Pour the second cup.

When the Hebrews first lived in Mitzrayim, they were welcome guests. But the Pharaohs of Mitzrayim grew fearful of the Hebrews as their numbers grew. They enslaved the Hebrews, forcing them to spend all day, every day making clay bricks to build great projects in Mitzrayim.

Even as slaves, the number of Hebrews grew. Pharaoh decreed that all the boys born to Hebrew women would be killed. Throughout Mitzrayim, soldiers seized male babies born to Hebrew women and threw them in the river. But the women, mothers and midwives together, conspired to save their sons. Miriam, the prophet, foretold that her mother’s next child would bring the Hebrews freedom.

As years passed, the Hebrew slaves’ situation worsened, but that baby, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, grew and thrived. Young Moses was raised as a prince.

Some people choose to tell the story of the Exodus without mentioning Moses by name, in order to demonstrate God’s responsibility for each step of the Exodus. To discuss the story of Exodus without Moses, however, ignores the question of what sort of person God would choose for such a task.

Moses could not ignore the suffering of the Hebrew slaves around him. When an overseer beat a slave, Moses intervened, killing the overseer. Moses fled Mitzrayim towards Midian. In Midian, Moses witnessed shepherds attacking women at a well. Again Moses intervened, saving the women.

Moses settled in Midian and married Tzipporah, one of the women he’d protected. They lived as shepherds. After some years, God instructed Moses to return to Mitzrayim and free the Hebrew slaves. At first, Moses protested, telling God to choose a messenger who did not struggle to speak. Moses described himself as having a heavy mouth and a heavy tongue, but was reassured that God is the creator of disabled and nondisabled people alike, and had chosen Moses for this task. God allowed Moses’ brother Aaron to act as his spokesperson and provide Moses support.

God instructed Moses to visit Pharaoh, but also hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh refused to set the Hebrews free. God sent ten plagues against Pharaoh and Mitzrayim, finishing by killing all of the firstborns in Mitzrayim, save only the Hebrews. Every Hebrew family painted lamb’s blood over their doors as a sign to the Angel of Death.

Only after all ten plagues would Pharaoh release the Hebrews. When he did, Moses, Miriam, and Aaron organized the Hebrews to pack whatever they could carry and left Mitzrayim as quickly as they could. God again hardened Pharaoh’s heart, sending an army to capture the Hebrews and bring them back.

The Hebrews found themselves trapped between the army and the sea. God performed another miracle, splitting the sea so the Hebrews could walk through on dry land. When the Hebrews reached the other side, God released the waters and they flooded back into place, drowning the army.

There are many potential endings for the story of Exodus: when the Hebrews journeyed out of Mitzrayim, when they crossed the sea, or when they received the Ten Commandments. But we shouldn’t stop the story at any of those points because the Exodus continues today.

Just as we remember this story as if it happened to us, we must remember what happened to the Hebrews. They wandered forty years in the desert before reaching Canaan, just as we still live in the Diaspora and work towards a world where all are free.


haggadah Section: Maggid - Beginning, -- Exodus Story
Source: HaggadahOfOurOwn.com