Essay su Esodo 12:52

The festival depicted in this chapter is, in the opinion of many scholars, a combination of two ancient holy days: a shepherds’ festival, in which each spring a lamb was sacrificed to the deity in gratitude and for protection of the flock, and a celebration of the barley harvest, at which time all leaven/fermentation products were avoided (although see Ginsberg, who theorizes a shepherds’ festival with matza). Each has numerous parallels in other cultures (see Gaster 1949). What has apparently happened here is that the two days have been fused together and imbued with historical meaning. In addition, rites that were originally protective in function have been reinterpreted in the light of the Exodus story. But whatever its origin, Passover as described in our text bespeaks a strong sense of Israelite tribal community and of distinctiveness. And it is distinctiveness, which played such an important role in Israelite religion, that is singled out here, with the striking penalty for transgressing the boundaries of the festival—being “cut off” (probably death). One also notes the repetition of the phrase “a law for the ages” (vv.14, 17, 24). Passover, then, is central both to the Exodus story and to Israelite ideas as a whole (see Sarna 1986 for a detailed discussion).

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.