On that day tell your son, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. The catechetical structure of the feast is stated precisely: tell your son, I do this because. The explanation for the ritual is personal — not because of what God did for our ancestors, but because of what the Lord did for me. Every Israelite who keeps the feast identifies themselves with the generation that was liberated. The Passover Haggadah has preserved this principle to the present day: each person is obligated to see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 26:5–9 builds the same first-person identification into the liturgy of firstfruits. The feast is not historical education but personal appropriation — the liberation of the Exodus becomes my liberation every time I observe the feast.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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