is obviously a deep form of slavery, so freedom must involve a release from idolatrous burdens in a way that demonstrates God's direct involvement in every aspect of the world, and that there is no power but Him. That's the plagues.

Thus, Pesach is a celebration not just of a release from slavery but a total release of a people from the deist/idolatrous mindset, in preparation for its acceptance of God's Torah at Sinai. The lesson for us is that any spiritual ascent must begin with a cleansing of sin. 8/8