Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Chapter 12
“This month is to be the beginning of all months, the first month of your year.
Speak to the community of Israel and say to them: On the tenth day of this month, let each family take a lamb for each house.
If the family is too small for a lamb, they must join with a neighbor, the nearest to the house, according to the number of persons and what each one can eat.
You will select a perfect lamb without blemishes, a male born during the present year, taken from the sheep or goats.
Then you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. On that evening, all the people will slaughter their lambs
and take some of the blood to put on the doorposts and on top of the doorframes of the houses where you eat.
That night, you will eat the flesh roasted at the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
This is how you will eat: with a belt around your waist, sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand. You shall eat hastily, for it is a Passover in honor of the Lord.
On that night, I shall go through Egypt and strike every firstborn in Egypt, men and animals; and I will even bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt, I, the Lord!
The blood on your houses will be the sign that you are there. I will see the blood and pass over you, and you will escape the mortal plague when I strike Egypt.
This is a day you are to remember and celebrate in honor of the Lord. It is to be kept as a festival day for all generations forever.
Commentaries
The Passover.
There is a strong argument that the date for Passover, as later established in Israel, originates from the time of Israel’s founding as God’s people, specifically just before their liberation from Egypt. This view fills the entire celebration of the feast with a sense of divine command.
The Passover ritual we observe today evolved over time. However, it is rooted in an ancient tradition of semi-nomadic shepherds. They would sacrifice an animal from their livestock on the night before leaving for new grazing lands. This departure happened at the beginning of spring, a crucial time for female animals about to give birth. In modern terms, the purpose of the sacrifice could be seen as entrusting themselves to the deities of the lands they would cross to reach safety. The ritual involved killing a chosen animal, roasting it, and eating it with bitter herbs. They would wear suitable travel clothes: a cloak, sandals, and a staff. The meal was consumed quickly, reflecting the urgency of someone leaving in a hurry. Finally, a key part of the ceremony was sprinkling the blood of the sacrificed animal on the poles supporting their tents.
In semi-desert regions where wood was limited, it became necessary to carry poles for the tents. This sprinkling resembled an exorcism, seeking divine protection for both people and animals, thereby preventing evil spirits from entering the purified tents. In this Passover ritual, the blood is sprinkled not on tent poles but on the doorjambs of the house, indicating that the people moved from living in tents to houses after settling in the land of Canaan.
Blood, the symbol of life, plays a crucial role because the “plague”—referring to the ancient evil spirits—would not touch the families whose doors were sprinkled with it. The plague would jump over those houses. This might be one of the etymological meanings of “Pesach”: jumping and walking in a jumping manner.