Every Person Needs to Have a Certain Egypt
Poem by: Amnon Ribak
The poem in Hebrew

Every person needs to have a
certain Egypt,
To deliver themselves from it
with a strong arm,
or with grinding teeth.

Every person needs terror and great darkness,
and comfort and promise and redemption,
that they would know to look up at the sky.
Every person needs one
prayer,

that would always be on their lips.
A person needs to bend one time –
Every person needs a shoulder.

Every  person  needs  to have a
certain Egypt,

to redeem themselves from it, from the house of slavery,

to go out in the middle of the night to the desert of fears,
to march straight into the waters,
to see them open before them to both sides.

Every person needs a shoulder,
on which to carry the bones of Joseph,
Every person needs to straighten their backs.

Every person needs to have a
certain Egypt,
and a Jerusalem,
and one long journey,
that they will forever remember
in their feet.


haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings
Source: Amnon Ribak