https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=IZagOQBFjcs
In order for the coherence of the world to exist, that first part has to be sacrificed. And so why does it have to be sacrificed? The best way to understand it is that it has to be given up. For things to exist properly, they have to exist in something which is beyond it. If it’s going to reach its highest potential, its highest potential is something like giving itself to something that it’s not. This is Jonathan Pageot. Welcome to the Symbolic World. I’m really excited to announce that we have just put up the new Symbolic World website. This new website, you know, marks the return of the blog, Symbolic World blog, the return of the reading list, and also a brand new Symbolic World community which is accessible and will be hosted directly on the website. This community can be accessed by anybody who’s subscribed to the Symbolic World. 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So hello to all of you. It’s been a while since I’ve come back to Exodus and since for me at least today it is Holy Thursday, I thought that going on the next step of my own Exodus comment would be a good idea. And we are looking at the last plague, which is the death of the firstborn. This is of course very much related to the Passover and to Pascha, to Easter for Christians as well. And so I’m going to look at the text in Exodus. We’re going to talk a little bit about, you know, what some of the things that are going on. There are so many things happening in that text that I don’t think I can address all of them. But at least the notion of the death of the firstborn, you know, why is this a part of the story and how it relates also to Pascha for Christians? Why is it that we know we think the crucifixion is the final version of this story and what that means for us? And so as we start, we start in Exodus chapter 11. I’m going to kind of read through it, you know, and then start to comment on it. And so the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of the lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. And so what’s important to understand as you right now at the outset is that this is of course related to the beginning, right? This is a new beginning. It is the new year and so a lot of the symbolism in the Passover will have to do with a new beginning and it will have to do with a kind of purity. And then also the sacrifice of the firstborn is related to a new beginning in a strange way that we will see as we get there. And so it’s important, the reason why it’s saying that you need to calculate how much lamb you need for each person is that the idea is that you have to eat all the lamb. You can’t leave any leftover. And that of course is related to the notion of beginning or the creation of identity. Like we need the identity, the identity to be to be manifested, the beginning to be clear, and we don’t want there to be remainder. And so the animals you choose must be year-old males without defect and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the 14th day of the month when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water but roasted over a fire with the head legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning. If some is left till morning you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it. With your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, eat in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. So there are a few things that are difficult in my own estimation to kind of understand but there are a few things which seem to me pretty clear. Of course the idea is that you have to eat the whole thing and you also have to be ready. You have to be ready for this new beginning which is upon you which means that you know you have to be girded. The idea of girding your loins you know we it’s a funny thing to think about but you have to imagine people wear these robes and everything is kind of loose in there but if you’re going to do something definite right if you’re going to do something that requires action and focus then you need to hold things together down there and this is not arbitrary it has to do with you know gathering together things that are loose and that is what is going on in the symbolism of a new beginning you know you kind of gather things together so that you have a focus so you have an identity so you have a new beginning with the beginning of this new year and this has to do with the idea of fire you know the idea of cooking it with fire and the idea that none of it has to be left that it has to be a Holocaust that it has to be fully consumed either by the people or by fire so that there is no remainder no leftover and so of course we are looking at the fact that the Egyptians did not do this did not take this this lamb and did not put the blood of the lamb on the pillars of the house and so you know this idea of you know covering the the posts of the door the posts of the entrance of the house with the the blood of this lamb which is the firstborn which is this this beginning which is the the new beginning you know it’s it’s hard and it’s obscure for us because it’s so different from the way that we think but if we kind of look at it we can kind of see a glimmer of what is going on there you know why is it that this ritual of a new beginning why it has to you know cover the the door as a kind of identity as an identifying mark marking those that are inside you know for this new beginning so that when death comes and the end of Egypt comes the end of of their of the plagues come then those that are marked by that identity will not be taken over by death you know and so you can understand it just in terms of you know just in terms of how that is in some ways how we avoid death all the time that is how we avoid fragmentation and breakdown and scattering is that we are marked by an identity we’re marked you know on the entrance on the place it marks the limit between inside and outside that’s what the door is there is a mark which binds us to that place and which binds us together and so we can understand it in that way as a kind of identifying mark which is related to this new