The Story of Passover

A long time ago, there was a king of Egypt named Pharaoh. Pharaoh was scared of anyone who was different from him. He was scared of the Jewish people because they were different from him.

Pharaoh made all the Jewish people slaves. They had to work very hard and build cities and pyramids. Since they were slaves, they didn’t have enough food to eat or enough time to rest. He told them that they had to send their babies away. How silly is this!!!!! Mommies and Daddies would miss their babies so much.

Once there was a beautiful baby born and his mother Jocheved loved him very much. She didn’t want to send him away so she wrapped him in a blanket and put him in basket and sent his older sister, Miriam, to float him on the river Nile. Miriam hoped he would be found and raised by a good and kind family. It so happened that he was found by the princess, the daughter of the Pharaoh. She didn’t tell Pharaoh that he was Jewish. She named him Moses and raised him as her own son. Moses means pulled from the water. Moses grew up to be a kind man. He saw all of the Jewish people being treated so meanly and how unhappy they were. They were made to work too hard. Moses left and went to live as a shepherd, someone who takes care of sheep.

One day while he was tending his flock, Moses saw a burning bush. It was God’s way of speaking to him and calling him to free the Jewish people from slavery. Moses was unsure that he could do this by himself but God promised he would help him. Moses went to the Pharaoh to convince him to let the Jewish people go.

“ Pharaoh, let my people go!” Moses said. Pharaoh replied, “ No, No, No…. I will not let them go!”

Moses told him that if he didn’t let his people go, God would punish him. Ten terrible things called plagues happened to him and to all the Egyptian people. One of them was that frogs were everywhere. Moses said, “Now will you let my people go?” Finally Pharaoh told Moses to take the Jewish people out of Egypt.

Moses called his people together and told them to pack their bags – it was time to leave Egypt. “Hurry”, he said before Pharaoh changes his mind again. The people packed so quickly that they did not have time to let their bread dough rise. They baked it and it came out flat – Matzoh!! The Jewish people left Egypt as quickly as they could but Pharaoh changed his mind and his soldiers chased the Jewish people. When they arrived at the Red Sea another great miracle happened. God opened up the sea for the Jewish people to pass through to safety and closed it so the soldiers could not get through. The Jewish people were free at last. They sang songs of thanksgiving to God.

To remember the time when the Jewish people left Egypt and became free, we get together with our friends and families every year to celebrate. We have a Seder, where we tell the story of Passover and sing songs. We read the Haggadah and eat special foods such as matzoh and maror. We are happy to be free to live the way we want to and not be slaves anymore. We are glad that we know that God wants everyone to be free, and we can help God to make sure that everyone can be free like we are.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story