The Beatles had a hit song called, "Today is Your Birthday". Were they singing about Israel on Pesach? The Mitzvah of relating the account of the Exodus is that the story should be told through questions and answers, it should be a dialogue and not a monologue. This is because the listeners at the Seder must become partners in telling the Exodus story. Included in this Mitzvah is that the story should begin with Israel's suffering and slavery in Egypt. And from there the story continues to the joyful part, the happy ending, of the liberation to freedom, while the Egyptians are punished with the Ten Plagues.

 

The first part of the story, dealing with the period of slavery in Egypt, is not just an introduction to create suspense before the happy ending. It contains and important message that precedes the liberation, without which the Exodus story would be lacking.

 

Every other nation came into being though a long and complex process of national identity, conquering of territories, and the creation of a culture common to the members of that nation. The Jewish nation, however, is the only nation that was created at a specific Magic Moment in time. That was on the 15th of Nissan, 3,328 years ago. The moment we left Egypt, was the very moment that we became a nation.

 

Israel did not yet have any land to call its own, it did not yet have its own culture and yet we became a nation. The prophet Yechezkel called the moment of the Exodus from Egypt the Jewish nation's "birthday" (Yechezkel 16). Based on his definition, the celebration of the Seder night is actually the Jewish People's birthday party!

 

The period of slavery in Egypt was a most painful and difficult time. If the Exodus of Egypt was the birth of the nation, the Maharal explains that during the period of slavery our nation was like a fetus in its mother's womb. The fetus is completely dependent on its mother. No one but the mother carrying a child can maintain it. So too, during the time of slavery the Jewish nation became completely dependent on G-D.

 

Our ancestors could not help themselves; they were degraded, miserable, and enslaved without hope, except G-D.

 

After a bay is born, and the dependency on the mother is no longer existential, a relationship of trust between the mother and the child begins to develop. A mother that lovingly cares for her baby helps her develop a sense of trust and serenity that will accompany her through life.

 

Likewise, Israel developed a sense of dependence of G-D during the time of our slavery, the liberation and redemption created in us a sense of security and trust in G-D's love and care.

 

The Pesach story which we tell over on the Seder night makes up the TEUDAT ZEHUT –identity card" of the Jewish People, which is dependence and complete trust in G-D. "

 

These 2 aspects of dependence and trust in G-D are the secrets of Israel's eternal existence.