beginning and this identity which is which is burgeoning so you know hopefully we can’t completely see I think for most of us it’s hard to kind of see through this but you know there’s enough I think to kind of understand what is going on here so on that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down the very every firstborn of both people and animals and will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt I am the Lord the blood will be assigned for you on the houses where you are and when I see the blood I will pass over you no destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt and so once again the firstborn of Egypt which represents the seed of Egypt right it represents the firstborn represents the identity right it is the first thing to break the womb it is the first fruit of a union the first fruit of a family and this idea of first and identity is very much related to it think of you know the idea of the first in the sense of the first in a hierarchy think of a king or something like that that represents the the combination point of something just as the beginning represents the origin of something and so you can kind of understand why the firstborn is an image of Egypt itself is an image of the seed of Egypt you could say right the big the the thing the the place where Egypt finds its name its identity and so this is what God will go for but then it’s also a judgment on the gods of Egypt because those are related right the the idea of the gods as the principalities and the idea of the firstborn as acting in a similar way you know as a kind of principality in the sense of you know the one who carries the father into the future the one who cares the identity you can kind of see how that works together and the fact that the that the Israelites have this blood of the lamb on their door on the as a mark between the inside and the outside means that they will be preserved in their identity preserved in their seed as the Egyptians are being judged and being decimated this is a day you are to commemorate for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival of the Lord a lasting ordinance now this is seems obvious you know but I’ve pointed many times to the relationship between the idea of identity the idea of that which marks inside and outside the common binding of a group or of any anything that recognizes that it has identity and the idea of celebration but also of memory right these are these these themes are all related and so God is telling them it’s not just that you’re going to do this it’s that you’re going to do this it’s going to mark you in your identity and then you are going to celebrate it every year so you’re going to mark time with this ritual with this event the event that is the new your new beginning so that you can maintain that new beginning right it’s something like you know it’s the same thing with the idea of celebrating you know your national holiday or celebrating something which marks some origin for you marks you know your identity and by commemorating it and remembering it and celebrating it you maintain its reality in your life you make it participate in in your life and make makes you remember even though you’re far away from the actual event that happened you remember so that you participate right so you can kind of understand the relationship between that of course and Christian communion as in some ways the ultimate memory or the ultimate participation because we the Christian let’s say the Christian communion actually collapses collapses the memory that doesn’t collapse it or has perfect memory in a sense that we say it is the blood and body of Christ it is in some ways a memory of it but that memory is so full right that it becomes it it merges with the very thing so it’s like there’s a paradox in it it’s like we do this in remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ but we are participating in the sacrifice of Christ and because it is in some ways the perfect sacrifice and it is in some ways you know the actions of God himself we we enter into it fully in a way that brings it together completely right so it is both bread and wine and it is at the same time the bread and and the body and blood of Christ at least in Orthodox thinking we don’t have exactly the same type of theology where we we deny that it’s bread and and wine we say it is bread and wine and it is the body and blood of Christ and these things are coming together in this perfect memory okay so all of this of course will like I said all this kind of idea of remembering the Passover will be brought into Christianity at a at a different level we could say okay so for seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast on the first day remove the yeast from your house from whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh day must be cut from Israel on the first day hold the sacred assembly and another one on the seventh day do not work at all on these days except to prepare food for everyone to eat that is all you may do and so why the yeast what’s this yeast thing so of course the yeast is a strange substance which you act which is like it’s like a bug you have to think of it like a bug and this is something that my brother Matt here has helped me really understand because he did it right he learned to make bread and learned to play with yeast and learn to understand what yeast is it is like a parasite it’s like this living thing kind of bubbling that you have to keep alive and then you add that to the bread and now what you added to the bread is something like time and you’ve also because you have to wait now you you make you put the yeast in now you have to wait for the bread to grow and to like manifest its fullness in in in time you could say but here this is not what’s going on this is the beginning this is the beginning of a new and so it it has to do with purity and it it’s not the rising of the bread right it’s not it’s not the bread that kind of has become full in time it is the like I said it’s the seed it’s the identity it’s the marking of the difference between Egypt and Israel the marking of that of that identity and so I think for sure pretty