Passover | Exodus, the Seder and the Haggadah

Passover, or Pesach, is a Jewish festival that commemorates the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt as told in Exodus. The seder is an ordered meal and telling of that story. It places words alongside actions such as eating matzah, tasting bitter herbs and asking why the night is different. The biblical text, the Mishnah and the Haggadah each help explain what participants are remembering and how they take part. Exodus 12 · Passover Haggadah, Maggid

What the book of Exodus connects to the festival

Exodus 12 describes Israelites marking their doorposts and lintels with blood from the Passover offering. They eat the meal with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The account says that God passed over the marked houses during the plague on the firstborn. The chapter calls for a recurring observance and anticipates children asking what it means. Later in the same chapter, the departing Israelites bake unleavened cakes because they have been driven out before they can wait for their dough to rise. The chapter thus puts unleavened bread both at the meal and in the story of the departure. Exodus 12:5–20, 26–27 and 39

Why the story is told in the first person

In Exodus 13:8, the parent is told to speak to a child about what God did for the speaker on leaving Egypt. Mishnah Pesachim 10:5 draws on that phrasing. It asks each generation to see itself as if it had personally come out of Egypt, then connects the telling to praise and thanksgiving. The movement from speaking about earlier generations to speaking as part of their story is a feature of the seder’s language. Exodus 13:7–8 · Mishnah Pesachim 10:5

How the Four Questions fit into the seder

The Haggadah guides participants through the seder. Maggid is the telling portion, which includes the Four Questions, often called Mah Nishtanah. The questions draw attention to what someone at the table can see and do. In the Chabad text, they ask about dipping foods, eating matzah, eating bitter herbs and reclining. The explanation accompanying that edition notes that many other communities begin with the question about matzah. The order can vary while the meal’s unusual actions still provide the starting point for the telling. Chabad Haggadah, Maggid and commentary

Matzah, chametz and household custom

Exodus directs that leaven be removed from homes for the festival. The Orthodox Union explains chametz in relation to specified grains and how they are prepared. It treats kitniyot, a category that includes rice and certain legumes, separately. Avoiding those foods is a customary restriction in Ashkenazi practice. The difference helps explain why people who agree about removing chametz can serve different foods at Passover. Exodus 12:15–20 · Orthodox Union, “Which Foods Are Chametz?” · Orthodox Union, “What Is Kitniyot?”

A Haggadah that tells the story in pictures

The Sarajevo Haggadah is a parchment manuscript that the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina traces to medieval Spain, probably Barcelona around 1350. Its opening miniatures depict episodes from creation through slavery and the departure from Egypt, continuing into the time of Joshua. The pictures give the reader a wider sequence in which to place the Exodus. The manuscript is a concrete example of how a book associated with a family ritual could use images to carry part of the telling. National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Haggadah

Conclusion

Passover gives the story of liberation a place at the table. The meal prompts questions, the Haggadah gives the telling an order and the Mishnah asks participants to see themselves as people who came out of Egypt. Foods and customs can vary across households. The connection between memory, teaching and participation runs through the sources that shape the seder.

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