Passover comes to remind us of what doesn't change. Now, more than ever, the lesson applies to brands as well.
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At the peak of change, Passover comes to remind us of what doesn’t. Now, more than ever, the lesson applies to brands as well.
Passover is a major Jewish holiday. It falls at the height of seasonal change, halfway between the depths of winter and the liveliness of summer, at the first full moon after the Spring equinox. Everything around is in motion.
But Passover itself isn’t about change. It’s about identity.
Passover celebrates the Israelites’ birth as a people. The exodus from Egypt and the passage from slavery to freedom mark not just liberation but the moment a group of tribes became a nation. It’s the birthday of the Jewish People.
After you remove all that changes, all that is left is your core identity.
One of Passover’s central symbols is Matza, an unleavened flatbread made from flour and water, mixed and baked in under 18 minutes to make sure the dough has no time to rise.
Why does rising matter? Because yeast is a living organism that consumes, grows, and expands. Left unchecked, dough spills over and eventually sours. That living force inside bread is why cultures have treated it as more than sustenance. It’s the staff of life, manna from heaven. A symbol of life itself.
In Hebrew, that tension between leaven and change lives inside the language itself. The same three letters, ח, מ, צ, form the words for leavened food (חמץ) and growth (צמיחה), carrying related energy in Kabbalistic tradition. Even the word for forehead (מצח) hints at personal growth.
Leavened foods are change agents. Living matter in the process of becoming. On Passover, you remove them all. For seven days, you stop consuming change. Not to resist growth, but to quiet it long enough to focus on what doesn’t change.
Because after you remove all that changes, all that is left is your core identity.
Embrace the unchanging, and you have the foundation of a winning strategy.
That same logic applies to brands. To connect with your core identity, you must put away all the change agents that get in the way. Beneath the features, beyond the publicity, behind the campaigns, even beyond the people, lies the brand’s identity. It doesn’t change when you release a new feature, launch a new campaign, or hire a new CEO. It shouldn’t, not if you have a strong brand.
It stands for who you are.
In a world that changes fast, your unchanging core serves as your identity. Embrace the unchanging, and you have the foundation of a winning strategy.
What Passover offers brand people is that pause. The peeling off of everything that changes. The avoidance of the change agents that disturb our thinking and muddy the water, preventing us from seeing our core selves clearly.
Who are you beneath all the change?
What doesn’t change in your life?
What is your core?
Who are you?
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