Moses went back to Egypt, just as God told him to do, with his birth brother, Aaron.  Since Moses had left the palace, the Pharaoh had died and a new Pharaoh was in charge.  He went to the new Pharaoh and said "Let my people go!"  But Pharaoh didn't like Moses telling him what to do.  Can you guess what Pharaoh said to Moses?

All together now - "No, Moses!"

Moses warned Pharaoh that if he didn't let the Jewish slaves go free, bad things might happen to him.  According to Jewish tradition, God was punishing Pharaoh.  Others believe that it was Pharaoh's conscience, or bad karma that was affecting him.  Still others believe that they were all scientifically explainable coincidences.  Whatever caused them, the ten plagues that fell on Egypt were unbearable!

Let's read a list of all the plagues that occurred.  Each time, take a drop of wine from your cup and touch it to the rim of your plate or onto a napkin.  The wine is sweet, and the plagues were not. By taking a drop of our wine away for each of the plagues, we remember that this was sad time for everyone. We do not like to see bad things happen to anyone, even to the people we think of as our enemies.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story