Makat Bechorot: Plague of the Firstborn

Yosi Groman

I chose to draw a picture of an Egyptian with his dead firstborn son.IiRVBNIN5vKsfmeGw086h3Kt4YlzP2oUexOhd7JZJTsR-v2DwRnV25y2zPCMvb5ZFzhcW5O8CTasjQclcphDOF3Kgk0L9eoQuSoo5SmAoobUCidoLLz066CtOrJBw0CE0EzsKv_G

The last plagueְ  which was the plague of the firstborn, is the most outstanding because of how important the firstborns were to the Egyptians. All firstborn sons died which doesn’t make sense because the Egyptian civilians wanted to get rid of them and they didn’t want to suffer. Batia, Pharaoh's daughter, took Moshe in and fostered him instead of killing him. Shouldn’t only Pharaoh’s son have died?

In Egypt the firstborns had the most power. Pharaoh was a firstborn from a firstborn from a firstborn, which automatically put him in the position of power in Egypt.

The firstborns were more important than all the other children, which is why it was so much more effective than the other plagues. The Shira mentions a horse and rider, which refers to the top class of people AKA the firstborn sons, which are what support and maintain society. Without them, society would crumble and fall apart. B’nai Yisrael, who were slaves, were on the bottom of the hierarchy, so a major step to liberation was for the firstborns to die. Finally for the horses and the riders to die in the splitting of the sea is the last step to liberation.


haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues