The Bible’s Ten Commandments begin with a historical reminder: “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.”

American Jewish organizations differ on whether those words and the rest of the Decalogue should be barred from displays on public property — an emotion-laden issue of church and state that the U.S. Supreme Court will be settling this year.

But Jews are united concerning the profound meaning of the long-ago events in Egypt that are central to the annual Passover celebration, says Orthodox Rabbi Nathan Laufer, an American-trained senior fellow at Jerusalem’s Shalem Center. He explores that and other aspects in “Leading the Passover Journey: The Seder’s Meaning Revealed, the Haggadah’s Story Retold” (Jewish Lights).

A different sort of book to enhance the celebration is “Passover Splendor: Cherished Objects for the Seder Table” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) with text by professional storyteller Barbara Rush. The volume shows and describes 65 beautiful Passover plates, goblets, textiles and Haggadah (ritual book) illustrations from museums and private collections in many nations.

The home ritual is called the Seder, meaning “order.” Yet Laufer recalls his youthful feeling that “the Haggadah seemed to lack an organizing principle.” Now he admires the structure and flow of the rite compiled by rabbis in the third century of the Common Era (“A.D.” to Christians).

For example, the Seder has 15 steps, occurs on the 15th day of the month Nisan in the Jewish calendar and the observance involves other 15s.

The Seder is a stylized summary of the biblical Book of Exodus, which begins with enslavement imposed upon the people of Israel in Egypt and ends with the glory of God filling the wilderness Tabernacle, anticipating entry into the Promised Land and construction of a permanent temple.

The story is told through three of the senses, Laufer observes: visually by means of the symbolic objects on the Seder plate, physically through ritual actions during the evening and aurally by listening to the narrative readings.

A typical example of Laufer’s explanations involves the intense effort to rid the household of all traces of chametz (leavened food).

The simple reason is that the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry with no time to bake ordinary bread (Exodus 12:39), making unleavened bread central in the ritual.

Laufer sees broader meaning. Matzahmade from only flour and water, “is poor man’s bread” that’s “baked and eaten hastily because of the relentless pace of their slave labor.” The matzah neatly expressed the “dry, flat monotony” of their existence. Consequently, many Jews do not enrich the unleavened bread with eggs or fruit juice.

Chametz, invented in Egypt, is “rich man’s bread” for people enjoying “the luxury of time to allow for the fermentation of the dough” and leisure to savor it while dining.

Egyptians could afford to eat rich man’s bread only by impoverishing and enslaving the Israelites, he writes. So in eating flat unleavened bread, Jews should recall their ancestors and reject “the lifestyle and values of their Egyptian taskmasters.”

To violate human dignity through enslavement is “tantamount to denying God and worshiping idolatry — not in a metaphoric sense but in reality: greed and power are no less idols than golden statues,” Laufer says.