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Schlesinger proposes that a cyclical ceremonial rite of passage involving human and totemic animal sacrifices became condensed with other communal activities and that these lost their archaic qualities through modifications and became
symbolic representations of new ideological and ethical concepts. Despite heavy historical layers superimposed on them, it is possible to discern their origins and their vicissitudes. The author carefully analyzes the current practice of the Seder ritual to detect traces of Dionysian rites and ceremonials that often included human sacrifice. He supports the theory that early monotheism was the result of condensation of two sects of priests, the Kohanim and the Quadeshim, with the Kohanim gaining the upper hand after a prolonged struggle. The Quadesh priests worshipped a female deity whose temple was a center of ritualized prostitution. The Hebrew language contains a root word, Kadesh, which carries the meaning of both "holy" and "harlot," seemingly a remnant of that struggle. A discussion of ritual human sacrifice leads to the conclusion that it constitutes a breakthrough of primary process fantasies leading to an altered state of consciousness during which the fantasies are acted out. The fact that these breakthrough phenomena are harnessed by group ceremonial activity contributes to ego mastery, forges communal bonds, and solidifies the group's rules. Multiple indications of ritualized sacrifice of the firstborn son, modified and molded into the Seder ritual, are elucidated in a detailed historical analysis of the ritual. The redemption theme of the Seder is repeated on all levels—a liberation of libidinal and aggressive drives in the form of acting out of unconscious fantasy, the freedom from fear and tyranny of the primitive drives by substituting an animal sacrifice for a human one, and finally, the redemption of the tribal liberation from the oppression in Egypt.