Jewish 101: Pesach

What Is Pesach?

Pesach, or Passover, is one of the most central and widely observed festivals in the Jewish calendar. It begins on the fifteenth of Nisan and commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, when God delivered the Israelites from slavery with signs, wonders, and a mighty hand.

The First Passover

The command to celebrate Pesach is first found in Exodus 12. God instructed each family to sacrifice a lamb, mark their doorposts with its blood, and eat the lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. That night, God passed over the homes marked by the blood, sparing them from the final plague, the death of the firstborn. Passover became a lasting ordinance, and it is one of the three commanded pilgrimage festivals.

How Pesach Is Observed

For seven days, leaven is removed from the home, and only unleavened bread, matzah, is eaten. The first night is marked by a special meal called the seder, which includes symbolic foods, storytelling, and the reading of the Haggadah, retelling the story of the Exodus and passing it on to the next generation.

Throughout all generations, Pesach has remained a cornerstone of Jewish memory, a celebration of both physical and spiritual freedom. Its themes of redemption, sacrifice, and covenant run deep, shaping the Jewish understanding of identity and purpose.

Pesach and Yeshua

These same themes also lay the foundation for the new covenant in Yeshua. In the New Testament, we read that Yeshua celebrated Pesach with his disciples in Jerusalem. The Last Supper was a Passover meal, and then he gave himself for us as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, inaugurating the new covenant and giving new layers of meaning to the themes of sacrifice and redemption at the heart of the Exodus story.

Pesach continues to shape Jewish life year after year, a time to remember, retell, and reconnect with the story that began the journey of Israel as a free and covenantal people, as well as the story of Yeshua and his ultimate sacrifice.