The Meaning of Passover

The following excerpt is from a future installment of Jezebel's Tomb. Reading it out of sequence won't spoil the plot.

It's a flashback to an episode from Israeli journalist Benjamin Jordan's past.

Suppose he found what he was looking for, and suppose Mandel was right about its significance. How would people respond to the message? How would they respond to the messenger?

Some people clung to their illusions, even when the truth was right in front of them. The truth could be too uncomfortable. Easier to blame the messenger than to accept the message.

Jordan had lived that lesson.

In a manner of speaking, he had opened the box . . . .

He was back in Connecticut, outside a big bland house with a neat green lawn, stepping out of a station wagon with fake wood siding. He was 13 years old.

Several years had passed since his buddy Daniel gave his life for Israel, and Daniel's parents had sponsored an exchange program. The Friedmans were struggling to come to terms with Daniel's death, and to memorialize him in a way that was faithful to his sacrifice. They bought plane tickets for eight children from the kibbutz to visit America and arranged for the children to stay with Jewish families in their community. The idea was that kids from the Connecticut suburb would later visit the kibbutz, but that never happened. Jordan figured he was the reason.

He stayed with the Friedmans, in the room that once belonged to Daniel. He was with them for Passover.

When it was time for the holiday dinner, everyone crowded into the dining room. Daniel's teenage sister, Allison, and his grandparents were there, along with some neighbors named Anderson, and Rabbi Berman and his wife, from the Friedmans' temple.

The table was set in fine china and silver, with a wine-stained copy of the Passover haggadah at each setting. There were piles of matzah, chopped apples and honey, chopped liver, and congealed lumps of pureed fish called gefilte fish.

Mr. Friedman began by asking the Rabbi to say a few words, and the Rabbi warmed to the task. He explained that they were gathered to tell the story of the Jews' Exodus from slavery in Egypt. With a nod to the Andersons, who were African American, the Rabbi said it was only fitting that Jews celebrate Passover with friends of other faiths and backgrounds.

Reading from the haggadah, they all joined in singing.

 

When Israel was in Egypt's land,

Let my people go!

Oppressed so hard they could not stand,

Let my people go!

Go down, Moses,

Way down in Egypt's land,

Tell ol' Pharaoh,

To let my people go.

 

For Jordan's benefit, the Rabbi explained that slaves in the American South had sung the same song while they prayed for deliverance. The Jewish Exodus gave them hope and inspiration.

As the youngest child present, Jordan was called upon to read the Four Questions. "Why is this night different from all other nights?" he began. He asked the traditional questions in a clear, steady voice.

Reading from the haggadah, Mr. Friedman told the famous story, recalling that once Jews suffered in cruel bondage to Egyptian taskmasters. Moses asked Pharaoh to let his people go, but the wicked Pharaoh stubbornly refused. So God sent a series of plagues upon Egypt. After each plague, Moses repeated his plea, but Pharaoh hardened his heart against the Jews. Finally, God inflicted the most terrible plague of all. Passing over the houses of the Israelites, God killed the firstborn of every Egyptian family.

At last, Pharaoh gave in, and the Jews fled in such a hurry that there was no time for their bread to rise. But almost as soon as the Jews were out of his sight, Pharaoh changed his mind. He sent his army chasing after them.

Trapped between the Pharaoh's onrushing chariots and the Red Sea, the Jews looked doomed. Then, in the greatest miracle of all, God parted the waters to let the Jews escape—and drowned the pursuing army.

The Rabbi cleared his throat. Though it was a Jewish holiday, he said, it celebrated universal values, freedom and equality, and God commanded the Israelites to tell their children the Passover story so they would never lose sight of these basic human rights.

Jordan's expression must have given him away.

"Ben, you look surprised," Mr. Friedman said. "This can't be the first time you've heard the Passover story, is it?"

There was a long, awkward silence while Jordan formulated an answer.

"I like your version better," Jordan said, diplomatically.

