The Mekhilta asks a practical question about Passover night in Egypt that reveals something extraordinary about how communal sacrifice works. The Torah commands, "The entire assembly of the congregation of Israel shall slaughter it" (Exodus 12:6). But what if the entire assembly only has one lamb between them? Does one animal suffice for the whole nation?
The answer is yes. The phrase "the entire congregation" is deliberately expansive. Even if all of Israel shared a single Passover lamb, the obligation would be fulfilled. One sacrifice can carry the weight of an entire people.
This ruling carries enormous theological implications. The Passover offering was not a private transaction between an individual and God. It was a collective act. The blood on the doorposts protected every household, but the sacrifice itself belonged to the nation as a whole. When the Torah says "the entire assembly shall slaughter it," it means exactly what it says — every Israelite participates in every slaughter, whether they are physically present or not.
The rabbis were articulating a principle that would define Jewish religious life for millennia: the community is a single body. What one member does, all members do. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the Passover lambs were slaughtered by thousands of individual families, yet the Torah describes the act in the singular — "shall slaughter it" — because in God's eyes, the entire nation is performing one unified act. This idea would later sustain the Jewish people through centuries without a Temple, because the communal bond was never about the building. It was about the oneness of the people standing before God.