This year, the Jewish festival of Passover begins the evening of Friday, April 6.
The holiday, known in Hebrew as Pesach, is our “festival of freedom,” commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. Passover is regarded as the “birth” of the Jewish nation, and its lessons of freedom and responsibility continue to form the basis of Jewish identity and its ways of life.
The name of the festival derives from the biblical book of Exodus which tells us that during the final plague (the slaying of the first born) God “passed over” the Jewish homes. Exodus goes on to tell us that this event is to be observed each year, for all future generations:
“This day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the Lord, throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes ... you shall observe the (Feast of) unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time.”...