LEADER: The “telling” of the Passover story forms the core of the Seder ritual. Everything we will read about it from now on – the symbols, the prayers, the practices- flows from the that story.

READER: The Israelites, the tribes of Jacob, first came to Egypt to escape a famine in their own land, and Jacob’s son Joseph eventually rose to a position of great power under the Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. But, as time went on, new kings came to fear the Israelites and made them slaves.

READER: One Pharaoh ordered the slaying of all Hebrew boy babies. A baby boy was born to an Israelite family and his mother hid him in the reeds at the edge of the Nile to escape the edict. He was found by Pharaoh’s daughter who named him Moses, meaning pulled from the water, and he was raised in the palace with the privileges a son of Pharaoh.

READER: But, Moses saw the injustices that being done to the slaves and he killed an overseer who was abusing his fellow Israelites. Moses fled Egypt and during his exile, God appeared to him in a burning bush and commanded him to return to Egypt and save His People. That Moses did, telling “old Pharaoh,” in the words of the spiritual, to “let my people go”

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Let My People Go

When Israel was in Egypt land, Let my People Go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let My People Go!
Go Down, Moses, Way down to Egypt Land,
Tell Old Pharaoh, Let my People Go!

Thus saith the Lord, bold Moses said, Let My People Go!
If not I’ll smite your people dead, Let My People Go!
Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land,
Tell Old Pharaoh, Let My People Go!

As Israel stood by the water side, Let My People Go!
By God’s command it did divide, Let My People Go!
Go down, Moses, Way down to Egypt Land,
Tell Old Pharaoh, Let my People Go!

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READER: When Pharaoh refused, God visited nine plagues on the Egyptians, trying to force the tyrant’s hand, but they did not work. Finally, God decreed that all Egyptian firstborn children would be killed, but he told the Israelites to smear their doorposts with blood so that He would “Passover” their houses when He carried out his decree. Pharaoh finally relented, and the children of Israel fled.

READER: As they approached the Red Sea, Pharaoh had a change of heart and sent his army in pursuit, but God parted the waters, allowing the Hebrews to cross. When the Egyptians followed, the sea closed again, swallowing them up. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years before God led them to the “Promised Land,” the land of “milk and honey,” west of the Jordan River.

TOGETHER: This is a story about the Jews, but it is also a story about all people who live in bondage and yearn for freedom. This is a story that we are commanded to tell in each generation.

TRIVIA QUESTION - As the story is written, Pharaoh "visited" a total of ten plagues on the Egyptians. Can you name all the people MIchael Corleone "visited" at the end of The Godfather I and The Godfather II?


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story