25 March 2018

Preparing to Slaughter the Lamb

10 Nisan 5778

Reposting this from two years ago...


Some part of Egypt still survives in Christian "Lamb" worship. They adore the Passover Lamb which they equate with their deity - "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

But, what they don't get is that the Passover Lamb was not a sin offering. It was just another Egyptian deity being taken down by HKB"H...

Will we sacrifice the deity of the Egyptians before their eyes, and they will not stone us? (Exodus 8:22) 

Speak to the entire community of Israel, saying, "On the tenth of this month, let each one take a lamb for each parental home, a lamb for each household. ...You shall have a perfect male lamb in its [first] year; you may take it either from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it for inspection until the fourteenth day of this month, and the entire congregation of the community of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. 

And they shall take [some] of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. And on this night, they shall eat the flesh, roasted over the fire, and unleavened cakes; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. You shall not eat it rare or boiled in water, except roasted over the fire its head with its legs and with its innards. And you shall not leave over any of it until morning, and whatever is left over of it until morning, you shall burn in fire. 

And this is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord. I will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and I will smite every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and upon all the gods of Egypt will I wreak judgments I, the Lord. 

And the blood will be for you for a sign upon the houses where you will be, and I will see the blood and skip over you, and there will be no plague to destroy [you] when I smite the [people of the] land of Egypt. 

And this day shall be for you as a memorial, and you shall celebrate it as a festival for the Lord; throughout your generations, you shall celebrate it as an everlasting statute. (Exodus 12:3-14)

It was a miracle from Hashem that the Egyptians did not try to prevent the Israelites from fulfilling this mitzvah or try to take vengeance upon them for their god. And it was a very great act of faith on the part of the Israelites who trusted Hashem to preserve them from the wrath of the Egyptians.