Passover, the celebration of the exodus and the birth of the Jewish people, is to be celebrated, according to the Bible (Leviticus 23, 7-8), for 7 days with the first and seventh days being holy days in which there is a prohibition of doing creative work as on the Sabbath – and, in the plain meaning of Scripture, there is no difference between the first and seventh days of Passover. However, according to the Jewish tradition, there is a difference. The first day of Passover is the celebration of the exodus – on the first night of Passover we read the Haggadah, an ancient text having its roots in the Talmudic period, which we read in telling the story of the exodus, and the Torah reading for the day is Exodus 12, 21-51, which tells the story of the first Passover in Egypt and the exodus from Egypt of the Hebrews joined by a mixed multitude (Exodus 12, 38) marking the birth of the Jewish people. The seventh day of Passover is the celebration of the parting of the Reed Sea (the Biblical term is Reed Sea, and not Red Sea) – the Torah reading for the seventh day of Passover is from the weekly Torah reading of Beshalach, Exodus 13, 17-15, 26, which tells the story of the parting of the Reed Sea (Exodus 13, 17 – 14, 31) and the singing by the Israelites of the song of the sea (Exodus 15, 1 – 21) as an expression of faith.
The question that arises here is – which day is greater in importance, the first day of Passover or the seventh day of Passover? I want to suggest that the first day is greater in importance than the seventh day – but, in order to understand in what sense, I need to explain the significance of the story of the exodus in the Biblical conception.
The opening verse of the ten statements (the Biblical term is ten statements, and not commandments) “I am the Lord your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” is shocking. The Bible opens with a story in which God is depicted as the Creator and Ruler of the entire universe and the obvious question that arises in the opening of the ten statements is why God is presented merely as the God of Israel and redemption (who has redeemed the people Israel from slavery) rather than as the Creator and Ruler of the universe! I want to suggest that the great revolution of the Hebrew Bible is reflected here in the opening statement of the ten statements.
From the story of the creation we can infer only that God is necessarily powerful in having created the entire universe, but not that God is necessarily moral. It may be (from a purely logical point of view) that an evil and powerful god (or evil and powerful gods) created the universe. Indeed, in the opening account of creation there is no moral demand from God to human beings. It is proclaimed five times by the Bible after various acts of creation “and God saw that it was good”, and after the creation as a whole it is proclaimed “behold, it is very good”. However, aside from such value judgment, the story of creation is absent of any moral aspect in the sense that there isn’t any moral demand at all from God regarding human behavior.
The great revolution of the Hebrew Bible is the way in which God is conceived (as a moral God who demands morality), as reflected in the opening statement of the ten statements in which God is presented not as the Creator and Ruler of the universe (as a God of power), but as the God of Israel (as a God of revelation and redemption) in redeeming the people Israel from slavery and oppression (“I am the Lord your God who has brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery”). From this, that God acts within history to redeem the people Israel from oppression, we infer that God necessarily demands morality. Immediately following this declaration in the opening of the ten statements come the moral demands and commandments of God that are incumbent upon the people Israel.
Thus, the paradigm for the Biblical conception that God demands morality as the essence of religion is the exodus. In the opening statement of the ten statements God is presented as the God who has redeemed the people Israel out of Egypt and slavery. The exodus from Egypt and slavery in the verse is the source for the Biblical conception that God is a moral God who demands morality – and, the source then for the moral demand and commands of God that follow in the ten statements and on mount Sinai.
In regard to the opening of the ten statements (in which God is presented as the God who redeemed the people Israel from slavery, and not as the God who created the universe), it is likewise shocking that God is not presented as the God who parted the Sea! From the miracle of the parting of the Reed Sea the people Israel would necessarily feel thankfulness and appreciation, which is indeed expressed in the Bible in the singing of the song of the sea by the Israelites immediately following the crossing of the Reed Sea (Exodus 15, 1 – 21). However, the people Israel would not necessarily feel a corresponding moral duty to perform proper actions in response to the miracle of the parting of the Sea. The moral duty to perform proper actions, the essence of Biblical religion, is derived from the story of the exodus that God redeemed the people Israel from slavery and oppression. In response to the exodus the people Israel have a moral duty to fight against injustice and oppression having known the pain and suffering of oppression, as reflected in the verse – “And you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, seeing you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23, 9).
Furthermore, the feeling of thankfulness and appreciation, and expression of faith, that the Israelites feel and express in response to the miracle of the parting of the Reed Sea is characteristically fleeting and temporary. The Bible records that immediately thereafter (Exodus 15, 22- 26), and this is significantly included in the Torah reading of the seventh day of Passover, the Israelites are complaining and grumbling, displaying a clear lack of faith, concerning the difficult conditions in the wilderness. Faith, as reflected in the story of the crossing of the Reed Sea, is not stable at all. Life is filled with ups and downs, joys and tragedies – and maintaining one’s faith in the face of tragedy and life’s difficulties is a matter of great internal struggle.
Shockingly, the concept of faith is not a central concept of the Hebrew Bible, with the exception of the Book of Psalms. The Hebrew term emunah (אמונה), which is inadequately translated as faith, hardly appears in the Torah (the 5 Books of Moses), and the few verses where it does appear do not stand out in terms of importance. Moreover, the term emunah is from the same root as the Hebrew term for art (אמנות) – and, the term emunah is a matter of the heart (like art), and not a matter of the rational mind (like science or philosophy). Faith (emunah) in the Bible, including the Book of Psalms, is not faith in a theological sense (of the rational mind) of believing in the truth of a theological proposition (such as the existence or providence of God) but in a psychological sense of the heart expressing loyalty or devotion to God who demands morality – and, expressing itself in the living of a moral life as well as a psychological feeling or attitude of thankfulness and appreciation, as reflected in the song of the sea sung by the Israelites after the crossing of the Reed Sea.
The essence then of religion in the Biblical conception is morality – and, faith has a secondary importance in a psychological sense of devotion, which expresses itself in a moral life and psychological attitude of thankfulness and appreciation. In my view, then, the first day of Passover celebrating the exodus as the paradigm of the Bible that God demands morality, which is the essence of religion in the Biblical conception, has precedence not just chronologically but also in terms of importance over that of the seventh day of Passover celebrating the crossing of the Reed Sea as an expression of faith.