Midrash on Passover

(11) This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to YHWH.

(23) For when YHWH goes through to smite the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and YHWH will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home.

(27) you shall say, ‘It is the passover sacrifice to YHWH, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” The people then bowed low in homage.

(3) And Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how YHWH freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten. (4) You go free on this day, in the month of Aviv.

(2) You shall slaughter the passover sacrifice for YHWH your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where YHWH will choose to establish His name.

(4) They pour a second cup [of wine] for him. And here the son questions his father. And if the son has insufficient understanding [to ask a question], his father instructs him to ask: Why is this night different from all [other] nights? On all [other] nights, we eat leavened and unleavened bread, [but] on this night, [we eat] only unleavened bread. On all [other] nights, we eat all kinds of vegetables, [but] on this night, [we eat only] bitter herbs. On all [other] nights, we eat meat roasted, stewed or boiled, [but] on this night, [we eat] only roasted [meat]. On all [other] nights, we dip [vegetables] once, [but] on this night, we dip [vegetables] twice. And according to the son's intelligence, his father instructs him. He begins [answering the questions] with [the account of Israel’s] shame and concludes with [Israel’s] glory, and then he begins to create an interpreation, begining with the verse “My father was a wandering Aramean” until he completes the whole passage.

Rabbi Yosei said: Theodosius [Todos] of Rome, leader of the Jewish community there, instituted the custom for the Roman Jews to eat kids roasted [mekulas] whole with their entrails over their heads on the evenings of Passover, as was the custom in the Temple. The Sages sent a message to him: If you were not Theodosius, an important person, I would have decreed ostracism upon you, as it appears as if you are feeding Israel consecrated food, which may be eaten only in and around the Temple itself, outside the permitted area. The Gemara asks about the terminology used here: Could it enter your mind that this meat was actually consecrated meat? That was certainly not the case. It is just like making the Jewish people eat the meat of the sacrifices because it looks exactly the same.

MISHNA: Rabban Gamliel would say: Anyone who did not say these three matters on Passover has not fulfilled his obligation: The Paschal lamb, matza, and bitter herbs. When one mentions these matters, he must elaborate and explain them . . . . GEMARA: Rava said: When mentioning the exodus from Egypt one must say: And He took us out from there. Furthermore, Rava said: When one mentions matza in the list of the three matters one must recall during the seder, he must lift it for display before the assembled company. Likewise, when discussing bitter herbs, one must raise them. However, nowadays one need not raise the meat. And not only that, but it is prohibited to do so, for if one lifts the meat it appears as though he is eating sacrificial meat outside the Temple. An observer might think he is presenting it as the meat of a Paschal lamb, and it is prohibited by Torah law to slaughter a sheep as a Paschal lamb outside the Temple.

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) An angel of YHWH appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed.

In what ways did the Israelites rebel at the Sea of Reeds? It was precisely at the moment went they went down into the sea bed, and found it full of mud, because it was still wet from the water. There were two Israelites Reuven and Shimon who were among the Israelites. As they walked through the sea, all they could talk about was the mud. Reuven said: "In Egypt, we had mud, and now here too in the sea we have mud. In Egypt, we had clay for bricks, and here too, we have an abundance of clay to make bricks. They rebelled at the sea, even though this was the parting of the Sea of Reeds! They didn't notice the water, instead they saw the mud.

When Moshe said (Exodus 12:12), "and I will smite every firstborn," many of the Egyptians didn't take him seriously; however, there were some of them who feared for their children. Those Egyptians who were afraid took their firstborn to the house of a Jew and say to him, "I beg of you, take my child and let him stay with you." When the middle of the night arrived, the Holy One killed all of the firstborn. And [concerning] those that were placed in the houses of the Jews, the Holy One, blessed be He, would skip between the Jews and the Egyptians and take the soul of the Egyptian and leave the soul of the Jew. And the Jew would wake up and find the Egyptian dead between all [of the Jews around him]