The Passover Story | Passover haggadah by Jane & Michael Zeitz

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The Passover Story

We were slaves in Egypt and God brought us out with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. It is now our duty to tell the story and to remember.

In one small corner of Egypt, just where the great river Nile runs into the sea, there lived some people called the Israelites. They had come from Israel to Egypt many years before to look for food.

God had promised to look after the Israelites in their new home, and at first everyone was happy. There was plenty to eat, and they grew strong and had lots of children. Soon their families filled the land.

But then everything changed. The King of Egypt, who was called the Pharaoh, died, and a new Pharaoh became King. He hated the Israelites.

“There are so many of them”, he grumbled. “Just think what would happen if they turned against us. They might even take sides with our enemies. We must stop them!”

So he thought of a plan. “We’ll make them our slaves.” he announced with an evil grin. “We’ll work them so hard they won’t even have time to think of fighting us…with a bit of luck, they may even die of exhaustion!”

So the Jewish people slaved from sunrise to sunset, making bricks and moving huge stones to build Egyptian cities and palaces. When they were not building cities, they had to dig fields and plant all of the wheat and barley. They had little time to sleep, they couldn’t play games, they couldn’t read books or visit with friends, they had little to eat. All they did was work, work, work.

The Jewish people were exhausted, just as Pharaoh had hoped. But they didn’t die. They stayed strong and healthy as ever. The Pharaoh’s wicked plan wasn’t working.

So the Pharaoh angrily came up with another idea. “We’ll throw the Jewish babies into the river.”

All the Jewish Mothers were terrified and tried to hide their babies. One mother hid her newborn in the corner of her house. If anyone heard him crying and wondered about the noise, she would simply say that it’s a sick sheep that she was looking after and hopefully no one would suspect anything.

Another mother decided that she would make an ark or small basket of reeds and float the baby on the river, near where the Pharaoh’s daughter came to wash every morning, and where she would be sure to find him. The young princess had no children of her own, she wasn’t cruel like the Pharaoh and perhaps, thought the mother, the young girl would feel sorry for the baby and save him.

And so the mother took a big basket and painted the outside with black, sticky stuff called pitch, to stop the water from getting in. Then, she laid the baby inside the basket near the river bank. She told her daughter Miriam to stay and see what happened. Sure enough, the Princess came down to the water’s edge and discovered the basket. She sent one of her servants to get it, and was amazed to see a little baby tucked snugly inside.

“Whatever are you doing here,” she exclaimed picking him up and giving him a cuddle. And then she guessed the truth. “You must be one of those Jewish babies, and your mother has hidden you for safety. Well, I’m going to take care of you. I won’t throw you in the river. I going to take care of you and you will live in the palace.” She named the baby Moses. In Hebrew, his name means she “brought him out of the river.” So Moses was brought up like an Egyptian Prince, and had everything that he could wish for.

But as the years went by, one thing after another began to bother Moses. Although he lived with the Egyptians, he knew that he wasn’t one of them. He knew that he was really Jewish. He saw how cruel the Egyptians were to his people and it made him very angry. It wasn’t fair he thought; the Hebrews hadn’t done anything wrong.

One day, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. He tried to stop the taskmaster, as the Egyptian was called, but to no avail. So Moses picked up a stone, fought and killed the Egyptian. Moses knew that the Pharaoh would find out what had happened and that Pharaoh would have him banished or perhaps even have him killed. So, that night, Moses packed his few clothes and some food and, with a last, longing look at his home, he left and became a shepherd in a far-away land.

One day when Moses was taking care of his sheep, he saw a burning bush and heard a voice coming from the bush. It was the voice of God. God told Moses to go back to Egypt to free the Jewish Slaves and take them away from the cruel Pharaoh.

Moses returned to Egypt. He went to see Pharaoh and told him:

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

But Pharaoh refused to listen to him.

haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story