The Passover

 "YAHWEH spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt and said, 'This month is to be the beginning of all months, the first month of your year.  Speak to the community of Israel and say to them:

On the tenth day of this month let each family take a lamb, a lamb for each house.  If the family is too small for a lamb, they must join with a neighbor, the nearest to the house, according to the number of persons and to what each one can eat.

You will select a perfect lamb without blemish, a male born during the present year, taken from the sheep or goats.  Then you will keep it until the fourteenth day of the month.

On that evening all the people will slaughter their lambs and take some of the blood to put on the doorposts and on top of the doorframes of the houses where you eat.

That night you will eat the flesh roasted at the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Do not eat the meat lightly cooked or boiled in water but roasted entirely over the fire--the head, the legs and the inner parts.  Do not leave any of it until the morning.  If any is left till morning, burn it in the fire.

And this is how you will eat: with a belt round your waist, sandals on your feet and a staff in your hand.  You shall eat hastily for it is a Passover in honor of YAHWEH.  On that night I shall go through Egypt and strike every firstborn in Egypt, men and animals; and I will even bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt, I, YAHWEH!  The blood on your houses will be the sign that you are there.  I will see the blood and pass over you; and you will escape the mortal plague when I strike Egypt.

This is the day you are to remember and celebrate in honor of YAHWEH.  It is to be kept as a festival day for all generations forever.'" - Exodus 12:1-14 

(Let each family take a lamb.  The ancestors of the Hebrews, when wandering with their flocks before they stayed in Egypt, celebrated each year the Pasch of the Lamb, the traditional feast of the shepherds.  They sacrificed a lamb on the first moon of spring, a critical period for the ewes which had just given birth.  The lamb set aside for the feast was kept for several days in the same place where the people were so that it could be better identified with the family and carry the sins of all its members.  Later, the camping tents were sprinkled with its blood to drive away the "deadly" spirits that threatened people and animals.

The sense of the ancient feast has changed.  It must be understood that GOD established the Passover at the time of the exodus from Egypt: it would always be there to remind Israel of its liberation.)

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