Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. The Passover is immediately designated as a lasting ordinance for descendants who have not yet been born. The instructions given in the urgency of the night of departure are simultaneously looking forward to generations who will observe the feast in freedom, in the land, in circumstances entirely different from the original Passover. This foresight is characteristic of God's covenant-making: the rites instituted in crisis are designed for peace, the urgencies of one generation become the liturgies of the next. Isaiah 46:10 says God declares the end from the beginning — the Passover's original night already anticipates the thousandth generation observing it. Every Passover Seder celebrated across history is the fulfillment of lasting ordinance spoken at this moment.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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