… In the opinion of the Egyptian pharaoh, foreigners in his country lived too freely. Moreover, they posed a potential threat to the state, constantly, over the centuries, expecting an attack from the east of the Semitic peoples kindred to the Jews. There were also economic reasons for starting the application of the most severe measures against the Israelis: the pharaoh decided to build two new cities in the Nile Delta, and the most suitable free labor for this was people of this particular nationality.
Under the scorching sun, from dawn to dawn, the Jews worked on the manufacture of clay bricks intended to build the walls of new cities, but their spirit was not broken, and they, following the commandments of their God, continued to be fruitful and multiply.
Pharaoh summoned two Israeli midwives and ordered the killing of all newborn Israeli male babies, but they managed to evade the monstrous order by cunning. Then the pharaoh decided to act without any tricks, ordering his assistants to take away newborn boys from their mothers and throw them into the Nile.
In one family from the tribe of Levitov there were two children, and the third was born - a boy. The mother tried to hide the birth, but the baby would be born so powerful that soon his cries were heard throughout the settlement. The mother of the child, who knew about the kindness of the young daughter of the pharaoh, came up with a cunning plan: after pitching the basket, she put the child in it and told her daughter to push the basket into the river at the right time. Everything happened as she expected - the young princess heard the cry of a child. At her order, the maids fished out the basket and put it at her feet. The girl assumed that this was a Jewish child, but the actions of her father were disgusting to her, and she decided to take the baby under her care.
At the age of two, the boy was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and named Moses. Since then, he was brought up as a child of royal blood: he wore appropriate clothes, received a proper upbringing and education, and when he grew up, he began to lead a "social life" in accordance with the customs of that time - he drove around in a chariot, walked along the Nile canals on a luxurious barge, led the elevated conversations with courtyard priests. At the same time, the young man knew who he was - secretly from the princess, his mother taught him the Hebrew language, told him the story of their family, told how he managed to avoid death in the waters of the Nile.
Moses, who saw the pitiful work and humiliating position of his brothers by blood, painfully felt the duality of his position, a sense of guilt before his fellow tribesmen. Once this delicate balance was broken. Moses saw the overseer brutally mock the son of Israel, who was working at making bricks. In a fit of anger, Moses drew his sword and killed the Egyptian, and buried his corpse in the sand. However, there were witnesses to this murder, and after a while one of the fellow countrymen directly told Moses that he was a murderer.
Moses soon learned that an order had been issued for his arrest. At the last moment, he managed to leave the city and go east - to the homeland of his ancestors. By this time, Moses was forty years old.
To the east of the Gulf of Aqaba, Moses won the friendship of an influential local priest, who also turned out to be his distant relative. Moses settled in his house, married his daughter Sephora, took up cattle breeding, and after a while acquired two sons - Gershom and Eliezer. It was here that Moses truly learned the history of his people, studied the biography of his great ancestor, learned about the customs according to which honor is given to God alone.
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Once, when Moses was tending sheep at the foot of Mount Sinai, he saw how a bush burst into a bright flame that did not burn its branches. Then the voice of God was heard from the bush, calling on Moses to go to Egypt and free his fellow tribesmen from the captivity of Pharaoh. Moses complained to God that, having appeared to the sons of Israel, he could not even tell them the true name of the god of their fathers.
In response, God revealed his name to him - Yahweh - and gave Moses the power to perform miracles.
Saying goodbye to his relatives, Moses went to Egypt, accompanied by his wife and children. On the way, he had to perform a circumcision ceremony, with the help of his wife Sephora.
In Egypt, Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, began to persuade his fellow tribesmen to leave Egypt and, as a sign that he was acting on behalf of Yahweh, performed miracles, and the eloquence of Aaron and the increasing persecution by Pharaoh convinced the children of Israel that the country, which for centuries had them hospitality, it's time to leave.
