It’s difficult to imagine that most people don’t know what Passover is. But it’s a fact, and they don’t know how it relates to even the lives of non-Jews. Yes, Passover is a Jewish holiday, a most significant holiday for Jews and even for Christians and Muslims.

Let’s start with the basics of the holiday. In the book of Exodus, we’re told that the ancient Israelites, the descendants of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel by God, had become slaves in Egypt. They were slaves for hundreds of years, the story tells us.

Then came a man named Moses. Moses was born an Israelite, but the pharaoh had ordered all Israelite boys to be killed, thrown into the Nile River to drown, because the pharaoh thought the Israelites were growing too populous and would try to overthrow him. But Moses’ mother, sister, and brother had other plans. They put baby Moses, only 3 months old, into a basket lined with pitch and cast him down the Nile, where he was found by an Egyptian princess, the pharaoh’s daughter, who raised him as her own son.

Years later, Moses saw an Egyptian overseer beating an Israelite slave, and Moses killed the overseer. Moses fled, went into the desert, and lived with a Midianite named Jethro, and eventually married Jethro’s daughter. After they had two sons, Moses decided to climb Mt. Sinai and encountered the burning bush that was not consumed. That flame was God who gave Moses his marching orders. Set free the children of Israel.

To make a long story short, Moses, along with his brother Aaron, asked Pharaoh for their freedom. It was not granted, and God sent 10 plagues to Egypt, including the last one, that of killing the firstborn in every Egyptian household. Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go, but then changed his mind and chased them down.

Then Exodus tells us that the Israelites made it to the Red Sea, where God parted the waters so they could cross, but the waters came crashing back and killed all the Egyptian soldiers who tried to overtake and kill them, including Pharaoh.

In time, Moses led the people to Mt. Sinai, where he ascended, stayed for 40 days and nights, and came back down with what most people call The Ten Commandments.

Now the story takes on a twist. While Moses was on the mountain, the people became scared and decided they needed an idol in the form of a golden calf, which they then worshiped.  Some people say that was the reason God made them wander in the desert for 40 years. Others say the wandering was for other reasons.

According to one account, too many of the people had a slave mentality, something God didn’t want in the promised land, which would become the nation of Israel. So, they had to stay in the desert until they died out.

Another account says God did get the people to the promised land, but the people balked at the need to follow the laws that Moses brought down from the mountain. So, God told them to take a walk, a 40-year walk that would get those who rejected the law out of the group.

Those are the basics. But what about the significance?

Even if the story isn’t literally true, there are still truths, universal truths, to be gleaned from the story. It tells us that people must be free, but not just free to worship as they deem necessary, but also to be free to explore, to learn, to think, and simply just to be free men and women, even if it means making mistakes.

That was the time when those people became Jews. And if they hadn’t, there wouldn’t be any Christianity or Islam. Exodus is where it all started. Jesus was Jewish. It’s been said he was from the line of both Moses and King David. And it’s Moses who is hailed as a great prophet by both Christians and Muslims, as well as Jews.

What’s the significance of Passover? It was the beginning of freedom, religious and secular.

Passover begins Wednesday night, April 1, and Easter is Sunday, April 5. May you be blessed with liberty and peace.