Passover brings hope for freedom

Stacy J. Willis

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

Passover, or Pesach, begins tonight at sundown and lasts eight days. The Jewish holiday commemorates the liberation of Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.

Gathered in synagogues and hotel conference rooms, many of the more than 78,000 Las Vegas Jews will celebrate freedom at traditional, ritualistic Seder dinners.

"The central theme of Passover is freedom," said Rabbi Jeremy Wiederhorn of Midbar Kodesh Temple in Henderson. "As we celebrate freedom, we also contemplate what it means to be enslaved.

"In our lives today, what are the things to which we are enslaved? Perhaps time, our job, our regular routine. This year is different because we have now become enslaved to violence and terrorism," Wiederhorn said.

The saga of slavery, liberation and entry into a collective covenant with God through the Ten Commandments is central to the Jewish identity.

According to Biblical history, the Israelites were enslaved by Egyptians for 86 years. Moses was instructed by God to go to the pharaoh and demand freedom for his people. When he was ignored, God released 10 plagues on Egypt: blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, blight, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and finally, the slaying of first-born sons.

As the final plague approached, Israelites marked their houses with lamb's blood so that the Angel of Death would "pass over" their homes and spare their first-born sons.

When at last they were freed, the Israelites left their homes so quickly that there wasn't enough time to bake the bread, so they packed raw dough and baked it in the desert sun on their journey out of Egypt -- causing Jews today to forgo leavened bread during the eight days of Passover.

According to the Bible, the Red Sea parted, allowing the Israelites to escape. From there, the Israelites journeyed to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

"We conclude the Seder with the words, 'Next year in Jerusalem,' " Wiederhorn said. "Our hope and prayer this Passover is for a world in which we can truly be free, so that we are no longer enslaved by the threat of terrorism in the United States, in Israel and throughout the world."