On the morning of the 4th of Nissan, a civilian convoy of doctors and nurses traveling to the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus (see Today in Jewish History for 20 Iyar) was attacked by Arab forces. Of the ten vehicles in the caravan, five escaped. The other five vehicles, however, which included two buses and an ambulance, were riddled with machine gun fire and later set ablaze. Altogether 77 Jewish civilians were massacred on that day.
Shortly afterwards, the hospital was closed down and moved to the western part of Jerusalem.
The Mt. Scopus hospital only reopened after the eastern part of Jerusalem was liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Primarily staffed by Israeli doctors, it is the largest and best equipped hospital in the eastern section of Jerusalem.
In today's "Nasi" reading (see "Nasi of the Day" in Nissan 1), we read of the gift bought by the nasi of the tribe of Reuben, Elitzur ben Shedeur, for the inauguration of the Mishkan.
Pesach is translated as Passover, but really it means to leap, to skip, to bypass all conventions.
When G‑d struck the firstborn of Egypt, He skipped over the houses of the Israelites.
He also bypassed nature--all the channels of cause and effect by which He generally conducts His creation.
And the Israelites, as well, when they followed Moses out into the desert towards the promised land, it was with a great leap of faith.
This is the power you are given on Passover--or Leapover:
At other times of the year, you can’t get from one to a hundred without going through all 99 steps along the way. You need to learn something new each day, gradually acquire good habits and drop bad ones. To slowly open your eyes to a reality much bigger than yourself and hope to leave this world a little more refined than as you entered.
But now you are suddenly empowered to skip nature, bypass who you were a moment earlier, become a new person overnight, and take care of the details later.
Passover is the festival of the quantum leap.