festival of Passover

“The Passover Seder–Focus on the Children”
(Revised and updated from Passover 5760-2000)

Even before the enslavement of the Jews began, Pharaoh instructed the midwives to kill all the newborn Jewish babies. The Midrash goes further, asserting that Pharaoh’s disproportionate hatred of Jewish children led him to try to remedy his leprosy affliction by bathing in the blood of Jewish children. On Passover night, every Jew is a child, and every Jew becomes a parent, to underscore the importance of nurturing the next generation.

"The Wind and the Sun"

The Passover Haggadah cites the verse from Deuteronomy 26:7, "Va'yah'ray'oo," which states that the Egyptians treated the Hebrews badly. Rather than translate "va'yah'ray'oo," to mean that they treated us "badly," the Abarbanel indicates that its root stems from the word "ray'ah," or friend. Rabbi Piron concludes that Jews need to be on guard more from our so-called friends who embrace us and draw us away from our moral and ethical moorings, than from our enemies who try to physically destroy us.

"The Passover Seder--Focus on the Children"

Even before the enslavement of the Jews began, Pharaoh instructed the midwives to kill all newborn Jewish babies. The Midrash goes further, asserting that Pharaoh's disproportionate hatred of Jewish children led him to try to remedy his leprosy affliction by bathing in the blood of Jewish children. On Passover night, every Jew is a child, and every Jew becomes a parent, to underscore the importance of nurturing the next generation.