Why is it called Passover?

Answer 1

Actually I think it's a terrible name of the holiday which, in Hebrew, is Pesach (פסח) pronounced "Pay-sach" in Ashkenazic Hebrew and "PESS-ach" in Sefardic Hebrew, (with a gutteral ch at the end). Why? Because the Hebrew name is far more broad in its meaning on the one hand, and far more specific on the other.

[Note: The Hebrew word Pesach is a contraction of the words 'peh sach' which means 'the mouth speaks'. The reason for this name is because we are commanded to retell the story of Pesach every year so that we don't forget it.]

Spring in the Middle East is a time of rebirth just as it is for many areas of the northern hemisphere when winter comes to an end and there is new life -- one reason why Shavuot, the spring harvest festival, is celebrated 50 days afterwards.

Prior to the Jewish holiday, the concept of a spring festival was known to other regional peoples, and one of the central rites was the sacrifice, roasting and eating of a young ("Spring") lamb, which is in fact what the word Pesach also means and was adopted as a Hebrew word as such.

It therefore makes sense that Torah recalls that G-d instructed Moses to tell the Hebrews in Egypt to smear lamb's blood on the doorposts of their houses so that when God inflicted the final plague (death of the first born) leading to the liberation of the people from slavery, the angel would avoid (PASS OVER) the homes of the Hebrews and spare them from the plague. This followed earlier traditions and adapted it to become a Hebrew/Jewish tradition.

[Note: The actual significance of slaughtering lambs and using their blood was that the Egyptians worshiped lambs as one of their gods. By so publicly slaughtering lambs, after having the lambs tied outside of their homes for three days, the Israelites were literally showing their rejection of the Egyptian gods by killing one of them.]

Actually there were more instructions, being in total the fundamentals of the first Pesach meal (a specially selected lamb, roasted whole, with "unleavened bread" and if one was too poor neighbors were to share, and the special meal in Torah is called "Lord's Pesach" ("paysach hoo l'adonai", Exodus 12:11).

[You would think that the angel would know who was whom, no? Well, to me the interesting thing is that Torah does not say anything about instructing the Hebrews to protect themselves from any of the other previous 9 plagues. At all! Instead, G-d distinguished between the Egyptians and the Hebrews in some cases, and in others the Torah says the entire land of Egypt was affected! So why? Because it was an action that G-d required of ALL the people to perform, to distinguish themselves from the Egyptians. It was perhaps the first step in the road to liberation - identifying oneself as a Hebrew.... Just something to think about.] (Please see the previous note for the significance of slaughtering lambs).

Most people translate the holiday name (and Torah word) "Pesach" as "passover" and to me at least the English word concentrates to heavily on the plague, the angel of death and protection of the Hebrew people) and whereas the Hebrew word places the emphasis on the meal as the central element of the action associated with identifying oneself as a Hebrew/Jew and the protecting of the home through personal actions, being smeared lamb's blood.