sure that that’s why they’re the the notion that yeast and of course just practically you can imagine they didn’t have time right they were going to now the world was ending this world it was ending this new world was beginning and so they can’t time kind of collapses they don’t have time to wait they have to be ready they have to be attentive and they have to be ready to leave Egypt as it is being consumed and so all of this is not contradictory of course there’s a relationship between time and the the let’s say the strange or the parasite or that which comes from the outside because it is an it is an agent of increase you could say for the identity and so if you if you struggle to understand that I suggest again to read my brother’s book which is which is the best you can find on that the language of creation all right and so celebrate the festival of 11 bread because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come in the first month you are to eat bread made without made without yeast from the evening of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses and anyone with a foreigner or native born who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel eat nothing made with yeast wherever you live you must eat and leaven bread so it’s pretty clear the idea is you you you eat from the first month of the year it’s not clear to me why the days though I mean of course all these things have meaning but I don’t totally understand why it is from the 14th day until the the 21st day and you know I’m sure it has meaning sadly if anybody has a good idea of what the days mean in the months I would love to read your comments and and learn from you but at least for me I don’t totally understand but what I do understand is you know at the beginning first month of the year the beginning of this new identity the celebration of this identity all of this has to be done without that which comes from the outside and if you eat that which comes from the outside this leaven which is added to the bread then you will be cut off from the identity you’ll be cut off from Israel from the identity so all of complete sense that Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them go at once and select the animal through family and slaughter the Passover lamb take a bunch of hyssop dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame none of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning when the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway and you will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike it down. Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants when you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised. Observe this ceremony. Now it’s important to understand what it’s saying. You know it’s relating the Passover, right, the end of this Egyptian time, the beginning of this new identity to the moment when they enter into the land. Because in some ways what they’re doing now will only become fully active, will only become fully real when they become a nation and they take the land that God had promised them. You know so that’s why it’s important that it says like when you enter into the land that God has promised you, you have to obey the instructions and follow these ordinances. And when your children ask you what does this ceremony mean to you, then tell them it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians. So remember, right, when your children ask you remember that is how you stay connected. That is how you maintain your identities by remembering the origin, remembering where you came from, and doing that, celebrating that in also even in ritual, in ritual participation. The people bowed down and worshiped the Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. Now there’s interesting in terms of structure too in the text because it’s almost boring when you read it because it’s like on the one hand it tells you on the one hand it tells you what the rule is or what to do and then the second hand it’s like well then they told them to do that and then it’s like and then they did that you know but that’s the structure of what’s going on in itself. It’s like here’s the pattern, here’s the identity, here’s the thing and then it has to be enacted into the world and there has to be memory of it in order for this to take hold and for in order for it to remain real for the people that participate in it. Very interesting way to end that sentence you know in some ways the Pharaoh is recognizing what is happening at a very deep level he’s recognizing that you know the God of Israel has struck him struck his nation and is you know founding this new nation doesn’t totally understand it yet but you understand that there’s something new which is being born and so that’s why he doesn’t just say go he says go worship the Lord and also bless me. Interesting. So the Egyptian urged the people to hurry and leave the country for otherwise they said we will all die so the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing the Lord had made the Egyptians fairly disposed towards the people and they gave them what they asked for so they plundered the Egyptians and so I talked about this in the previous video you can go look at that I think in the last video I talked about the notion of plundering the Egyptians and what that means. The Israelites journey from Ramses to Sukkoth there are about 600,000 men on foot this is very important that there were 600,000 men the the addition of six is important because it has to do with man himself right it is in some ways a number of man it is a number of work it is the number that comes before the Sabbath number before the seventh day it is like it’s a number of man you could say and so there were 600,000 men on foot besides women and children many other people went up with them and also live large rows of livestock both flocks and herds with the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt they baked loaves of unleavened bread the dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves now it’s also important to understand you know that they do end up leaving with this mixed multitude and so the problem of like identity