This Wednesday night, April 8, marks the beginning of the Festival of Passover.

Traditionally Jews have come together with family and friends to celebrate and recount the momentous liberation from Egyptian servitude.

This year, many of us will not have the opportunity to gather together.

In our unique and creative ways, we will once again remind ourselves of the great favor God did for us.

The essential message of Passover is to observe the commandment “To Remember.” What is it that we are directed to remember?

First and foremost, that God is the author of freedom. Second, God directs Jewish people to spread the message of freedom, liberty, and justice to all the world as we have been taught.

As we celebrate this Festival of Liberation, we are, all of us, from the youngest to the oldest, colleagues in the celebration of freedom.

Worldwide this Wednesday at sunset all Jewish people are partners in beginning the celebration of Passover with a “Seder.” Seder means “order” in Hebrew, as the ritual involves an ordered series of actions, prayers, songs and stories, recorded in the “Haggada,” the Passover prayer book which narrates the story of the Exodus.

We might have chosen to celebrate and remember our liberation from Egypt with noisy carnivals, with parades or with fireworks. But we follow different customs. We are told that the Exodus from Egypt was only the first step in our liberation. It was the step God helped us take.

God told us that we must go the rest of the way on our own. God said, “The rest of the way, you must go on your own. And here are my commandments as signposts along the way. And here, once a year, is Passover – a time to re-enact the Exodus. To go back to the beginning and start the journey to freedom again.”

We wish our friends a Happy, Healthy, and Joyous Passover!