Why Passover is a big deal, even for non-observant Jews

What does being a Jew mean to me, a secular Jew? The celebration of Passover – a major religious holiday celebrated by observant and non-observant Jews around the world – is a great way to help you understand.

This particular celebration is the “let my people go” holiday – the Exodus from Egypt. Essentially, the Pharoah enslaved the ancient Israelites. Moses led the Jews out of slavery. In the process, God subjected the Egyptians to plagues of locusts, boils, darkness, etc. The final, and most convincing plague was the slaying of the first-born. The Angel of Death “passed over” the houses of the Jews – that’s where the name of the holiday comes from. The Israelites fled, Moses parted the Red Sea and they all began the process of becoming Jews. .

Last night, the first night of Passover, Jews all over the world sat down to a Passover Seder. What makes this holiday uniquely Jewish is that pretty much every family reads the Haggadah – the story of the Jewish liberation from Egypt.

And that’s where it gets interesting. Ostensibly, the Haggadah is the story of the flight from Egypt. But what it really is is a discussion. The most famous portion of the Hagaddah, for instance – always sung by the youngest child to great applause by grandparents – is the Four Questions, Mah Nishtana.

Here are the first two:

“Why is this night different from every other night? Every other night we can eat bread and Matzah. Tonight we can only eat Matzah.

Why is this night different from every other night? Every other night, we can eat any vegetable we want to. Tonight we have to eat the Maror, the bitter vegetable.”

The point is, we celebrate the Exodus by arguing and discussing its importance. Why do the things we do every year? Why eat the Matzah, anyway? Why were we in Egypt in the first place? How do you

make a good kugel? For that matter, what is kugel, anyway? Will there be an edible Passover dessert this year?

We don’t go to a place of worship to experience being a Jew. The word “Haggadah” means “the telling” No Holy Rabbi issues an edict on what we are to think and understand. Story telling is a communal process.

We tell the story to each other – this is who we are, this is where we come from, and this is how and why we suffered.

We sit down together over a meal and figure it out amongst ourselves. We do it every year.