Parables Christian Ministry Library

Lesson #169 - The PASSOVER in DETAIL
"Part 9"
by: Avram Yehoshua

HAGADA: THE PASSOVER STORY RETOLD

Hagada means 'to tell' and in this case, refers to the telling of the Passover account. It explains why the celebration is tonight. It may start at Creation and go on for hours!, as the host would recount how Yahveh chose Father Abram and changed his name to Abraham, and promised him a great seed or many people would come from him, and that God would give Father Abraham the Land of Israel and on and on and on and on, till he would finally come to the plagues and the Salvation of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

In the days before movies and television, this part of the Passover Hagada was what all waited for. It was a reinforcing of who we were as Jews and how we had come to be God's Chosen People. There was much joy and excitement at the table realizing that until just recently, in the course of human history, could every household have a Bible, and more than one. But the Passover Hagada goes back 3400 years during which most of that time, Jewish families would not have a Bible or scroll. So the Hagada or telling of the Passover was a very special time of remembrance, especially as Yahveh had commanded it to be so. Religious education at its best. This was the way that the faith was passed on, from the Fathers to the Sons.

THE PASSOVER SEDER PLATE

Pesah, Hebrew for, 'to pass over, or to leap over' comes into English as Passover. It pictures Yahveh passing over the houses of Israel, where the blood of the lamb was, and striking the houses of Egypt, where the blood of the lamb wasn't.

Seder is a Hebrew word for 'order' as in an arrangement of things, or the order in which the Passover ceremony proceeds.

The Passover Seder Plate is a plate that has the biblical and traditional Passover foods on it. Each food tells a story:

In the days of Yeshua, there would be actual Passover lamb meat at the table for all to eat. The lamb, eaten once a year, would picture both the lamb of Egypt at the First Passover, and the Lamb of God, as the Second Passover.

Today, Max and millions of Jewish People that celebrate the Passover, will not have lamb meat. There are two reasons for this. One, when the Temple in Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish People, was destroyed by the Roman general Titus, in 70 CE, all sacrifice ceased. (CE; Common Era corresponding to AD, but the Jewish People, not recognizing Jesus as Messiah yet, do not use AD, as it is Latin for 'in the year of our Lord'.) This would include the Passover sacrifice not being done as well.

And yet, in the centuries after that, they would still have lamb at the Passover Table, but not sacrifice it. They would usually butcher it a day before the 14th of Aviv (Nisan), so that it couldn't be taken to be a sacrifice, as the Rabbis believed that sacrifice should only take place in the Temple.

It wasn't until ten centuries after the crucifixion, with the rise of anti-Semitism in the Church and the demonic 'blood libels' that Christians would accuse the Jews of, that the Jewish Community in Europe stopped having lamb at Passover, 'to show' the Christian Community that they didn't sacrifice any more. The blood libels leveled against the Jews throughout the last one thousand years says that at Passover time, the Jews kidnap Christian boys and murder them in order to use the blood for their matza. Horrible? Yes. But even in this day, Israel's Arab enemies still claim this and other demonic lies.

This charge would be preached as Gospel from the pulpits by the clergy and many a Jew would lose his or her life when Christian mobs, led by the clergy, would riot and destroy whole Jewish Communities, venting their rage at the 'devil Jews,' or 'Christ killers,' as they came to be known. Names given to them by 'great' Christian theologians such as Martin Luther, St. Augustine, Jerome, etc. Not a great way to win Jews to Jesus. Of course, this would culminate in six million Jewish men, women and children being murdered by the Nazis. Just because they were Jewish. And the Nazis, after the war, at the Nuremburg trials would use as their defense that 'they were just doing what the Church had been doing for centuries.' Unfortunately, there weren't lying. What a very sad commentary on 'the Church.'

I realize that not many Christians today know this dark fact about Church history, but validating this is not hard. Reading any Jewish history of the last 15 centuries, of which there are many paperback books out (these can be found at any bookstore under such titles as 'History of the Jews,' etc.), will give specific dates, towns and accounts where Jewish Communities have been burned to the ground and their property and goods plundered, their children taken from them, and many murdered, all in the Name of Jesus. This was Church theology toward God's Chosen People, the Jews. And much of that theology is still in place today.

In order to avoid the appearance of sacrifice, all Jews who have come from Europe, for every country of Europe turned against the Jews in the last thousand years, the Jews have stopped eating lamb altogether at Passover. Instead, they will have beef or chicken as the meat dish.

At Max's table in the United States and other places today, there will be the shank bone of a lamb (a part of one of the leg's of a lamb). This will symbolize the lamb of that First Passover in Egypt for Max and the others who don't as yet believe in Yeshua.

Maror or bitter herbs would also be on the plate. This is generally made up of horseradish. Remember, it's designed to get tears in your eyes to remember the life of bitterness in Egyptian slavery, and before one came to Jesus.

Parsley or lettuce is used for the tradition of dipping twice with salt water, very salty water, being used to picture the Red Sea.

Next we have a hard boiled egg which is also a traditional food that is used to represent Pharaoh's hard heart. There are people who say that God isn't fair because God Himself says that He will harden Pharaoh's heart. The reasoning of these people go like this: 'If God hardens someone's heart, what chance is there for that person to have anything but a hard heart?!' Sounds 'reasonable' but these people don't know the One True God. If any of us have any sense of 'fairness' or justice within us, it must come from God, who is Righteous.

In the Scriptures, Yahveh does say that He will harden Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10). But it also says that Pharaoh will harden his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34). So what is going on here?

The Lord Yeshua has given me an illustration for this: if a brick of clay and a brick of wax are placed on the pavement in the heat of the sun on a hot day in July, the brick of clay will harden, and the brick of wax will soften and melt. No one can rightfully accuse the sun and say that, 'it's the sun's fault!' It is the nature of the two bricks that will determine what happens to them. And so it is within the human heart. We can either harden ourselves before the Living God, or we can melt and allow Him to use us for His Glory; a glory that makes us become like Him. This is called, 'free will.' We all have the ability to choose God or Satan. And so did Pharaoh.

In Pharaoh's day, every plague was like 'a ray of very hot sunshine' revealing the One True God of the Hebrews. And after every plague, Pharaoh had an opportunity to free Israel under his own volition. Pharaoh obstinately chose to rebel against the Most High God, each plague hardening him or revealing his true nature. The price he paid is a Picture to us of all who rebel against Yahveh and reject the Blood of the Lamb of God over the doorway of their soul.

Another food on the Seder Plate is the dessert of the Meal: Haroset. It's a finely chopped mixture of apples, honey, nuts, cinnamon and wine. It's Delicious! Once the mixture is made, you can imagine that the apples will begin to oxidize though. This is done intentionally, for now the mixture will look like the mortar that we Jews were forced to make for Pharaoh in Egypt.

The question is though, 'Why would anything that is supposed to represent our painful labor under Pharaoh, taste good?!' The Rabbis say that it is symbolic of the 'pleasure' that Israel had, even in Egyptian slavery. It is a picture of the enjoyment of sin in the land of darkness. This is a great tradition from the Rabbis. And very appropriate for us also who believe in Messiah Yeshua.