All raise their cups of wine.

We praise יְיָ who keeps faith with the people of Israel. יְיָ's promise of redemption in ancient days sustains us now.

For more than one enemy has risen up against us to destroy us. In every generation, in every age, some rise up to plot our annihilation. But a divine power sustains and delivers us.

"There have been many, among them Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and Titus and Vespasian, Emperors of Rome. Yet for all of us who take part in this service, these words, "more than one enemy has risen..." are likely to recall with a special and monstrous emphasis what has come to be known to the world as the Holocaust...in which six million men, women, and children were efficiently singled out and sent to their deaths. To remember them on this evening, as ones who once shared in this service, is right. Yet we must guard against letting our bitterness at their extermination deflect our hearts from, or diminish our gratitude for, the gift of deliverance that we celebrate tonight. If it is hard for us to understand such vast and barbaric annihilation, it is no easier to understand such a complete and miraculous deliverance as tonight we ritually and jubilantly remember, and we seek for in our own lives. Nor are we entitled to judge how such destruction could come to pass. We, as part of the remnant that survived, are entitled only to ask, "Are we among the Saving Remnant? Are we fit for that?" and on this evening, in that hope, to purify our hearts."

Anthony Hecht, American poet

All replace their cups untasted.


haggadah Section: Maggid - Beginning
Source: Reform Haggadah