The name Pesach, “Passover,” [90] reminds us of the way in which the Israelites enjoyed the Divine protection before they left Egypt. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, kept the Israelites as slaves, and when asked in the name of God to let them go, refused to obey. But the ten plagues which consecutively afflicted his land without causing injury to the Israelites taught him the existence of a higher Power, to whose decrees the will of earthly rulers has to submit. It was especially the tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, that convinced the king and his people of this truth. When the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, “he passed over the houses of the children of Israel” (Exod. xii. 27). The Feast has a second name, viz., “feast of unleavened bread,” ‏חג המצות‎, a name derived from the commandment to eat ‏מצה‎ “unleavened bread,” instead of the ordinary ‏חמץ‎ “leavened bread,” during the Festival. The purpose of this commandment is to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt as well as the mode of their actual departure. For when the tenth plague, the slaying of the first-born, had visited the Egyptians, they were overcome with fear, and urged the Israelites at once to leave the country. The Israelites therefore left Egypt hurriedly, and had no time for preparing the ordinary “leavened bread,” and baked for themselves unleavened cakes (‏מצות‎) of the dough which they had made. Passover thus commemorates two distinct moments in the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, viz. (1) the special protection which the Almighty granted them in Egypt, and (2) their departure from the house of bondage. Two distinct observances, therefore, were ordained for the Feast of Passover, viz. (1) the sacrifice of the Passover-lamb, and (2) the eating of “unleavened bread” and the abstaining from “leavened bread.” 1. The Passover-lamb.—A short time before their departure from Egypt the Israelites were commanded by the Almighty that on the tenth of the first month every family should procure a lamb, keep it four days, [91] kill it in the afternoon of the fourteenth, sprinkle of its blood on the “lintel and the two door-posts,” and “eat in the evening the meat roast in fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, in haste, their loins girded, their shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand” (Exod. xii. 3–11). Whatever the material benefit was which the Israelites, in the moment of starting for a long and uncertain journey, derived from the meal prepared and partaken of in this manner, there was a higher purpose in the Divine commandment; it was demanded that the lamb should be “a passover sacrifice unto the Lord” (ibid.). The proceedings should be an expression of faith in God, [92] and of gratitude to Him for His protection. Every house should thus form a place holy unto the Lord; an altar, as it were, on which the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled.