Pesach is finally here. The brisket is in the oven, the matzah is covered, the haroset turned out fine (probably) and most important of all we’re together once again with dear friends and family.

There are reasons why Passover remains the most celebrated Jewish holiday on the calendar.

It is a great excuse to round up far-flung loved ones and throw a dinner party. It provides a much-needed break from the petty pace of daily life. It invites us to savor foods we typically ignore the rest of the year (gefilte fish, hard-boiled egg in salt water, plain matzah).

Passover also reminds us in a uniquely powerful way why we are Jews.

As far as we’re concerned, the haggadah retells the greatest story ever told. In the act of recounting the Exodus from Egypt, of our redemption from slavery into freedom, of our struggle for peoplehood, we encounter the divine right there at the seder table.

It’s a story well worth repetition. Wherever one stands on the spectrum of observance, even for the most resolutely secular of Jews, Passover seems to bring out the Jewish neshama (or “soul”) in everyone.

Built into the holiday is tremendous thematic flexibility. There are LGBT hagaddahs, Ethiopian haggadahs, feminist haggadahs. Take your pick. Some gear their seders towards the kids — we recently got in the j. office an adorable pop-up Bird’s Head haggadah.

We also just came across a link to what is called “The Two-Minute Seder.” (Sample instructions: “Eat more matzah. Drink more Wine. Slouch.”)

Others go all in with the 309-page “Haggadah of the Roshei Yeshiva” from the Orthodox publishers ArtScroll. No doubt those sedergoers will be up all night.

However you celebrate, whichever haggadah you read, it’s a beautiful thing to know that practically all Jews everywhere will be sitting down at the same time to eat, drink and tell the Passover story to their children. And to themselves.

In a world where peace seems more elusive than ever, it’s good to contemplate Jewish survival, at least for this one evening of the year.

Yes, the world can seem a depressing place if we focus too much on newspaper headlines. But for the next week in our hametz-free zones, let us endeavor to think positively about our world, our people and ourselves. We earned it.

We wish all of our readers a happy Passover. Chag Pesach sameach.