Happy Passover!

The story of Passover takes place at a time when the pharaoh of Egypt had enslaved the Israelites, and God called upon Moses to tell the pharaoh to let his people go. When the pharaoh refused, God sent 10 plagues to the Egyptians, the last of which was a vow to send an angel of the Lord to kill the firstborn in each Egyptian home.

Israelites marked their doors with the blood of slaughtered lambs so the plague would “pass over” them and spare their families. After the plague, Israelites fled Egypt immediately. They left so quickly that the bread they were baking didn’t have time to rise. The unleavened bread is known today as matzo, a symbolic cracker. At the shore of the Red Sea, Moses called on God’s power to part the sea. The Israelites passed through safely before the sea crashed in and drowned the Egyptian army.

As the Israelites left Egypt, God commanded the people to mark seven days in the month of Nissan and to observe them each year by eating unleavened bread and telling their children the history of the Israelite’s journey out of Egypt.

To all who celebrate…Chag Sameach!