What does the lamb mean at the Passover meal?

Answer 1

For the first Passover in Egypt, HaShem instructed the Israelites to slaughter lambs and paint their door posts with the blood. They were to then roast the meat and eat it that night.

The significance of this was that by slaughtering lambs, the Israelites were performing an act that was an outright rejection of the Egyptian Gods. This is because lambs were one of the animals worshiped by the Egyptians. By marking their doorposts with the lambs' blood, they were showing their acceptance of HaShem.

After the Exodus, lambs were slaughtered, roasted, and eaten by families as offerings of thanks to HaShem every Passover. Today, the majority of Ashkenazi Jews do not eat lamb during Passover as the Temple is not standing. Most other Jewish groups do eat lamb though.

Answer 2

The lamb was slaughtered and the blood added to the posts of the house of any who wanted the angel of death to pass over their home. One of the last of the 10 plauges sent to pharoah to convince him to let Gods people go. This plauge was death sent to the first born sons of ALL that were in Egypt that didnt have the blood applied to the doorposts.

There was a second reason for slaughtering lambs and using their blood. The Egyptians worshiped lambs as one of their gods. By slaughtering the lambs, the Israelites showed their rejection of the Egyptian false gods. In addition to using the lambs' blood to mark their doors, the Israelites were required to roast the meat and eat all of it. While the Temple stood, families would slaughter a lamb as an offering of thanks to HaShem, again, they were required to roast and eat all of the meat.

Answer 3

Everything that is done - and eaten - on Passover, symbolizes the events of the Egyptian slavery and God's redeeming us from it. For example, the salt water of the Seder symbolizes the Israelites' tears, and the matzah of Passover symbolizes the haste with which they left Egypt.

Answer 4

Only certain groups of Jews will eat lamb during Passover. Those who do eat lamb, do so because when the Temple stood, every family was supposed to slaughter a lamb as a sacrifice of thanks to HaShem at which point the lamb was roasted and eaten on the first day of Passover.

The majority of Ashkenazi Jews will not eat lamb during Passover because we don't have the Temple. Most Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews will eat lamb over the holiday though.