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Contributed by Bradley Glick

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

Participant:We will start the story here with Joseph, the favorite child of his father Jacob. Joseph was a strong, self-possessed and provocative boy, was hated by his brothers. After he told me about a dream when the sun, the moon and the stars but bowing out to him, they decide that they had enough of him and I’m going off the father Jacob they sold Joseph this Levi

Participant:Through the wise use of his God-given gifts, he eventually rose to a position of minister to the Pharaoh. When a lifetime of famine came he was able to save the lives of his brothers and their family and he was also able to forgive them. Thus came the children of Jacob, who is also known as Israel, to reside in Egypt. What was supposed to have been a temporary solution became my semi permanent residence. Time passed, Joseph died and a new Pharaoh came to power that did not know all that Joseph had done for the people and the rulers of Egypt.

Participant: Jacob’s children first settled in Egypt, they were prosperous, respected, and content. But soon the people began to envy them and then to fear them and eventually to hate them. Thought to be too rich. Too numerous. Too powerful. Yet, when Egypt became embroiled in a bloody war with their neighbors, they owed their eventual salvation to Jewish intervention. That was when the danger that hung over the children of Israel became real. For to be indebted to the Jews was something Egyptians could not tolerate. Still as long as one children of Jacob was alive, nobody dared attack the Jewish tribes. Only with the death of Levi, the last surviving son, to conditions dramatically change. The first anti-Jewish measures were adopted resulting in first labor and public humliations.

Participant: “And they made us suffer.” As the bible relates: “So the Egyptian set out in order to oppress them even more with a harsher burden. And they built for Pharaoh the treasure cities Pithom and Ramses.”

Participant: “And they forced upon us hard labor.” As the Bible says: “The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Children of Israel rigorous labors.”

Participant: “We cried to the Lord." The Bible recounts: "and it came to pass that the King of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed from the hard labor and cried out; and their cry for help rose up to God.”

Participant: “And the Lord heard our plea." As the Bible tells us: “And God heard their moaning. And God remembered His covenant. He remembered Abraham. He remembered Isaac. He remembered Jacob.”

Participant: “And saw our plight." This refers to the compulsory separation that Pharaoh imposed on husband and wife. As the Bible tells us: “and God saw the children of Israel and God understood their plight.”

Participant: According to our sages, this means He saw the threat to family life. Men worked at night and therefore cannot be with their wives, as they would no longer live under one roof. However, in Jewish tradition, the family is sacred, redeeming. The Jewish people would not have survived, were it not for its obsession with family.
haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story

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