Maggid מַגִּיד (Avadim Hayinu עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ)

Maggid מַגִּיד: Telling the Story

The ancient story of our ancestors is interwoven with the stories of every generation. We were slaves to Pharaoh in the land of Mitzrayim, and the Holy One took us out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One had not freed our ancestors, we and our children and our children’s children might be there still. All of us are descended from ordinary people who dreamed and fought for a better future. We live in a world shaped by their wild successes even as it is still imperfect. We are the fulfillment of their dreams just as we are the ancestors of future generations who will inherit the world we make today.

As Emma Lazarus, the Sephardi-American activist and poet of the Statue of Liberty wrote, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” And as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “no one is free until we are all free.”

Jewish tradition teaches:

Lo alecha ham’lacha ligmor v’lo atah ven chorin l’hibatel mimenah

We are not required to finish the work but we cannot quit either. The enslaved Israelites stood up to Pharaoh and fled Mitzrayim — but we are still none of us truly free.

This work will not be completed in our lifetime. And yet, each step toward freedom, toward a more just society, is worthwhile. By remembering what we have already done, we grow stronger for the next step.

Avadim Hayinu / We Were Slaves

עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ הָיִינו. עַתָּה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין

Avadim hayinu, hayinu
Ata b’nai horin, b’nai horin
Avadim hayinu, ata, ata, b’nai horin
Avadim hayinu, ata, ata b’nai horin, b’nai horin

(Once we were slaves. Today we are free people)

Source: Sam Baltimore, Jews United for Justice, Labor Seder Haggadah Supplement


haggadah Section: Maggid - Beginning