Although the Torah calls it “Chag HaMatzos,” highlighting the mitzvah to eat matzah (and nothing leavened) for the entire holiday (seven days; eight where historically it wasn’t always known on which day it started), the holiday is more commonly referred to as “Pesach,” or Passover. One of the sweet ideas we are taught as young students in yeshiva is that G-d refers to it based on what we do for Him (as it were), fulfilling His commandment to eat matzah, while we refer to it based on what He did for us, “passing over” the Israelite houses, thereby sparing our firstborn when He smote the Egyptian firstborn.

One of the questions I have seen posed recently (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/aykm7sv) is why we focus on G-d “passing over” our houses rather on the main theme of the holiday, that G-d took us out of Egypt. Wouldn’t it be better to refer to is as the holiday of the exodus, or the holiday of freedom, or something that refers to the result of G-d “passing over” our houses rather than to the “passing over” itself–especially since, as important as it was, the “passing over” was only one in a long series of things G-d did for us in order to free us from our slavery and take us out of Egypt? Interestingly, after I had decided to research what the word “pesach” (in this context) really means, a co-worker (who, although technically Jewish, does not identify with Judaism more than any other religion) mentioned to me that even though he respects religious holidays, he has a difficult time with Passover, since it refers to killing others in order to be saved. Putting aside that his perspective might be different if he understood the depth of the slavery the Israelites were forced into, or how harshly they were treated as slaves, or how primary the role of the firstborn was in creating and maintaining the culture of Israelite slavery, as well as that the Egyptians were specifically warned that if they didn’t let G-d’s nation, His “firstborn son,” go, He would kill the firstborn of the Egyptian (Sh’mos 4:22-23, http://tinyurl.com/bc4qe6e), he has a valid point about the essence of the holiday. We aren’t celebrating that our enemies were killed (even if that was made necessary by their refusal to let us go peacefully), but what was accomplished by G-d taking us out of our “House of Bondage” and starting the process of fulfilling His mission. Why do we refer to it as “Passover” if that isn’t the main thrust of our celebration? (Yes, I know that we add “Z’man Cheirusainu” the time (of the year) we became free, in our prayers, after mentioning the Biblical name of “Chag HaMatzos,” but that is not how it is commonly referred to.)

It could be suggested that the holiday is called “Pesach” because the offering brought for the holiday is called “Pesach,” and until the Temple was destroyed the offering was a primary part of the holiday service. Nevertheless, if the “passing over” wasn’t considered so primary, the offering wouldn’t have been referred to by that name either. What was it about the “passing over” that it became literally synonymous with the holiday that celebrates our freedom?

The commentators discuss what the word “pesach” means (in its verb form), and how it describes what G-d did the night before we finally left Egypt. The most common definition (see M’chilta, [Machberes] Menachem, Unkoles, Rav Saadya Gaon, Ibn Ezra, Ibn J’nach and Rashi) is “to have mercy or pity;” G-d had mercy upon us even though we didn’t deserve to be saved from the “destroyer,” so our firstborn weren’t smitten when every other firstborn in Egypt was. Although a name signifying that G-d has mercy upon us is more alluring than one that signifies “passing over” us while destroying others (even if the two are connected, as the mercy led to the passing over), if that was the reason for the name (of the offering and/or of the holiday), a more direct term for “having mercy” could have/should have been used.

Another common definition, and the one most commonly associated with the holiday, is “to skip or jump” (M’chilta, Radak, Rashi, Metzudos). As Rashi puts it, “G-d skipped the houses of the Israelites [who were] between the houses of the Egyptians and jumped from Egyptian to Egyptian [so that] the Israelite in the middle was spared” (Sh’mos 12:11). This definition is the basis for the common translation of “passing over,” although rather than the focus being on the smiting of the Egyptian firstborn, it is on the purposeful sparing of the Israelites while G-d followed through on His previously issues threat to smite the Egyptians. It could be suggested that these two definitions work together, as G-d deliberately “passed over” the Israelites because he treated them with mercy. Nevertheless, we are still left with a name for the holiday based on one aspect of how G-d took us out of Egypt rather than the taking out of Egypt itself.

The verse whose context is most similar to those that discuss the 10th plague in Egypt is Y’shayahu 31:5, where G-d tells the prophet that He will protect Yerushalayim when He smites the Assyrians. Rabbi Yosef K’ra explains the word “paso’ach” as “skips and jumps to avoid smiting those who dwell in Yerushalayim, who are near the Assyrian camp;” without G-d’s “skipping and jumping,” those who lived in Yerushalayim might have suffered collateral damage. Rabbi K’ra continues; “this means to say He smites these and spares those. When a person hits one and has mercy on another who is nearby and purposely avoids hitting him, it is called ‘pasuach.” Rather than the “skipping” being incidental to the smiting and only a function of pinpoint accuracy, it is primary, done purposely because of a desire to help the ones being “passed over.”

Rabbi Yosef Kaspi takes it a step further, lauding the accuracy of Biblical Hebrew and telling us that the word “pesach” does not mean either mercy or skipping/jumping, but refers to a specific action of “resting by refraining from movement.” Since G-d was described as “passing through Egypt” (12:12), His purposely not affecting the Israelites, i.e. not “passing through” them but “over” them, is described as “posayach.” In other words, rather than being an expression of refraining from doing something that is being done to others, it is a deliberate action being done for the sake of someone. It is true that the motivation for doing so might be having “mercy” on the person or people this action is being done for, and the way it is accomplished is by “passing over” the party upon whom there is mercy for, but taken as a whole, this act is an expression of differentiating between parties by giving one special treatment.

On Pesach we read “Shir HaShirim,” the “Song of Songs” written by King Solomon which describes the special and unique relationship between G-d and His chosen nation. We might celebrate and relive His taking us out of Egypt at the Seder, but the point of the exodus was to give us the opportunity to build this special relationship with Him. If getting the Torah was considered our “wedding ceremony” (see Rashi on Shir HaShirim 3:11), taking us out of Egypt was the “engagement.” There are three Biblical holidays (besides Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur); the focus of Succos is how G-d protected us (and protects us) after He took us out of Egypt, and the focus of Shavuos is His giving us the Torah, which formalized our relationship. It therefore makes sense for the focus of Pesach to also be about how what happened during this time period reflects an aspect of our relationship with Him. The start of this relationship occurred during the plagues, when G-d treated us differently than everyone else in Egypt (see D’varim 4:34). Therefore, there is no better word to describe the special way He treats us, which is a reflection of this special relationship, then the word “Pesach.”