Friday, March 30, 2007

Friday Photo Library: Pesach and Spring

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Exodus 3:11 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?' said Moses to God. 'And how can I bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'
3:12 'Because I will be with you,' replied [God]. 'Proof that I have sent you will come when you take the people out of Egypt. All of you will then become God's servants on this mountain.
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3:7 God said, 'I have surely seen the suffering of My people in Egypt. I have heard how they cry out because of their taskmasters, and I hear their pain.
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3:8 I have come down to rescue [you] from Egypt's power. I will bring [you] out of that land, to a good, spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
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We say at our seder that each person has their own personal Egypt: our guilt, fear, hatred, pain. It is hard to leave these behind- sometimes impossible. Sometimes we wander in the desert for years.
12:40 The life that the Israelites endured in Egypt had thus lasted 430 years.
12:41 At the end of the 430 years, all of God's armies left Egypt in broad daylight.
12:42 There was a night of vigil for God, [preparing] to bring them out of Egypt. This night remains for the Israelites a vigil to God for all generations.

13:21 And God went before them by day with a pillar of cloud, to guide them along the way.