Passover: a time for remembering origins, regardless of faith

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© St. Petersburg Times
published March 27, 2002

This evening marks the onset of Passover, or Pesach, the annual observance of the delivery of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. The story comes to us from Exodus, with some later embellishment, you will forgive me for mentioning, in my very favorite movie of all time, The Ten Commandments, also starring Edward G. Robinson as Dathan ("Nyyyyah! Where's yer God now, Moises?")

Sorry. Anyway, as you will recall, God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush and tells him to instruct Pharaoh to let his people go. Moses is not enthusiastic about this new job and tries to make excuses.

God gives Moses a rod that turns into a snake, shows him a way to cover his hand with miraculous "snowy scales" (yech!) and even instructs him on how he can turn the Nile into blood. I would be fairly impressed by this, but Moses continues to balk, complaining that he is not "a man of words."

Not a "man of words!" Like, here's God Almighty, king of the universe, giving Moses an assignment, and he's like, look, I'm having an off day, can you get somebody else? God gets exasperated and demands: "Who gives man speech?" But Moses continues to gripe until finally God says, all right, all right, your brother Aaron is a good talker, he will be your spokesman. So it's settled.

Personally, I have always liked this reluctance about Moses, who more or less says to God: Who, me, are you nuts? Noah rushes right out under a sunny sky to build the ark, and Abraham is ready in a flash to slay his firstborn. But Moses, he takes some talking to, and it is striking that God takes the trouble instead of just finding a new guy.

You know how things go from there. The Egyptians suffer from plagues of, in order, blood, frogs, vermin, flies, cattle blight, boils, hail, locusts and darkness. Any two or three of these probably would have been enough for most of us. But not Pharaoh.

Pharaoh is a bad guy to begin with. But it should be noted that God makes things worse just to drive home his point. God tells Moses that He has hardened Pharaoh's heart "in order that I may display these my signs among them, and that you may recount in the hearing of your sons and of your sons' sons how I made a mockery of the Egyptians . . . in order that you may know that I am the Lord."

If I am Moses here, I might make a counteroffer, saying, "Look, why not just soften his heart and save us all the hassle?" But that was not the plan. (In fairness, it should be noted that no matter how many miracles God performs in the story, the Hebrews keep forsaking Him every other page or so, so it probably was impossible for Him to go overboard.)

Finally comes the slaying of every first-born man and beast, except in those houses that are marked by lamb's blood. Pharaoh lets the Israelites go, but then with a little prodding from God, he changes his mind yet one more time, just in time to send his whole army off to be destroyed in the Red Sea.

The Hebrews see the army coming and start wailing to Moses: "Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us out of Egypt?" But Moses parts the sea and restores their faith, at least for the next four or five pages, until he has to appease them again with the whole manna thing.

The Jewish people observe Pesach with the seder, a special dinner with many symbols and traditions, such as the bitter herbs that represent the bitterness of bondage. There is a book called the Haggadah, or "narration," that contains text for the occasion.

It is especially meaningful that the text speaks in the present collective: It was not "they" who was delivered from bondage, but "we." The deliverance is personal and immediate and should be remembered forever, according to the Haggadah:

Even if all of us were wise, all of us understanding, all of us knowing the Torah, we would still be obligated to discuss the exodus from Egypt; and everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.

For the rest of us, in a more ecumenical sense, the occasion could well represent the idea of remembering where we came from, and being aware of and grateful for where we are now. This cannot possibly be a bad idea.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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