(RNS) Great dramas require a three-act structure in which compelling characters confront a conflict, resolve it and move to a different place in their lives.

That’s a good description of Passover, Judaism’s best loved holiday that has inspired millions of people for thousands of years. The eight-day Passover celebration begins this year at sunset on March 29 with the Seder, the festive family meal that recounts the ancient story of how an enslaved people gained their freedom after hundreds of years of servitude.

The first act of the Passover saga focuses on the wretched situation of the Hebrew slaves living in Egypt around 1230 B.C. They were descendants of the Patriarch Jacob and his sons who formed the 12 Hebrew tribes. The slaves built cities and monuments to glorify the Pharaohs.

The Pharaoh in the Passover story (perhaps Ramses II) believed the growing Hebrew population represented a threat to his kingdom. As the slave population grew in size, the draconian ruler ordered the death of all Hebrew male infants.

It was clear the situation had become intolerable; the Hebrew slaves yearned for freedom and an escape from Egypt, “the house of bondage.” But like many other slaves across history, they were without a leader and remained trapped, both physically and psychologically.

End of Act 1.

Act 2 begins with the “insider/outsider” story of Moses. Raised inside Pharaoh’s court as an Egyptian prince, the future leader of the downtrodden and dispossessed is overcome with rage when he witnesses a taskmaster kill a Hebrew slave. Moses slays the murderer and goes on the lam to escape punishment. He remains in the wilderness for 40 years.

It is there that Moses, on the outside of the royal palace, is transformed into a servant of the God of Israel, and it is in the wilderness that a divine voice within a burning bush commands the former prince to return to Egypt and free his fellow Hebrews. Dramatists would call that moment the “trigger” that presses the story into irreversible motion. Moses returns to Egypt and becomes the leader of a slave people, and in the process gains immortality as the “Great Liberator.”

It’s a story that has been repeated many times. Before religious and political leaders can bring freedom and liberty to their people, they are frequently radicalized or transformed by a life-changing event; for Moses it was the murder of a fellow Hebrew.

But Moses had a serious flaw that hindered his efforts: the Bible recounts he was “heavy of speech.” That probably means he stuttered, or maybe had forgotten the Egyptian language of his youth. Others believe Moses simply wasn’t a good public speaker and needed the articulate voice of his brother Aaron in the tense negotiations with Pharaoh.

End of Act 2.

The final act begins with the repeated confrontations between the brothers and the Egyptian monarch. Even after they utter the immortal words “Let my people go!”, Moses and Aaron at first fail in their efforts at diplomacy. Nine plagues strike Egypt, but Pharaoh is unmoved. Perhaps his fear of the slaves is outweighed by the need for forced labor to continue the imperial construction program.

The denouement is the 10th disaster: the slaying of the Egyptian first born; a form of revenge for Pharaoh’s policy of killing Hebrew babies. Passover reminds us that achieving freedom and independence rarely comes easily or without pain and suffering. Eventually, Pharaoh relents and Moses leads the slaves to a precarious freedom filled with challenges and difficulties.

End of Act 3.

The Seder table contains many familiar symbols to represent the Passover drama: bitter herbs, wine, eggs, salt water, a mixture of apples and nuts to replicate the cement used by the slaves, parsley and a shank bone. Perhaps the best known is the unleavened bread — matzo — that was hastily baked in preparation for the slaves’ exodus to freedom.

What happened after the exodus? That’s another drama all its own.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)