By this time, a new pharaoh had come to power in Egypt, who did not remember Moses (who by this time had already turned eighty years old). Accompanied by his brother, Moses will go to the Pharaoh with a request to allow the Israelites to leave the city for three days in order to perform their religious rites. Pharaoh not only did not give permission for this, but, on the contrary, increased the duty imposed on the Israelites. Then Moses will go to the court of Pharaoh and there he performed a miracle, turning the staff into a snake. However, the priests of the pharaoh were able to repeat the same miracle.
Moses resorted to the help of God, and He sent ten misfortunes to Egypt one by one: the water of the Nile turned into blood; toads and insects multiplied terribly; pestilence fell on livestock; the people of Egypt were plagued by ulcers; hail destroyed crops; what the hail did not destroy was devoured by the hordes of locusts; then Moses, at the direction of Yahweh, sent such darkness that people had to move by touch during the day; but the last was the worst punishment. At the direction of Moses, all the families of the Israelites killed a lamb and marked the doors of their houses with blood. Then they put on their traveling clothes.
After midnight, Yahweh began to walk from house to house, and in those houses whose doors were not marked with the blood of a lamb, the firstborn babies died. Even cattle did not escape this fate. Horror gripped Egypt. Only then did Pharaoh realize the omnipotence of Moses and gave permission for the people of Israel to leave the borders of his country. Taking advantage of the reigning confusion, the refugees managed to take with them gold, silver, precious vessels, clothes and weapons. In memory of this event, the holiday of Passover was established.
In Hebrew, "Pesach" means "to pass by, to pass", because that night the death passed the entire Jewish people.
The most important part of the holiday is the reading of the Haggadah - the book of legends. Explaining to the people how to celebrate Passover (or Passover), Moses taught: "Tell your son that day: for the sake of what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt."
On Easter evening, lonely people and the poor are invited to dinner. No Jew should feel forgotten and abandoned. The table at which Haggadah is read is covered with a beautiful tablecloth. In the middle of it stands an Easter platter symbolizing the Exodus. On it lies a zroa - a piece of fried meat, a chicken neck, eggs. The meat should remind of the lamb that was slaughtered on the eve of the flight from Egypt, and of the festive sacrifice in the temple. Beitsa - a hard-boiled egg - also symbolizes the beginning of a new period in Jewish history. As a chicken hatches from a cramped egg, so the people of Israel emerged from slavery for a new free life. Maror - bitter herbs: usually put a horseradish root. The taste of these herbs is bitter, like the taste of bondage. Haroset is a mixture of grated apple or dates with ground nuts, cinnamon and wine. The mixture looks like that clayfrom which the Jews, being in slavery, molded bricks at the construction sites of the pharaoh. Karpas - greens or vegetables: parsley, lettuce, onion. Greenery symbolizes the arrival of spring, renewal. In addition, a saucer of salt water is placed on the table. It resembles the tears shed by the Jews in the distant past.
In memory of the bread of their ancestors who hastily left Egypt, they eat matzah - bread baked from unfermented dough. When Moses led the people out of Egypt, the women did not have time to leaven the dough, and they baked unleavened bread. All seven days they eat matzo - unleavened bread. During the festive meal, you need to talk about your liberation and eat at least three pieces of matzo. “This is the poor bread that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Everyone who is hungry, let him come and eat, everyone who is in need, let him join in the celebration of Easter.”
Part of the matzo is the afikoman - a piece to be eaten at the end of the holiday. Afikoman translated means "after the feast". The children at the table, according to tradition, are supposed to kidnap the afikoman. Only after they are given or promised a ransom, do the little thieves return the stolen goods.
In the Easter rite, grape wine is of great importance. It should be enough for each of those present to drink four full glasses. A special beautiful glass is also placed on the table. Who is it for? In the Torah, Elijah the Prophet was named Eliyahu Hanavi. God promised that the day would come when Elijah would return to announce the coming of the Messiah to the Jewish people. Therefore, he is called the predecessor of the Messiah. The message of the coming of the Messiah can be expected at any moment. Therefore, it is for the prophet Elijah that an additional glass is on the Easter table. If the prophet enters the house, he will be able, like any guest on Pesach, to share a festive meal.
