PASSOVER,
THE INSIDE STORY
Hugh Fogelman
Hollywood and Cecil B.
DeMille's 1956 production of the “Ten
Commandments,” showed that all the Jews painted the blood of a lamb on their
doorposts and were saved from death of the Tenth plague ― the last
plague, the Death of the Firstborn. As usual, the movies don’t give an accurate
account of the events; you should read the book (Torah).
According to the Midrash, 1 during the previous plague, the Plague of Darkness,
four-fifths of the Israelites in
The Shabbat that precedes the Holy Days
of Passover (Pesah) is called Shabbat
Hagadol –The Great Shabbat. Our Sages teach that it was on this day ―
Shabbat the 10th of Nisan in 2448 BCE ― that the Jewish people fulfilled
the command of God and dragged the idol of the Egyptians – a sheep – and tied
it alive to their bedposts. When asked by the angry Egyptians, "What are
you doing with that lamb?” the Jews replied "I am going to slaughter it
and eat it."
The Egyptians, although infuriated,
could do nothing. See Exodus (Shemot)
8:21-22 (Judaica Press Complete Tanakh) in which Moses
warned Pharaoh that the Jews were going to be "offering" the
Egyptian god in the desert
Thereupon, Pharaoh … said, "Go,
sacrifice to your God in the land." But Moses
said, "It is improper to do that, for we
will sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to our God. Will we sacrifice the deity of the Egyptians before
their eyes, and they will not stone us? (See Exodus 8:24-26 in Christian bibles)
As a result of Pharaoh once again refusing the Jews safe passage out of Egypt, God
commanded the Jews to slaughter the lamb, the Egyptian god of April
2 on the eve of the
last plague (death of the first born), and to paint the blood of this Egyptian
god on their door posts.
Isn’t it strange that the movies never told of the
Egyptian god of April, “the lamb?” What did the directors not want to show
― that God and the Angel did not
need the blood on the door-posts of any homes to see who were Jewish or not? THEY ALREADY KNEW. To imply that God did not know who was Jewish
and who was not is an insult to God. What needs to be done is to look farther
into the event.
The blood was for the Jews to show God and the
Angel that they trusted Him enough to be worthy to follow Moses – plain and
simple. For hundreds of years, the Hebrews were conditioned not to disrespect
Egyptian authority. However, they now had to have the courage to kill the
Egyptian god of April ― a lamb. The smearing the Egyptian god’s blood on
the doorposts of the Jewish houses showed
It was a Jewish rebellion which told the Egyptians
that their God was stronger than all of the gods of
THERE WAS NO SYMBOL OF ANY SIN
INVOLVED, as Christianity falsely claims.
Christianity, not knowing the true
story of Passover, and not understanding Hebrew Scriptures, ignorantly relates
the Passover lamb to Jesus and sin. In the New Testament (NT) Paul wrote:
“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7 New International Version (NIV))
Still blatantly wrong, The NIV
explains; “Christ fulfilled the true
meaning of the Jewish sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Christ, the Lamb of God,
was crucified on Passover day.”
So what have you now learned? Based on
the NIV comments you know that the “Lamb of God” was (drum roll please) the
Egyptian god of April. Very well! You are doing better than your Christian
apologists and clergy.
So, with your new knowledge of what
really transpired in
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
"Look, the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
WHAT?? Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world???? John wanted to use an animal to
symbolize Jesus’ taking away sin from all mankind; he should have used the Yom
Kipper goat or a bull, not the
Passover Lamb (the Egyptian god of April).
There is no sin involved during Passover
as Christians, in ignorance, try to show in the bible, the
NT.
The Paschal lamb simply represents the defiance
the Hebrews showed against the Egyptians. Each year they eat the unblemished
lamb to reaffirm their defiance to false gods.
Rabbi Tovia Singer said:
“The Torah never states or even implies
that the Passover sheep or goat atones for sin. Christians will often claim
that Abraham was referring to the Paschal lamb (Genesis 22:7-8). What lamb?
What happened to the lamb mentioned that Abraham promised? It was a “ram” that
was offered up to God – where was the lamb to which Abraham was prophetically
referring? Christians will say, “big deal, lamb or ram, they mean the same
thing. But that is not true – Since Torah was written in Hebrew, there are two
different Hebrew words for ram and for lamb, and if that’s not enough, in
Hebrew one must read the content of the sentence, before and after.”
“Just as God tested Abraham’s faith to
show his worthiness to be the father of the chosen people, the young Jewish
nation also had to have their faith tested to show their worthiness to
participate in the exodus form
Now, if Christians want a sin
sacrifice, they only have to turn to Yom Kippur, the most holy day of the
Jewish year. This is the day Jews pray to God for forgiveness for their “cheit” (errors – sins). But if they do,
Christians would have to follow God’s rules. Jews sacrificed an unblemished female goat as a “korban,”
in this case a
sin offering, for atonement.
But wait; think for yourselves now that
you have learned things that even your clergy never told you. Even if Jesus was
supposed to be a sacrifice for atonement (you now know that had to be an
unblemished female goat), he could not have been ― because he was indeed
blemished! So even Jesus would not qualify; for according to the Christian
bible, he was circumcised, whipped, penetrated with a spear, and nails were
driven through his body parts. A “korban” for atonement could NEVER be
blemished; according to God as recorded in His SOURCE Document, Torah.
Remember, Christians read the Hebrew
Scriptures in bad English translations, taken from the Greek Septuagint. This
in no way can be said to be the Hebrew Bible. To even begin to understand God’s
Torah, one must read it in the language God used to give it to the Children of
Israel; that is Hebrew. Hebrew is referred to as Leshon
HaKodesh, meaning THE HOLY TONGUE ― the language that God chose to
compose the Torah. There is an
important message for the Christian clergy and your missionary-type friends; as
a friend once said “Not
knowing Hebrew does not make you stupid. The stupid people are the ones who do
not know Hebrew, but think they know the Hebrew Scriptures better
than people who do…”
After all is said and done, in essence,
the Egyptian god of April was transposed to the Christian god. Jesus.
Christians worship an Egyptian god and not the God of Creation and of
Torah. There are a couple of churches in
Footnote:
1. Midrash: one of
the classical collections of the Sages' homiletical teachings on the Torah.
2. The lamb was the Egyptian god of April. The survivors of the
Exodus were told by God to remember all of what He did.
Copyright © 2004, Hugh Fogelman. All
rights reserved.