Understanding the Passover Story

Whether you are looking to make sure that you are clear about the Passover story in order to pass it on to your children or you are simply looking for a way to make it more accessible to yourself, you will find that before anything else, you need to understand the story itself.  Though Passover is a holiday that is celebrated with its own ritual and rules, the foundation of the holiday is the departure of the Jews from Egypt and their freedom from oppression.  Though the holiday can seem restrictive, it is in fact a celebration of choice and of the freedom to make a choice.

The Passover story begins with the oppression of the Jews in Egypt, where the pharaoh, Ramses II, feared the growing power and number of Jews in his country.  The Jews as a people were enslaved and when their numbers did not decline, the Pharaoh ordered that every newborn son be murdered.  A man and his wife put their son in a basket of reeds and floated him down the Nile river, where the baby was found and adopted by the pharaoh's daughter and given the name Moses.

The pharaoh's daughter hired the boy's mother to help raise him, and through her teachings, he came to be aware of both his heritage and the plight of his people.  At the age of eighty, Moses came before the pharaoh and ordered him to release the Jewish people from their slavery.  When the pharaoh refused, Moses unleashed the ten plagues of Egypt.  The final plague, the deaths of every non-Jewish first born son in Egypt, convinced the pharaoh to listen to Moses.

After he had given the order, though, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased them to the shores of the Red Sea.  Moses parted the waves, and after the Jewish people had crossed safely, the water came back and drowned the Egyptian army, including the pharaoh himself.

While the story itself is simple, there are many different themes that can be involved.  One important one is choice and that can be a point of discussion between you and your children.  Why did Moses choose to embrace his faith and why did the pharaoh choose to disbelieve Moses?  This is a very important part of Jewish history and by keeping alive in this way, it can remain a part of your own history and that of the people that you pass it on to.