The outstanding German writer Lyon Feuchtwanger remarkably spoke about the peculiarities of drinking wine on the first day of Passover:
“Among the multitude of peculiar rituals among us Jews, there is one with which I, upon first comprehending its meaning, was especially deeply moved. On the first Easter evening, we drink wine to celebrate the deliverance from Egyptian slavery. But before we drain the goblet, we pour ten drops out of it, remembering the ten executions that God sent on the Egyptians. The thought of the suffering of our enemies reduces the joy that fills the cup by ten drops.
Thanks to this custom, I understood from an early age that my enemies are people too, and I never blindly rejoiced at their defeat or death."
On a solemn night, Haggadah is read at the table. When the reading comes to the episode where all ten Egyptian executions are listed, a drop of wine is spilled onto the plate at the mention of each disaster. This is how gratitude is expressed to God for freeing the people from slavery. Ten drops of wine is also a regret for the torments that the Egyptians had to endure, who wished to release the freedom-loving people to freedom.
Preparing for Easter begins with a thorough cleaning. Cleaning before the holiday is common in many cultures. But in the Jewish religion, the pre-Easter cleaning has a special meaning. Any crumbs lodged in corners and crevices must be cleaned out.
There is a custom in the evening of Nisan 14, that is, on the evening before Passover, to go around the whole house with a lit candle in search of crumbs lying around. The fact is that usually bread for every day is baked from sour dough, and it is called chametz. But it is strictly forbidden to eat it on Passover. So strict that even crumbs of regular bread should not remain in the house after cleaning. Easter days are different from all other days of the year, just like matzo is different from ordinary bread. It is not for nothing that Pesach is otherwise called "the holiday of poor bread."
Moses Exodus
Six hundred thousand armed men left the country of Goshen and without a count of women, children and their servants. By this time, Pharaoh's fear had passed, but anger and indignation had grown: he led a military column, consisting of six hundred chariots, and went in pursuit of the Israelites.
When the silhouettes of war chariots appeared on the horizon in a cloud of dust, the people of Israel grumbled at their leader, saying that it would be better to live in captivity than to fall in the desert at the hands of Egyptian soldiers. Moses answered with confidence that Yahweh would not leave his people, and his prediction came true. With the onset of dusk, the Egyptians' path was blocked by a solid wall of smoke and fire, and so it was until dawn, and at dawn Moses approached the edge of the sea, raised his hand and ordered the waves to part. The waves rose in two walls, between which a dry passage was formed, through which the fugitives moved to the other side of the sea (the Red Sea in the supposed transition area is a very shallow strait).
Pharaoh's warriors followed the Israelites, however, at the sign of Moses, the waves closed, and a few hours later the corpses of horses and people, fragments of chariots were thrown ashore.
Further, the route laid by Moses led through the desert. For three days, no water at all was visible anywhere, and the water found in the well of the settlement of Merra turned out to be salty. The murmuring began again, and again Moses, to the joy of his fellow tribesmen, performed a miracle by throwing branches into the water of the well, which made it fresh and pleasant to the taste.
And again, six weeks after leaving Egypt, in the desert, when the water ran out and food ran out, the people grumbled at Moses, demanding food and drink, exclaiming that it would be better to die at the hands of the owner, being full, than to die of hunger in the desert and thirst.
Moses somehow reassured his fellow tribesmen, promising them that God would not leave them, however, apparently, it was on this day that he fully realized how deeply rooted in the souls of these people slave psychology. At sunset, countless flocks of quail began to flock to the parking lot and fell to the ground. People easily caught them with their hands and immediately cooked them on fires. When they were full, the refugees praised Moses and went to bed. When they woke up, they saw that the whole earth was covered with small white balls. Moses explained to the amazed people that these balls are manna from heaven and Yahweh sends it to them instead of bread. It turned out that manna tastes like not just bread, but bread with honey, and its amount is quite enough to meet the daily need for food. From that day on, during the entire period of wandering, manna was the main food product of the people of Israel.
