DEUT423 In its original context this biblical commandment can hardly be reduced to an observance of “the moral law.” … In truth covenant faithfulness embodied an integrated system of “ethical” and “ritual” acts. It may be more helpful to speak of Torah as an all-encompassing way of life through which the man born Jew nurtures his humanity and fulfills his particular divine vocation in the world. Thus a Jew who fails to identify with his people’s redemption from Egyptian bondage (who says “What mean ye by this service?”) and who denies the claim of mitzvot relating to Passover, is surely rejecting the covenant of his fathers. Shall we describe this rejection in ritual or ethical terms? While his neglect of a Seder may be characterized as a failure to perform certain ritual acts, it may also be token a lack of self-respect, of reverence for the sources of his being, and therefore be deemed an offense against his humanity, his people and the God of the covenant. Significantly, the Haggadah designates such a Jew as a rasha, an evil man. A Christian who fails to observe the Passover is not similarly culpable. Morality as “a basic requirement of the religious life” has distinctly Jewish as well as universal overtones.