and mixture is all through the book of Exodus and the question of how that’s going to come to a kind of balance how we’re going to balance the inside and the outside the identity and the stranger is going to be all through and so you’re right this idea remove the yeast from yourself you know and also there’s a sense in which I don’t know I don’t think we’ve read it yet these know we’ll read it later that only Israelites only those that have been circumcised that the outside flesh has been removed are allowed to participate in this identity only those that have removed their outer garments their participation in the yeast you know of their dough or whatever like sorry to use weird analogies but just understand that’s it with inside and outside that have removed the outside skin they are allowed to eat the unleavened bread and participate in the Passover the Passover meal and any stranger who wants to do that has to be circumcised in order to be able to do that and so this is what we’re gonna kind of see right in some ways even the circumcision of the mixed multitude into the story of Exodus this is what’s related there are many waves of that you could say of kind of weaning out the outsider joining the outsider with the with the Israelites in different ways and so now the length of the time these Israelites people lived in Egypt was 430 years 41 at the end of no at the end of 430 years to the very day all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come the Lord said to Moses and Aaron these are the regulations the Passover meal so here we have a third like regulation of the Passover meal no foreigner may eat it any slave you brought may bought may eat it after you have circumcised him but a temporary resident or a hard worker may not eat it he must be it must be eaten inside the house right so take none of the meat outside the house think in the categories that I’m telling you and you’ll notice that all of these gestures are making sense if we’re talking about the creation of a an identity do not break any of the bones right do not don’t break the hard stuff inside the whole community of Israel Israel must celebrate it so a foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised then he may take part like one born in the land no one circumcised male may eat it the same law applies both to the native born and to the foreigner residing among you so this is very important in that in Israel the identity of becoming an Israelite the identity of of joining into that covenant will be related to circumcision that is it is circumcision which is a kind of baptism which joins you and makes you a child of Abraham more than it is the idea that you’re a physical descendant of Abraham right you you join in through a ritual act this is something that you know in our own kind of biological thinking we struggle to understand but this is not something which would have been strange to ancient people in any way all the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded and Moses commanded Moses and Aaron and on that very day the Lord brought the Egypt by their divisions okay and so now we move into chapter 12 which is going to be the strange consequence of the death of the firstborn and of the Passover and it’s going to kind of help us understand what is this death of the firstborn and how is it that it can be transformed in the proper way how can it mean something more than just a kind of plague that comes in and kills the seed of the Egyptians And then he repeats it again. This is a very very at least for Christians this is a very profound little verse here because he’s he is this is all coming together and referring to the notion of a mark of a sign which marks the inside and the This idea of a mark on your hand and a mark on your forehead will be taken up by Christians in the book of Revelation as the mark of the beast like that’s where the mark of the beast is and here it is in some ways the same it is saying that you the observance this memory of the beginning of your identity the beginning of when you were separated from Egypt when you became entered into the land that God promised you be entered into the covenant that God made with you that you have to keep it as a sign and you’re on your head that is the place you speak out of the place you see of the place of consciousness you could say and your hand the place of your action and then the law will be on your lips and so right it’s like it has to do with with it has to do with consciousness it has to with action has to do with speaking but it also in is referring to the idea of the mark right that mark that is put on the lintels of the door is an extension of mark making itself there’s a weird relationship between that and the mark of Cain which is put on Cain to protect him from death and so God puts a mark on Cain to protect him from death and now God puts a mark on Israel’s door on the the place that separates inside and outside to protect them from death it is something that might seem strange to you but it is important to kind of understand that and to understand in some ways how in the story of Christ all of these all of these will collapse let’s say Christ will collapse all these Christ will collapse all these these these categories into his own sacrifice okay all right so after the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb all the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord redeem with the lamb every firstborn donkey but if you do not redeem it break its neck redeem every firstborn among your sons in a days to come when your son asks you what does this mean say to him with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt out of the land of slavery when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go the Lord killeth the firstborn of people and animals in Egypt this is why I sacrificed to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons and it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand so why is it that the death of the firstborn in Egypt is also pointing to the idea that all the firstborns belong to God there’s a very strange suggestion in this text which is that the firstborn of of the of the