"Is there another?" Mr. Friedman asked.

Jordan tried to dodge the question, but Mr. Friedman maintained eye contact.

"There's the original," Jordan said.

"What do you mean?"

"The Book of Exodus."

"Didn't we just cover that?"

"Rabbi?" Jordan said, deferring.

The Rabbi didn't know what to say.

Daniel's grandfather jumped in jovially and tried to get Jordan off the hook. "Now, Ben, you're only responsible for four questions. That's why they call them The Four Questions. Let's eat."

Mrs. Friedman rose to serve dinner, but Mr. Friedman motioned for her to sit.

"I want to know what's on Ben's mind," Mr. Friedman said, with more eye contact.

"Do you have a bible?" Jordan asked.

Mr. Friedman left the dining room and returned with a seldom-opened copy of The Five Books of Moses. "Hebrew and English," he said.

Jordan flipped through it, trying to find his place, conscious that everyone's eyes were upon him. After an uncomfortably long interval, he found it.

"The very day the Jews left Egypt, God told Moses how to observe Passover, and this is the way God put it: ‘Any bought slave may partake, provided you have circumcised him.' Any bought slave."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mr. Friedman asked.

"I think it means the Jews had slaves," Jordan said. "I think it means it was okay with God if, after escaping slavery in Egypt, the Jews kept slaves of their own."

"No, that can't be," Mrs. Friedman said. "Tell him, Rabbi."

The Rabbi looked like he had suddenly come down with a severe case of heartburn. Which was strange, since he hadn't even touched his gefilte fish.

"Just look at the Ten Commandments," Jordan said, flipping ahead in the Bible.

" ‘Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy,'" he read. " ‘You shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.'"

Mr. Anderson looked at Jordan in disbelief. "That's not the way I remember it," he said.

"Then there's ‘Thou shalt not covet,'" Jordan said, plunging ahead. "‘You shall not covet your neighbor's house: you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's.'"

"I don't know where you get this reference to male or female slaves," Mr. Anderson said. "The Bible I know refers to ‘manservants' and ‘maidservants.'"

"Maybe those are old-fashioned English words for slaves," Jordan said.

"I think they're altogether different," Mr. Anderson said.

"Well, maybe," Jordan conceded. "But there's more, lots more."

Mrs. Friedman looked stricken.

"It's right here, in Exodus 21, right after the Ten Commandments," Jordan continued. He showed it to Daniel's grandfather, who read it aloud.

" ‘When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free without payment . . . . If his master gave him a wife, and she has borne him children, the wife and her children shall belong to the master, and he shall leave alone. But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, and my wife and children: I do not wish to go free,' his master shall . . . . pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall then remain his slave for life.'"

Everyone looked at Jordan in astonishment. It was so quiet they could hear the Rabbi's stomach gurgle.

"Benjamin, I think you may be confusing the institution of slavery with indentured servitude," Mr. Andersen offered. "Indentured servants go free after they work off their debts."

"Maybe the boys do," Benjamin said. "But not the girls. Look: ‘When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not be freed as male slaves are.'"

"That's horrible," Daniel's younger sister, Allison, said.

"And when it comes to slaves who aren't Hebrew, not even the boys go free," Jordan said. " ‘These shall become your property: you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time.'"

"I don't believe it," Mrs. Friedman said.

"There's more," Jordan said. "If a man murders another man, the penalty is death. But if a master kills his slave, it's like it isn't even a crime. As long as the slave doesn't die within a day or two, the master ‘is not to be punished . . . because the slave is his property.'"

Mr. Friedman looked incredulous. Everyone looked incredulous.

"I'm sorry," Benjamin said to no one in particular. "That's what it says."

"Then what the hell is the point of the story?" Mr. Friedman demanded. "I mean, what about ‘Let my people go' and all that?"

Mr. Friedman directed his question at the Rabbi.

"Do you want to tell him, Benjamin?" the Rabbi said, in a tone of respectful encouragement.

