Magid

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Magid -- Telling the Story

The story of how we became slaves to the Pharaohs of Egypt, and ultimately how we were freed, is really the basis of the story of Passover. This story is found in the book of Exodus in the Bible. It is a part of history that belongs to all of us. By telling this story year after year, we are ensuring that we'll never forget our oppression or our freedom. As with most of religious history, the story has been passed on from generation to generation, and tonight we are perpetuating an important ritual.

Many years ago, in the land of Egypt, Joseph, the grandson of Abraham and Sarah and the son of Jacob and Rachel, was sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph was skilled and intelligent and soon became an official in the court of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Joseph could interpret dreams, which he sometimes used to predict the future. He offered the Pharaoh his prediction of an upcoming famine, which the Pharaoh heeded. Because Joseph's timely advice saved the land from a great famine, when Josephs family came to Egypt searching for food, Pharaoh invited them to stay. The family and their descendants lived in peace for many years and became known as Israelites.

Years later a new Pharaoh came to rule. He did not remember Joseph and all he had done for the Egyptians. He saw that the Israelites' population was growing rapidly and he feared that in a war they might side with the enemy and become a danger to Egypt. To remove this "problem of the Israelites," Pharaoh enslaved them. He forced them to work hard building his cities and palaces. Baking bricks and carrying stones in the desert heat, they knew neither peace nor rest, only misery and pain. To limit their population, Pharaoh decreed that "Every baby boy born to an Israelite woman shall be drowned in the river."

In an effort to save their baby, Amram and Yocheved, a Jewish slave couple, hid him in a basket on the riverbank. When Pharaoh's daughter, the princess, came down to the river to bathe, she found the baby and decided to take him home to the palace. The princess named the baby Moses, which means "brought out of the water." She needed a nurse to feed and care for the baby, so the princess looked for a Jewish nurse. Yocheved's daughter, Miriam, who was hiding by the river watching, came out and told the princess that she knew of a nurse. She ran home and brought Yocheved back to the princess, not revealing that she was really Moses' mother. Yocheved became Moses' nurse and was able to care for him throughout his childhood.

Moses, being the adopted son of the princess, would have lived a rich life in the Pharaoh's palace, but he could not bear to see his people suffer as slaves. One day, he came upon an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating an Israelite slave. In a fit of rage, Moses beat the Egyptian to death. His crime soon became known and Moses was forces to flee his homeland and flee into the desert. Wandering around the desert, he came upon a family of shepherds in the land of Midian. He was taken in and became a shepherd himself.

One day while tending to his sheep, Moses came upon a bush that was on fire. Although it was burning, it was not being consumed. He heared God's voice coming from the bush, telling Moses to go back to Egypt and free his people from slavery, and lead them out of Egypt. Because Moses was merely a shepherd, he asked God, "How may I accomplish this great task when I am but a lowly shepherd and I am of impaired speech?" God replied, "Go forth to Egypt with your wooden staff. I will be by your side and the Pharaoh will be forced to free your people."

Moses returned to Egypt and went to see the Pharaoh with his brother Aaron, who would act as his spokesperson. " Let my people go!" Moses demanded. But Pharaoh had a hardened heart and refused. Through Moses, God brought forth ten plagues on the people of Egypt. The plagues at first amused the Pharaoh, but soon they frightened him. The Pharaoh promised to free the slaves several times, but God hardened the Pharaoh's heart many times and each time that he agreed to free the Israelite slaves, Pharaoh went back on his word.

Song: Go Down Moses (p. ___)

After the ninth plague, God said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; and all the firstborn of the cattle. And there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt such as has never been or will ever be again..."

God then instructed Moses to tell his people to take a lamb from among their flocks and sacrifice it at twilight, and take some of the blood to paint a mark on the doorposts and lintel of their homes. Moses was further instructed by God to have his people roast the lamb over a fire and eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs that same night. At midnight, God brought forth the tenth and most devastating plague; the killing of the firstborn. In every Egyptian household, the firstborn child suddenly took ill and died. But the plague "passed over" the homes of the Israelite slaves. It was then that the Pharaoh finally agreed to free the Israelites.

While we celebrate the freeing of the Israelites from slavery, God has instructed us to take no pleasure in the suffering of the Egyptians. To commemorate their suffering, each person dips their little finger into their wine and places a drop on their plate as we recite the ten plagues that God brought down upon the Egyptians.

Blood.... (Dam) דם

Frogs....(Tsfardeya) צפרדע

Lice....(Kinim) כנים

Wild Beasts....(Arov) ערוב

Cattle Plague.....(Dever) דבר

Boils.....(Shikin) שחין

Hail.....(Barad) ברד

Locusts.....(Arbeh) ארבה

Darkness.....(Choshech) חשך

Killing of the Firstborn.....(Macat B'corot) מבת בכורות

Moses did not trust the Pharaoh. He told his people to quickly pack whatever they could carry, and Moses led them out of Egypt into the desert. With no time to bake their bread, the people carried their kneading bowls and their dough wrapped in cloaks upon their shoulders. Once free and in the desert, they baked the dough on hot rocks into matzah.

But once again, the Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his soldiers to capture the Israelites. As Pharaoh's army caught up with the Israelites at the Red Sea, God told Moses to hold up his wooden staff. Suddenly the Red Sea parted, allowing all the freed slaves to pass. Once the Israelites were safely across, Moses again held up his staff and the waters closed upon the Pharaoh's soldiers and all of them were drowned. Finally, the Israelites were truly free!!

haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story