Nadene Goldfoot
Our Israelite ancestors had been held by the Egyptians as slaves, being in Egypt for 400 years. Moses, adopted baby found in a basket in the Nile River by the Pharaoh's daughter, had found his birthmother, an Israelite slave. As an old man of 80 years, he made the trip back to Egypt to barter with the new pharaoh and free all the slaves. He did and took them on a freedom trail taking 40 years back to Canaan where Abraham's grandson, Jacob, had come from. After 400 years plus, the land had changed. G-d didn't want the Israelites to ever forget their experience or the laws they had learned.
The Exodus happened in 1311 BCE when Moses was 80 years old with the Israelites arriving in Canaan 40 years later, in 1271 BCE. Moses was born in about 1391 BCE and died at age 120 in 1271 BCE outside of Canaan in an unknown spot. Other people selected 1446 BCE as the date for the Exodus. "
"The departure of the Israelites from Egypt, Exodus, in Greek means Road out. Biblical chronoloy (ct 1 Kings 6:1), supported by some archeological findings suggest that the exodus took place in about 1445 BCE. On the other hand, the circumstances of Egyptian history indicate a period during the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah (1225-15). "The Biblical Date for the Exodus is 1446 BC decided by some other people.
They believe the date of the Biblical exodus-conquest is clear. 1 Kgs 6:1 and 1 Chr 6:33–37 converge on a date of 1446 BC for the
exodus and the Jubilees data and Judg 11 ."
Numbers 9:1
Hashem spoke to Moses, in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the 2nd year from their exodus from the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: The Children of Israel shall make the pesach-offering in its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month in the afternoon shall you make it, in its appointed time; according to all its decrees and laws shall you make it."(Stone Edition of our Tanach-"Old Testament").
This meant that on the 14th of the month of Nisan, the Israelites would remember and teach each other about the Exodus. They always celebrated at sundown a holiday, so this date was the night before Passover (Erev Pesach). It's remembered with a special dinner that can take up to 3 hours as it is a teaching dinner, a lecture that is half role-play, lecture, with food being used to cause the listeners to remember the topics. That dinner is repeated on the 2nd night so as to be recalling and teaching the Exodus at the same hour as those in Israel. The holiday lasts for 8 days. This year it started on Friday the 14th of Nisan (15th of April) and will end on the 22 of Nisan (or 23rd of April). 
This is a special year for all, with the Christian GOOD FRIDAY and EASTER on Sunday, with the Muslim Ramadan being practiced which is a fast every day with big dinner each night of the month. This overlapping of holy days — which are connected to three different calendars — only happens about every 30 years. No matter how rare the occurrence, however, Rev. Cager believes this time should be taken advantage of. A certain segment of Muslims do take advantage by attacking as many Jews as they can in Israel. So far, 16 were killed. "JERUSALEM — More than 150 people were injured on Friday at one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites after clashes erupted between Israeli riot police and Palestinians, adding to weeks of escalating tensions in Israel and the occupied West Bank and raising fears of further conflagrations in the coming days.
Palestinians threw stones at the police, who stormed parts of the mosque compound, fired sound grenades and rubber bullets and arrested more than 400 people. But by midday on Friday, the first day of a rare convergence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter, calm had returned to the Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City, known to Jews as the Temple Mount — a complex that is sacred to both religions. "
Numbers 9:5
and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Actually, the 5 books of Moses tells so much about the Exodus. Here we find information about it not under "Exodus" but under "Numbers." Yet, unless a person attended synagogue all the time, they will miss out on the group reading about its history. The special dinner, or seder, as it's called, teaches all about it if completed correctly. Such groups as Chabad of today do this, and so did my great uncle, Max Turn so long ago when I was a little girl. I do recall the experience.
It is hoped that everyone can have a textbook called the Passover Haggadah and read along with the host. Haggadah means "a recital" Seder mean "program." The ritual is carefully prescribed. The youngest child gets to ask the question, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" The child has 4 questions to ask. There are songs to sing towards the very end.
The dinner starts with a special plate. There is the matzah, with a special cover over the sheets. It's what the women made when told they had just a short time to prepare food because they were being freed but had to hurry before the pharaoh changed his mind. They mixed flour and water and laid it out to bake in the sun. To us today, it symbolizes faith. It is not enriched with oil, honey leavening, etc but is the humblest of foods, just flour and water and could not be allowed to rise on its own initiative. Similarly, the only "ingredients" for faith are humility and submission to G-d, which comes from the realization of our "nothingness" and "intellectual poverty" in the fade of the infinite wisdom of the creator.
We wash our hands in the usual prescribed manner of washing before a meal, but without the customary blessing. This is ancient Romans eating. We do sit in chairs; hopefully are equally as comfortable.
First, when we are at the table, we can recline like the Romans sat who were free people. We are to recline on our left side to accentuate the fact that we are free people. Only freed people wee allowed to reline while eating. It's important to feel freed.
The dinner starts with the Kiddish, proclaiming the holiness of the holiday over a cup of wine, the 1st of 4 cups. Even while in Egyptian bondage, the Israelites did not change their Hebrew names, they did not change their Hebrew language, they remained highly moral, and they remained loyal to one another. Wine is used because it is a symbol of joy and happiness. 1 cup should hold 3 1/2 fluid ounces. You can water down wine for children with grape juice. I was given a real glass of wine at my 1st seder, and wow! I put my feet up on the table. Mom got them off right away. I must have been 2 or 3, I think.
We have wine on the table. We will have 4 cups. Morror (bitter herbs) horseradish or romaine lettuce stalks, is eaten after the matzah, then together with matzah in a sandwich. It represents the bitter suffering of the Jews in Egypt. Karpas (cooked potato or raw onion) is like the appetizer, which we dip in salt water (representing the tears of our ancestors in Egypt and eaten, an act of pleasure and freedom which arouses the curiosity of the children.
We hear the story of the 4 sons.
[Karpas, spelled with 4 Hebrew letters, Samech= 60, X10,000), then perech--hard work, when read backwards, connotes that the 600,000 Jews in Egypt, who were forced to perform back-breaking labor.] Z'roah-roasted chicken neck or lamb bone, symbolic of the pascal sacrifice brought to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on the afternoon before Pesach (Passover); Baytzah or hard boiled egg, symbolic of the festival sacrifice brought at the Holy Temple in addition to the pascal lamb, and my favorite, Charoset, the mixture of chopped apples, pears, walnuts and a small amount of red wine, resembling the mortar, symbolic of the mortar used by the Israelites to make bricks while enslaved in Egypt. It is yummy!
As Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue says, "Feel the spirit as if you were there!"
Resource:
Stone Edition, Tanach
Luabavitch headquarters pamphlet, 1999
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://laist.com/news/three-religious-holidays-overlap-passover-easter-ramadan-interfaith
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/15/world/jerusalem-al-aqsa-mosque
https://biblearchaeology.org/research/exodus-from-egypt/2954-the-biblical-date-for-the-exodus-is-1446-bc-a-response-to-james-hoffmeier
https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/50/50-2/JETS_50-2_249-258_Wood.pdf
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