Essay sur L’Exode 12:43

Continuing the immediacy of ritual, the narrative pauses where one would expect it to talk about the Israelites’ route, to specify carefully that partaking of the Passover meal, and indeed being a part of the community in general, requires circumcision on the part of the participant. In essence, it creates the new Israelite nation, on the heels of common participation in a historical event. This small passage has been inserted between two occurrences of the same phrase (“that same day”), an editorial device often used in biblical literature.