Jordan took a deep breath. "You see, in the Bible, Moses didn't really say, ‘Let my people go.'"

"Are you kidding?" Mr. Friedman said.

"In the Bible, God said it. God was giving Moses a message to take to Pharaoh. The thing is, there was more to it. What God said was, ‘Tell Pharaoh to let my people go so they can worship me.'"

"I don't get it," Mr. Friedman said.

"For God, it wasn't about the evils of slavery. It was about worshiping Him."

Jordan could tell that they didn't understand.

"Remember the part about Pharaoh hardening his heart after each plague and refusing to let the Jews go? Well, that's the problem. In the Bible, Pharaoh didn't harden his heart. God did it for him. God made Pharaoh resist when Pharaoh was ready to give in: ‘But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.'"

"That's nuts," Mr. Friedman said. "Why would God do that?"

"God explained. God wanted an excuse to flex his muscles. He wanted to show everyone how powerful he was."

Jordan looked for the quote. But before he could find it, the Rabbi recited from memory.

" ‘Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, 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 and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am the Lord.'"

"What about the parting of the sea?" Allison asked. "You mean it was just God showing off?"

"Allison!" her mother scolded.

"It was no accident that the Jews found themselves with their backs to the sea," the Rabbi said. "God arranged it that way. The Bible says the Israelites had been making good progress on their journey out of Egypt when God told them to turn back and camp by the sea. God wanted Pharaoh to go after them. One last time, God hardened Pharoah's heart against the Israelites. Why? God tells us:

" ‘So that I may win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and all his army.'"

There was a long, dumbfounded silence.

"Well," Mr. Anderson said.

"Hmmm," Mr. Friedman said.

"Ummm, is everyone ready for soup?" Mrs. Friedman asked.

Jordan spoke up.

"Rabbi Berman?"

"Yes, Benjamin?"

"What I don't understand is . . . ."

"Yes?"

"Why did all the Egyptian children have to die? They didn't do anything wrong."

Rabbi Berman looked at him sadly.

"That, Benjamin, is a very difficult question."

Check back every Monday and Thursday for a new installment of Jezebel's Tomb.

Selected bibliography:

Hastings, James, editor.  A Dictionary of the Bible Dealing With Its Language, Literature and Contents Including the Biblical Theology.  New York:  Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902.

The Oxford Study Bible:  Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha, edited by M. Jack Suggs, Katharine Doob Sakenfeld and James R. Mueller.   New York:  Oxford University Press, 1992.  Containing  Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha © 1989 by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.  (REB)

Tanakh:  The Holy Scriptures:  The New JPS Translation To The Traditional Hebrew Text.   Philadelphia and Jerusalem:  Jewish Publication Society, 1985.  (JPS)

The Holy Bible:  King James Version.  (KJV)

 

Notes:

"Any bought slave . . . ."  Exodus 12:44  (REB)

"Remember the Sabbath day . . . ."  Exodus 20:8-10  (JPS).  See also Deuteronomy 5:12-14.

"You shall not covet . . . ."  Exodus 20:14  (JPS)

"When you acquire a Hebrew slave . . . ."  Exodus 21:2-6  (JPS)

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave . . . ."  Exodus 21:7  (JPS)

"These shall become your property . . . ."  Leviticus 25:44-46  (JPS)

"Because the slave is his property . . . ."  Exodus 21:21  (REB)

"Let my people go in order to worship me."  Exodus 7:16, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, and 10:3  (REB)

"Let my people go that they may worship Me."  Exodus 7:16, 7:26, and 8:16  (JPS)

"But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go."  Exodus 10:27. See also, for example, Exodus 10:20  (KJV)

"Then the Lord said to Moses . . . in order that you may know that I am the Lord."  Exodus 10:1-2  (JPS)

God told the Israelites to "turn back and encamp . . . by the sea."  Exodus 14:1  (JPS)

"So that I may win glory for myself . . . ."  Exodus 14:14  (REB)