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The history of Passover, one of the best known Jewish holidays, dates back over 3,000 years. It marks a time when Jacob, a Hebrew, arrived with his twelve sons in Egypt.
They were struck with famine in this region and Jacob requested that he and his sons be able to live in peace in the Land of Goshen, and they were granted this by a kind pharaoh. As the years passed, Jacob and his sons died, but their families remained in Goshen. After a while, the Hebrews seemed to pose a threat to the Egyptian royal families. At least, that is how the Egyptians saw it. This resulted in the whole Hebrew population being enslaved and to be the builders of new cities for food supplies to the Eqyptians. The Hebrew population, however, kept growing, so the pharaoh ordered that all newly born Hebrew males be drowned in the Nile.
One of these Hebrew baby boys was set to sail by his Hebrew mother in a tiny basket. A princess, one of the pharaoh’s daughters found the child floating on the river, and she ordered Jochebed, a Hebrew woman, to watch after the baby. Jochebed was actually the baby’s mother all along, and this was her plan to save her child.
A few years later, the princess adopted the child and named him Moses. Moses was brought up by the Egyptian royal family, and until he was older, they did not know of his Hebrew background. For fear that his secret would be discovered, he left the kingdom.
He married a shepherd woman, had a child, and lived as a shepherd for forty years, until one day when God gave him supernatural powers, which he would have to prove to the pharaoh Ramses. Ramses did not believe any of it, including the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses by God. A plague struck and killed Ramses’ only son.
The Passover festival commemorates those days when the Jews were spared of the plague and other evils by God. The name Passover comes from the event of the “passing over” of the Jewish homes when the first born sons were being slain.
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