Staying Power (Deuteronomy 6:20-23)

It's difficult for me to talk about Pesach (something like PAY-sock), commonly known as/translated to Passover, because I feel so under qualified. The short version is that it's a celebration and remembrance of the Israelites freedom from slavery in Egypt. Of course that's about as descriptive as calling Christmas Jesus' birthday. It is the simplest description yet it barely scratches the surface.

Historically speaking, “pass over” refers to the final plague on Egypt where God killed the first-born of all Egyptians but passed over the Israelites who were unharmed. As part of Pesach there is also the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (unleavened meaning without yeast which means the bread won't rise creating the flat matzah bread). On that night, the Israelites were instructed to eat with all there stuff packed up and ready to leave the next day. In Exodus 12:39, the bread was without yeast because they got out of Egypt so fast they didn't have time to prepare food for themselves.

I spent a lot of time reading up on all different traditions and customs of Pesach trying to figure out what to write down here. When I took it at face value Pesach was all about the Exodus, but I couldn't help but feel I was missing the big picture. It's hard to overlook the fact in the 3000+ years after they ran out on pharaoh, Jews have had to endure much worse than slavery. If the only example of antisemitism you know of is the Holocaust, you are sadly misinformed. Despite all this hatred, the Jewish culture has survived. This is where I read between the lines to take a stab at an underlying purpose of Pesach. Every part of the festival seems to symbolize endurance in the face of persecution with a focus on passing the knowledge on to the next generation. Although I've never had the pleasure of attending a Pesach seder, second-hand accounts seem to collaborate with my conclusions. I believe Pesach goes beyond the remembrance of a single historical event towards a celebration of Jewish culture as a whole. 

If you knew that the revival of the Hebrew language starting in the 19^th century is the only example of an extinct language becoming an official national language with millions of first language speakers: