Passover is, above everything, the commemoration of the great Deliverance—a deliverance which transformed a horde of slaves into a people. It is, then, Israel’s birthday. From one point of view it is the greatest of all the historical festivals. No other brings the Israelite into such close touch with his people’s past. No other so powerfully appeals to his historic sympathies. He is one, for the moment, with his ransomed fathers; he shares with them the proud consciousness of the free, the dignified sense of nationality that is beginning to stir in their hearts. He shares their glowing hopes, the sweet joy of newly recovered manhood.
haggadah Section: Introduction
Source: Morris Joseph, "Passover," Judaism as Creed and Life