4 | MAY 2 • 2024 
J
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PURELY COMMENTARY

F

or many Jews around 
the world sitting down 
at their tables last week 
to celebrate Passover — and 
there were indeed many, as 
the Passover seder is the most 
commonly observed Jewish 
ritual according to surveys of 
American and 
Israeli Jews — 
celebrating was 
harder than at 
any Passover in 
their lifetime. 
It seems like a 
mockery of the 
holiday com-
memorating Jewish freedom 
from enslavement in Egypt 
to have 133 Jewish hostages 
enslaved by a terrorist group 
in Gaza, with their prospects 
for salvation growing dimmer 
by the day. Jews recounted the 
miracles performed for their 
ancestors against their oppres-
sors in the shadow of the 
worst massacre of Jews since 
the Holocaust and barely one 
week after the largest missile 
and drone barrage in history 
came hurtling toward Israel 
from Iran. 
The Passover Haggadah 
read during the seder exhort-
ed Jews to experience free-
dom by imagining that they 
actually left Egypt themselves, 
while many American Jews 
for the first time in their lives 
wondered if the burgeoning 
antisemitism around them will 
one day require them to leave 
in a new exodus. For some, 
the ritual of dipping a finger 
into wine and spilling it out 
during the recitation of the 10 
plagues in order to acknowl-

edge the Egyptian blood 
that was spilled during the 
Israelites’ liberation was pow-
erfully symbolic of Palestinian 
blood that has been spilled 
during Israel’s military opera-
tion in Gaza. 
Drawing parallels between 
the Passover story and today’s 
world has never been easier, 
and has never been so dis-
heartening. But for all of the 
obvious dark parallels and 
warnings that were read into 
Passover this year, there are 
ways to draw from the story 
of the Israelites leaving Egypt 
that provide some hope for 
the specific challenges facing 
Israel and Jews today.
The old joke about Jewish 
holidays is that they all follow 
the same pattern: they tried 
to kill us, they failed, let’s eat. 
What is distinctive about the 
Passover story is that there 

is little room in it for Jewish 
agency. Unlike Chanukah and 
its band of Jewish Hasmonean 
rebels overthrowing the 
Seleucid oppressors and rees-
tablishing Jewish sovereign-
ty in the Land of Israel, or 
Purim with its Jewish heroes 
Esther and Mordechai using 
their wit to turn the tables 
on Haman and his genocidal 
scheme, the Passover story is 
entirely about God. It is God 
who brings the plagues on 
Egypt, God who instructs the 
Israelites precisely when they 
should leave, God who splits 
the Sea of Reeds. 
While Moses looms large in 
the biblical narrative as God’s 
messenger in instigating the 
plagues, speaking to Pharaoh 
and rallying the Israelites, he 
is so ancillary to the story 
recounted on Passover night 
that his name does not appear 

once in the entire Haggadah. 
The exodus itself was a 
whirlwind for the Israelites 
as they were being told what 
to do and where to go. One 
of the themes of the story is 
haste, which leads to the most 
well-known part of Passover 
observance, namely refraining 
from leavened products and 
eating unleavened matzah to 
commemorate the Israelites 
leaving so quickly that their 
bread had no time to rise. 
The Israelites were explicitly 
instructed to eat the original 
Paschal lamb hurriedly and 
with all of their things ready 
to go, and were expelled by 
the Egyptians the very next 
day without a fight. 
Pharaoh immediately 
changed his mind and pur-
sued them with his entire 
army, so that only days after 
leaving Egypt, the Israelites 

opinion

Passover’s Prescription 
for Practicing Patience

Michael J. 
Koplow

PURELY COMMENTARY

A rally to bring 
home the 133 
Israelis who 
are being held 
hostage in Gaza