And again, when the water ran out, a murmur arose. And again Moses performed a miracle, hitting a rock at the foot of Mount Horeb with his staff, from which he immediately gushed out a source of the purest water. As usual in such cases, the mood of the children of Israel instantly changed, and they began again to extol the dignity of Moses.
Soon after, the first armed skirmish between the Israelis and the nomadic peoples took place. Moses, along with Aaron, who accompanied him, stood on the hill, watching the battle. When Moses raised his hands, the Israelites took over, when his hands dropped, nomads began to press them. By evening Moses, a man, to put it mildly, not young, was completely tired, and his shoulders sagged limply. Then Aaron and Gur, having seated Moses on a stone, raised his hands on both sides, and the Israelites managed to put the attackers to flight.
Three months after the beginning of the wanderings, important and remarkable events took place near Mount Sinai. One fine day Moses went to the top of the mountain, and there Yahweh informed him that he was making a covenant with the people of Israel. Yahweh gave Moses the tablets - stone tablets on which the basic laws and religious regulations were written. Henceforth, they were to be guided in the daily life of the people of Israel. Returning to his people, Moses instructed all twelve tribes of Israel - according to the number of Jacob's sons - to build on the altar, and then personally brought sacrifices on these altars, sprinkling the blood of the sacrificial animals on his people.
The next meeting of Moses with God lasted forty days, and at this time two more tablets with the ten commandments were received, as well as instructions on how exactly the Ark of the Covenant should be made and the tabernacle - the temple-tent in which this ark was to be kept. The forty-day absence of Moses caused unrest in the camp of the Israelites. In the absence of Moses, old doubts began to awaken, disbelief in the oneness and omnipotence of Yahweh, faith in those gods that the sons of Israel worshiped in Egypt revived.
Moses, coming down from the mountain, saw that his people were returning to pagan customs, forgetting about the just concluded agreement with God, and in anger broke the tablets with the ten commandments against the stone. The golden calf was also broken, and pieces of it were thrown into the well.
Having restored order, Moses went back to Mount Sinai and begged God for forgiveness for himself and his people; having received it and returning to the camp, he immediately took up the construction of the tabernacle. Only Moses himself was allowed to enter it.
Soon after, the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments were re-made. With them, the prophet went to the top of the mountain and spent forty days there, receiving new religious orders for his people. After these events, Moses' face began to shine with such brilliance that people were forced to close their eyes. Moses began to appear before the Jews with a veiled face. A halo in the form of horns appeared above his head.
Soon, the Ark of the Covenant appeared in the tabernacle, made of acacia wood, richly decorated with precious metals. It contained the tablets with the commandments. The ark was assembled without a single nail - so that, if necessary, it could be quickly disassembled and loaded into carts.
During the year spent at Mount Sinai, the refugees turned into real warriors. Now it was possible to start realizing the main goal of travel to conquer the country of Canaan - the historical homeland of the Israelis. But after just three days of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites again began to murmur against Moses and remember how satisfying they lived in Egypt. Once again, it took a miracle to calm the people down.
Countless flocks of quails fell at the feet of the pilgrims. But this time the gifts turned out to be dubious: the meat of the birds turned out to be poisonous, and people began to die from poisoning. It was those who died most of all who complained about Moses, and then pounced on delicacies with particular greed.
Finally the caravan reached the borders of the land of Canaan. It was guarded very reliably, and with the available forces, the conquest of this land was impossible. The chosen people had to wander in the wilderness for another forty years, and only after that enter the land of Canaan. During this time, new generations of Israelis have grown up, seasoned in wanderings, in labor, in combat clashes with other nomadic peoples, and most importantly, they did not remember and did not know slavery. Moses decided it was time to move to conquer Canaan.
Moses is 122 years old. Knowing that, in accordance with the verdict of Yahweh, he himself was not destined to see the return of the people of Israel to the land of Canaan, he appointed Joshua, a brave military leader, as his successor. Saying goodbye to the people, Moses left alone to the top of Mount Heaven, from where the waters of the Jordan River and the land of Canaan stretching beyond it, the promised land, could be seen …
From the book: "100 Great Holidays". Elena Olegovna Chekulaeva