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Declaration of the First Fruits
Contributed by Sam Bischof

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with a small family and sojourned there, and there became a great and populous nation.

Isaac's son Jacob had many sons, but his favorite was Joseph, who was sold by his jealous brothers to a caravan, and they brought Joseph to Egypt. Joseph rose to become the Pharaoh's minister over all Egypt. He prepared storehouses with grain in anticipation of the great famine. When the drought and famine fell on all the region, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy food. He recognized them, and had them bring Jacob and Leah and all their families to Egypt. There the Israelites lived and prospered and multiplied.

After Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation...a new king arose over Egypt who did not remember Joseph. And he said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are flourishing and getting really strong. Let us, then, deal shrewdly with them, lest they become more powerful, and in the event of war, join our enemies in fighting against us and gain control over the region."

So they set taskmasters over them with forced labor and made them build garrison cities for Pharaoh; Pithom and Ramses. The Egyptians embittered their lives with harsh labor at mortar and brick and in all sorts of work in the fields. But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the Egyptians came to despise and dread the Israelites. Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, "Every boy that is born shall be thrown in the Nile, but let every girl live." We cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors, and Adonai heeded our plight, our misery, and our oppression.

Adonai heard our moaning. and remembered the covenant that was made with Abraham and Sarah, with Isaac and Rebekah, with Jacob, Leah and Rachel, with Bilhah and Zilpah and with every member of the House of Israel, even the generations waiting to be born. And Adonai said, "I will go through the land of Egypt...and I will mete out justice against all the gods of Egypt." Adonai called to Moses, charging him to appear before Pharaoh and demand that the people be released. But Pharaoh was stubborn; he would not heed the word of God. Nine times Moses went to Pharaoh to convince him of the supreme power of the Almighty. Nine times Pharaoh denied the Almighty and placed his trust in his own powers and his own gods. In the face of all pleas and portents, he refused to free the Israelites.

Many perished and the suffering was great. Pharaoh, nonetheless, remained obstinate; he would not yield. Finally when Adonai visited the tenth plague upon them, the death of first-born sons of Egyptians, a great cry went up throughout Egypt, and Pharaoh ordered Moses to take his people out of the land. And so Adonai brought us out of Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and wonders.

What does it mean for us as Jewish people that our redemption occurred only by inflicting plagues upon the citizens of Egypt?

The traditional Maggid, and even this abridged Maggid, go out of their way to de-emphasize the human actors of the Passover story. What is the point? Is it right? 

If God is meting out justice against all the gods of Egypt, does this mean they exist? How did our ancestors understand the world?
haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story

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