people and the firstborns of the animals should be sacrificed to God and that in order to avoid that you redeem your firstborn with something else right you you have a substitute for the for something else and you know it’s it’s interesting because you see that you know in certain strands of theology they’ll try to make this related to like sin and you know your sin is you deserve to die because you’re sinful but then you know you something is substituted for that sacrifice but that’s not what seems to be going on here there’s no mention of sin there’s no mention of of of the law you know it’s there’s a sense in which the death of the firstborn or the giving of the firstborn to God seems to be the very at the very source of identity seems to be at the very source of separating Israel from Egypt and making Israel you know the the the nation that it is you know worshipping God and so why is it the death of the firstborn is necessary and so I’m gonna give you one tack at that it it’s not the only one you know there are other this is a very deep deep subject and so there are other ways to look at it but I’m gonna give you one and it has to do with this idea of the highest point of something the origin of something you know the top of the hierarchy you could say in terms of like I said in terms of origin or in terms of first in terms of that which carries the name further right and so you kind of have this idea that you know a father has his firstborn the firstborn is like the the image of the father right he’s like the first fruit he’s the be he’s the new beginning he’s all of this stuff and there’s a sense in which in order for the the coherence of the world to exist that first part has to be sacrificed and so why does it have to be the best way to understand is that it has to be given up it has to be given up to that which is before it and so it’s some ways like the image of the first or the beginning of something has to be given to something which is even before it’s something which precedes it and so why why is that and so it has to do with the way that the world exists it has to do with kind of this fractal structure that I talk about all the time which is that for things to exist properly they have to exist in something which is beyond it they always do anything that has unity you know if it’s going to reach its highest potential its highest potential is something like giving itself to something that it’s not right so an example that is easy to understand is in sports you so you have let’s say you’re playing basketball I use that a lot as an example you’re using basketball and you have different actions that you’re doing you have dribbling and you have the running and you have passing the ball and you have all these actions and so the best of that right so like the best of dribbling the best of of running the best of passing the ball the one that is closest to what you’re doing has to be given to the purpose of basketball it has to be sacrificed it doesn’t exist for itself but dribbling for itself is just pointless and and nothing it has to be it has to exist in that which is giving it its identity and so you can understand that dribbling has to be sacrificed to the game of basketball in order for it to even have value and so once you get that you can kind of understand why it is that the firstborn you know the firstborn of something the highest of something has to be given up it’s supposed to be sacrificed up to God to it in order in order to give the rest of the the world value in order to anchor the value of everything else okay and so so you can understand it that way there are different ways to understand it there are ways to understand it that are that are very practical you can understand for example that in a in a in terms of war in terms of military so the idea that you have to in order for your country to exist you have to accept sometimes that the best of your people will die for your country they will sacrifice themselves they will give themselves even unto death for the purpose of the country to exist itself and that that sacrifice will anchor the existence of the of the of the the family and so and that for example in in the Christian world it was often the idea that you know the families would hope that one member one son would become a priest for example and so you think like in terms of pure kind of practical you know or first-level evolutionary thinking it seems like that’s a contradiction why would you want a child your child to become a priest it means you won’t have grandchildren means your seed won’t continue but there’s a way of deeper understanding reality which is that the highest part of you know the highest part or some aspect of the highest part has to be given up and if it’s given up it will it will anchor the rest and so if one of my child becomes a priest and prays for us then it will hold my family together right and so you can understand if you’re not a religious person you can understand it just like if there’s one person that isn’t bothered by all their own like personal family or whatever but has is focused on a higher ideal then that will anchor not just my family but will also anchor society will maintain a a capacity to see through all the petty little things that I deal with and will ultimately kind of anchor my my society together my family you know the different things that I participate in and so this can be seen in practical terms but you can also understand why it could be ritualized right you can understand that for example when people harvested their grain they knew that the best part the first part has to be sacrificed you don’t eat it you you sacrifice it for so that the next year you can have another harvest and you know and so you can understand how this type of gesture would easily become ritualized and that the ritualization of it would maintain it as a pattern in society so if I know that I’m supposed to sacrifice my firstborn up to God then it it it creates that pattern in my society where I understand the value of sacrifice the need for sacrifice the need to give up the best of what I have up to God and so you know that can be something like the tithing for