TORAH READING FOR THE FIRST DAY OF PESAḤ This is Moses’ address prior to the exodus, preparing the people for what they must do on their last night in captivity. They were to offer a sacrifice, sprinkling its blood on their doorposts. The Israelites had to perform an act of spiritual liberation as preparation for their physical/political liberation. By engaging in an act foreign to their Egyptian neighbors, and by being willing to signal the fact on the doorposts of their houses, they showed they were unafraid to be different: to take a risk for the sake of God. Note the emphasis on children in this passage. Ancient Egypt and ancient Israel were two civilizations that asked the fundamental question: how do we achieve immortality? How do we ensure that something of us lives on? They gave opposite answers. The Egyptians built pyramids, monuments in stone that would outlast the sands and winds of time. Moses took a quite different path. We become immortal by engraving our values on the hearts of their children, and they on theirs, and so on to the end of time. Israel became the first people in history to predicate its survival on education – and it began here, in Moses’ words shortly before the exodus. Already he is asking the Israelites to think not just about tomorrow but about the distant future and the education of their children.

HAFTARA FOR THE FIRST DAY OF PESAḤ The Torah portion spoke of the first Pesaḥ in Egypt prior to the exodus. The Haftara speaks of the first Pesaḥ the Israelites celebrated in the Promised Land, bringing the long story of the exodus to a close after forty years. The passage also describes the second circumcision, that is, the second mass ceremony: the first had taken place in Egypt. The Torah stipulates that an uncircumcised male may not eat the Paschal offering (Ex. 12:48). Those born in the wilderness had not been circumcised because of the dangers involved in performing the operation during a journey. The people never knew in advance when they might have to set off, and this would have endangered the newly circumcised children. So the new generation of males had to be circumcised in order to celebrate Pesaḥ.

TORAH READING FOR THE FIRST TWO DAYS The core reading is Leviticus 22–23, the first of three extended accounts of the festivals in the Torah. This sets out the basic structure of the Jewish calendar as a rhythm of holiness in time. The second, in Numbers 28–29, is a detailed account of the sacrifices to be offered on these days. The third, in Deuteronomy 16, emphasizes the pilgrimage character of Pesaḥ, Shavuot and Sukkot, together with the principle of social inclusion – they were days on which the widow, orphan, Levite, and stranger were all to be included in the celebration. Note the significance of the number seven in the architectonics of holy time. The seventh day, Shabbat, is holy. There are seven other holy days: the first and last day of Pesaḥ, Shavuot, Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and She­mini Atzeret. The greatest concentration of festivals is in the seventh month.

לְמַֽעַן יֵדְעוּ דֹרֹתֵיכֶם So that your descendants will know. As well as marking the cycle of seasons and the agricultural year, the festivals are also times of remembering and reenacting the history of the nation and handing on that memory across the generations. To be a Jew is to live history, celebrating the present in the context of past and future, memory and hope.

HAFTARA FOR THE SECOND DAY OF PESAḤ Having read about one historic Pesaḥ on the first day, on the second we read about another, one of the great moments of religious renewal in the life of the nation. During the long reign of King Manasseh, the kingdom of Judah had lapsed into the worst forms of idolatry. Manasseh’s grandson Josiah, ascending to the throne at the age of eight, presided over a period of national rededication. In the course of repairs to the Temple, Hilkiah the priest made the momentous discovery of a Torah scroll, probably hidden during Manasseh’s reign to avoid destruction. On hearing the curses of Deuteronomy fore­telling national catastrophe as a result of faithlessness, the king was moved to tears. Tearing his clothes as a sign of mourning and repentance, Josiah read the Torah to the people, and together with them reaffirmed the cove­nant. The mood of national religious revival led to a spectacular cele­bration of Pesaḥ, on a scale and with a fervor that had not been seen for many centuries.