TORAH READING FOR THE THIRD DAY OF PESAḤ This passage is part of God’s and Moses’ instructions to the Israelites prior to the exodus so that they would never forget the significance of that event throughout all future generations.

זָכוֹר אֶת־הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה Remember this day. Remember it each year on the anni­versary of the exodus. Here, for the first time in history, remembering becomes a religious duty. There is a difference between history and memory. History is a record of the past; memory is the living presence of the past. In Judaism, history is transformed into memory so that it becomes part of who we are and how we live.

TORAH READING FOR THE FOURTH DAY OF PESAḤ אִם־כֶּֽסֶף תַּלְוֶה Should you lend money. The word “should” is to be understood as “when.” Helping the poor is not an option but an obligation. כְּנֹשֶׁה As a usurer. Do not humiliate those unable to repay. The Torah consistently stresses not just the material needs of the poor but also their psychological need for self-respect. Human dignity is to be honored, especially when it is most vulnerable.

אַחֲרֵי־רַבִּים לְרָעֹת Do not follow a majority to condemn. Do not assume that a majority is always right. The “herd instinct” is to be avoided. Popular sentiment often conflicts with truth and justice. We must never sacrifice individual judgment to conform to the crowd when we suspect they may be wrong. וְדָל לֹא תֶהְדַּר Neither may you favor a poor man. Charity is one thing, justice another. We must never pervert the latter for the sake of the former. Each has its specific place in the moral life and they must not be confused.

וְהַשְּׁבִיעִת The seventh year. The seventh year, like the seventh day, must be a time of rest – in this case for the land. The law, with its stipulation that the produce of the field should be available to all, appears here because of its association with other commands to have care for the poor. תִּשְׁמְטֶֽנָּה You shall refrain from working. This verse emphasizes the social and moral dimension of Shabbat as a time when servants and domestic animals are, for a day each week, granted the experience of freedom. שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים Three festivals each year. There were to be three pilgrimage festivals, corresponding to key moments in the agricultural year: Pesaḥ in spring when the first grain ripens, Shavuot the time of first-fruits, and Sukkot, the festival of ingathering when the harvest is stored to protect it from the early autumn rain. לֹא־תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ You may not cook a kid in its mother’s milk. A specific instance of the general prohibition of mixing meat and milk, stated three times in the Torah to forbid (1) the cooking itself, (2) eating, and (3) deriving benefit from the mixture.

TORAH READING FOR THE FIFTH DAY OF PESAḤ Moses’ plea for divine forgiveness after the sin of the golden calf has been accepted. God now commands him to prepare two tablets of stone to replace those that had been broken when Moses first descended and saw the people in disarray. These were to be a visible sign that the covenant between the people and God had been restored.

וַיַּעֲבֹר יהוה And the LORD passed by. According to the sages, God showed Moses how to pray on future occasions when Israel sinned, by invoking the qualities known as the “Thirteen Attributes of Mercy” (Rosh HaShana 17b). These subsequently became the basis of seliḥot, penitential prayer, in Judaism. בֶּחָרִישׁ וּבַקָּצִיר In plowing and in sowing seasons too. Even during the busiest times of the year, the command to rest on Shabbat must be kept. וְלֹא־יַחְמֹד אִישׁ אֶת־אַרְצְךָ No one will covet your land. The people should not fail to keep the pilgrimage festivals for fear that while they are away from their homes and fields their enemies would attack and conquer their territory.

TORAH READING FOR THE SIXTH DAY OF PESAḤ The children of Israel must bring the Pesaḥ offering. In the book of Exodus, in addition to the Paschal sacrifice they offered in Egypt immediately prior to their departure, the Israelites were commanded to celebrate Pesaḥ only after arriving in the land of Israel (Ex. 12:25, 13:5). So this additional command was necessary to signal that it was to be celebrated also in their first year in the wilderness.

וְנִכְרְתָה הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִוא מֵעַמֶּֽיהָ That soul will be cut off from among its people. The act of observing Pesaḥ is a fundamental affirmation of membership in the community of Israel, participating in its covenant of fate: hence the severity of the punishment for one who deliberately does not do so.