you know God talks about the first part right the the first part of your earnings should go to God there are different versions of that in the Bible that that manifests different aspects of this idea that the first part has to be has to be given up and so interestingly enough what happens though is that there is an uneasiness about this and there’s a sense in which you know we can redeem the firstborn with something else and so it’s like instead of killing my own child instead of sacrificing my child to God then I will offer something that’s lower on the hierarchy in order to substitute that and so it’s it’s a it’s a deeper ritualization right it’s like I I know that this is important I know that I do have to give up that which is the most important to me or that which is the highest but I do so I take something lower instead in order to in order because there’s something I mean why why does it why does it bother it’s like there’s something wrong with what’s going on there’s something that is imperfect about about in some ways about this system and I think that that’s in some ways what Christ is coming to coming to heal because what Christ ultimately says is that you don’t sacrifice your children you don’t sacrifice you sacrifice yourself but that’s what you have to sacrifice that’s the highest part of yourself that you have to give up to God in you and then that’s the anchor of society not giving your son or your lamb or whatever but that the secret behind all of these rituals is that you have to give yourself up and that if you do that then that becomes the best anchor for society and that those that do that if you think of the martyrs that don’t give anybody else up except themselves they become the seed for the church and that that type of behavior whether it’s the ascetics that give their life in prayer to God you know it’s a it is a kind of sacrifice a kind of self-sacrifice which then becomes the seed for for the church to exist and for society to kind of find their find a guide or find a let’s say find beacons to look at in order to model our our own behavior and so now what happens of course in the story of Christ is that Christ takes up all this symbolism into the crucifixion of course everybody knows that the crucifixion itself is happening during the time of Passover right this is this is what is is going on and so Christ becomes the lamb that he becomes also the death of the Egyptians he becomes both at the same time and this is what makes that story so difficult to understand because in the story of the Egyptians the way to understand it is something like if you don’t give up the first part if you don’t give up the highest part to that which is above you it will be taken from you right and that’s just true you know if you know think about again the basketball game so if you just love to dribble and you just love to dribble and you don’t know and you don’t give up that action up to the game of basketball then it’s it’s gonna be pointless it’s gonna be taken away from you no one’s gonna want you to dribble like there’s be no value in dribbling it’s going to lose its very value on its own if you don’t give it up it’s just going to happen and that’s true of everything right if if you for example think that you’re gonna buy a nice car and a nice house and you think that just doing that for itself like without putting your money or your your riches to the service of a higher purpose then at some point you’re just gonna lose it all maybe not the money but you’ll find yourself in a position where these things will not have any flavor for you anymore right where the newest car with the newest girl will just not bring you any joy because it’s not sacrificed it’s not given up towards a higher purpose you know and that’s what you see right the cliche of the of the of the rich person or the movie star that has everything they want but because they’re they they have everything is in service of themselves and not in service of higher goods then they panic you know and they then they start to do things for charities or whatever which is great which is what in some ways you would want to see happen but but that is the sign that if you don’t give up then it’s taken from you but what happens in the story of crisis and it’s just all kind of weirdly it all collapses right so so Christ is the one who receives who on the one hand is the lamb that is given but he’s also the one that receives the the wrath of the of God and here I’m orthodox saying that who receives the on the night of Passover right it’s like the let’s say the dark thing passes and and he’s the one who who gets it so he also plays the role of the Egyptian children the Egyptian firstborn so he’s the firstborn in every way and then there’s also the idea that this you know let’s say finishes the idea of sacrifice and so after the the death of Christ very soon the whole sacrificial system will collapse not just for Christians but for Jews as well you know and and the sacrificial system will cease to exist now you can give excuses for why that happened in different in different places but if you understand the symbolism what is going on on the cross you’ll understand that it is in a way the culmination but then also the end of the of the sacrificial the animal sacrificial system and the commemoration of the bread right that is eaten at the Passover becomes the sacrifice itself like it’s joined with the sacrifice and so all the symbolism gets crunched together in ways that is very like I said it’s hard like if you keep thinking about it I’m just giving you a few examples but you if you keep thinking about it of how the crucifixion collapses the symbolism of Passover crunches it all together you’re going to you’re going to find it very you’re gonna find it very interesting and so those are just a few thoughts let’s say on the idea of of the Passover the relationship between the death of the firstborn why how it’s related to the crucifixion a little bit this is something I hope that you’ll continue to think upon as we at least for the Orthodox as we come right up to Pascha and so I hope you have a great end of Holy Week and I will see you on the other side bye bye