Exodus Story | Passover haggadah by Walk To Freedom

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Reader: Judaism starts in ancient times, with Abraham, the first person to have the idea that maybe all those little statues his contemporaries worshiped as gods were just statues. The idea of one God, invisible and all-powerful, inspired him to leave his family and begin a new people in Canaan, the land that would one day bear his grandson Jacob’s adopted name, Israel.

Reader: God had made a promise to Abraham that his family would become a great nation, but this promise came with a frightening vision of the troubles along the way: “Your descendants will dwell for a time in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years; however, I will punish the nation that enslaved them, and afterwards they shall leave with great wealth."

Raise the glass of wine/juice and say:

Unison: וְהִיא שֶׁעָמְדָה לַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְלָֽנוּ

V’hi she-amda l’avoteinu v’lanu.

Reader: This promise has sustained our ancestors and us. For not only one enemy has risen against us to annihilate us, but in every generation there are those who rise against us. But God saves us from those who seek to harm us.

The glass of wine/juice is put down.

Reader: Today's story starts with Joesph, great grandson of Abraham, and child of Jacob. Jacob had four wives and 13 kids but Joesph was his favorite. This caused Joesph's brothers to resent him and they sold him into slavery.

Reader: Joesph ended up as a slave to a rich man in Egypt however the man's wife pursued Jacob. When Jacob refused her approaches she got him sent to jail.

Reader: In jail it was discovered that he had the ability to decipher dreams and that information soon made its way to the Pharaoh, or leader of Egypt. Pharaoh called upon Jacob to make sense of two dreams he had in which first seven smaller cows ate seven bigger cows and seven smaller stalks of corn ate seven bigger stalks. Jacob explained that they meant there would be seven years of feasting followed by seven years of famine. Then the Pharaoh made Jacob his prime minister.

Reader: These seven years of feast passed and during the seven years of famine Egypt was the only country with food because of the dream. Joesph's brothers came to Egypt from Israel looking for food not realizing that Joesph was still alive much less the prime minister. After they learned what had happened they begged his forgiveness and he let them live in Egypt.

Reader: As the years went by and they lived in Egypt, their numbers grew, and soon the family of Jacob became the People of Israel. Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt grew alarmed by this great nation growing within their borders, so they enslaved them.

All Sing:

Bang, bang, bang

Hold your hammer low

Bang, bang, bang

Give a heavy blow

For it's work, work, work

Every day and every night,

For it's work, work, work

When it's dark and when it's light.

Dig, dig, dig

Get your shovel deep

Dig, dig, dig

There's no time for sleep

For it's work, work, work

Every day and every night

For it's work, work, work

When it's dark and when it's light.

For it's work, work, work

Every day and every night

For it's work, work, work

When it's dark and when it's light.

Reader: The Egyptians feared that even as slaves, the Israelites might grow strong and rebel. So Pharaoh decreed that Israelite baby boys should be killed, to prevent the Israelites from overthrowing those who had enslaved them. However, one mother, Jochebed, decided to instead put her son in a basket and send him down the Nile. He was found by the Pharaohs daughter who named him Moses, to pull out of the water, and raised him as her own.

Reader: When Moses grew up he saw a group of Israelites being treated as slaves and in his anger killed the slave driver. Then he had to escape to the hills. He became a shepherd and married Zipporah. After many years they God appeared to him in a burning bush and told him to return to Egypt. He did and went to the Pharaoh to try and get his people free.

haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story