Passover: Freedom from Pride

Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Montreal. He is the author, most recently, of Israel in Palestine and Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes.

Purim and Passover are celebrated one month apart during the full moon. Both mark redemption, deliverance, and liberation. Both occurred outside the Holy Land, Purim in Persia, and Exodus that Passover celebrates, in Egypt. Both happened when hope was all but lost. In the story of Purim, a royal decree was issued “to destroy, massacre, and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, on a single day…”. In Egypt, perhaps, the most desperate moment in the Israelites’ tribulations, ensued when, fleeing the Pharaoh’s army, they found themselves squeezed between the sea and the desert as they heard the pharaonic chariots approach.

The ways the two redemptions are commemorated are vastly different. Purim is celebrated for one day, while Passover lasts seven or eight days. Hallel, psalms of gratitude, is recited on Passover but not on Purim. Purim comes and goes, but the Exodus from Egypt is recalled in the context of 54 commandments, such as the kiddush (blessing over wine) which ushers in  the Sabbath every Friday night.

This reflects different paths of redemption. On Purim, we witness a court intrigue with Esther, an intrepid woman at the centre of the action. The book of Esther, which relates the story of the holiday, does not mention God’s name even once. Conversely, on Passover, the main actor is not human; the splitting of the sea that enabled liberation is presented as divine intervention.  This stands in stark contrast to the frequent references to Moses in the account of the Exodus in the Pentateuch. And the Haggadah, the text read at the Passover seder, emphasizes that this divine intervention was unmediated, direct: “Not through an angel, not through a seraph, not through any emissary”. This emphasis has been explained by the need to inculcate the idea of a direct divine intervention to the children, who are the principal target of the entire ceremony. Had they heard the name of Moses reiterated as frequently as it is in the book of Exodus, they might have ascribed the miraculous liberation to a human. More generally, care must........

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