Each week, we break down the Parasha into clear, engaging insights for readers of all ages and backgrounds. Connect with timeless stories that still speak today.
Exodus 33:12 - 34:26 · Shabbat, April 4, 2026 · Shabbat during Passover
This Shabbat falls during Chol HaMoed Pesach - the intermediate days of Passover - so the regular weekly Torah reading cycle pauses. There is no parasha this week in the usual sense. Instead, synagogues around the world read a special holiday portion from Exodus 33:12-34:26, where Moses asks God to reveal His glory, and God responds by proclaiming the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. It's a passage we encountered just weeks ago in Parashat Ki Tisa - but hearing it again during Passover gives it new depth. In the middle of the festival of freedom, we're reminded that the God who liberated us is also the God who forgives.
The Haftarah is equally stunning: Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). God leads the prophet to a valley filled with dry, scattered bones and asks: "Can these bones live?" Ezekiel watches as sinews, flesh, and breath return to them, and they rise as a vast living army. It is one of the most powerful images of renewal in all of Scripture - and it's read during Passover because the holiday itself is about exactly this: a people who were dead in slavery, scattered and broken, brought back to life and made whole.
Because there's no regular parasha, we're taking this week to celebrate the holiday. Our next weekly parasha breakdown will return next Shabbat with Parashat Shmini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47) - a dramatic portion that opens with fire from heaven and includes one of the Torah's most shocking tragedies Continuing reading below to learn more about Pesach (Passover) and The Festival of Freedom.
Ezekiel's vision isn't just about ancient Israel. It's about every person and every community that has ever felt dried out, broken apart, beyond repair. "Can these bones live?" God asks - and the answer is a breathtaking yes. Not because the bones do anything on their own, but because God breathes new life into them. Passover is the annual reminder that no situation is permanent. Slavery was not permanent. Exile was not permanent. Despair is not permanent. The same God who split the sea can reassemble scattered bones.
And the Torah reading pairs beautifully with it. Moses, in the aftermath of the Golden Calf, asks to see God's face. God says no - but offers something better: "I will make all My goodness pass before you." You can't see God directly, but you can witness goodness. You can experience compassion, grace, patience. This Passover, as we sit at our Seder tables and retell the story of liberation, we're doing exactly what Ezekiel saw - breathing life into old bones, making ancient stories rise and walk again in our own time.
→ "Can these bones live?" Have you ever experienced a situation - in your family, your community, or your own life - that seemed beyond repair, only to find new life in it?
→ The Haggadah says "in every generation, a person must see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt." What does your personal Egypt look like - and what does your freedom look like?
→ Why do you think the Torah pauses its regular reading cycle for Passover? What does it mean to step out of the weekly rhythm and into something larger?
Passover 5786 · Nissan 15-22 · April 1-9, 2026
More than 3,000 years ago, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. After generations of bondage, God called Moses from a burning bush and sent him to Pharaoh with a message: "Let My people go." Pharaoh refused - again and again - and God sent ten plagues upon Egypt, each one more devastating than the last. On the night of the final plague, the death of the firstborn, God "passed over" the homes of the Israelites whose doorposts were marked with the blood of a lamb. That night, Pharaoh finally relented. The Israelites left in such haste that their bread had no time to rise - and so we eat matzah, the bread of affliction and the bread of freedom, flat and humble, carrying both meanings at once.
But Passover is not just a story about the past. The Haggadah - the book we read at the Seder - makes an extraordinary demand: "In every generation, a person must see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt." Not remember. Not honor. See yourself as if you were there. Pesach is the night we collapse the distance between then and now, between ancient slaves and modern families sitting around a table with wine and matzah and questions. The youngest child asks the Four Questions. The adults answer with a story that begins in shame and ends in praise. We taste the bitterness of slavery in the maror and the sweetness of freedom in the charoset. And at the end, we open the door for Elijah and dream of a redemption still to come.
Passover has three names, each revealing a different dimension: Pesach (Passover) - God's protection of the Israelites; Chag HaMatzot (Festival of Unleavened Bread) - the haste and humility of liberation; and Zman Cheruteinu (Season of Our Freedom) - the ongoing, living experience of what it means to be free. No single name captures it all. Freedom is that large.
The Seder plate is a map of the Exodus told in food. Each item carries meaning that you can taste, smell, and feel. Zeroa (a roasted shankbone) represents the Pesach lamb sacrifice and God's outstretched arm. Beitzah (a roasted egg) symbolizes the festival offering and the cycle of life. Maror (bitter herbs, usually horseradish) embodies the bitterness of slavery - when you cry eating it, you're crying real tears for real suffering. Charoset (a sweet paste of apples, nuts, wine, and cinnamon) represents the mortar the slaves used to build Pharaoh's cities - bitter labor made sweet by hope. Karpas (a green vegetable, often parsley) signals spring and renewal, dipped in salt water to recall the tears of the enslaved. And Chazeret (a second bitter herb, often romaine lettuce) reinforces the bitterness, because some things need to be tasted twice to truly be understood.
The Seder includes four cups of wine, each corresponding to one of God's four promises of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7:
→ First Cup (Kiddush) - "I will bring you out" - from under the burdens of Egypt
→ Second Cup (Maggid) - "I will deliver you" - from their bondage
→ Third Cup (Birkat HaMazon) - "I will redeem you" - with an outstretched arm
→ Fourth Cup (Hallel) - "I will take you to Me" - as a people, and I will be your God
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