The Telling | Passover haggadah by Lauren Spokane

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This story, the core of the Seder, can be read going around the table, with each person reading one or several paragraphs.

According to the Torah, our ancestor Joseph (who had great fashion) was sold into slavery by his brothers and became valuable to Pharaoh for his astute economic predictions and ability to administer before and during severe famine. Because of his skills, his people were welcomed. When new rulers came to power the Hebrews fell out of favor and were enslaved. Vineyards and fields were confiscated, work quotas were increased, families separated and wages dropped to nothing. Despite these hardships, the Hebrew people survived and grew in numbers. The new Pharaoh became concerned that they would unite with Mitzrayim’s enemies.

Miriam was four years old when the Pharaoh said, “ There are too many of those Jews—I’m scared of them—they’ll take over soon. Kill all their sons! Drown them in the Nile!”

Amram, Miriam’s father, said to Yochevet, Miriam’s mother, “Dear, there is only one solution. We mustn’t make any more babies, and we must tell our people to do the same. If no sons are born, no sons will be killed.” Yochevet sighed, but strong, young Miriam cried, ”No! You shall not do that! Pharaoh’s decree kills only the boys—your decree kills the girls as well. We will find another way.” Amram and Yochevet listened to their daughter, Miriam, and Jewish babies continued to be conceived and born.

Pharaoh summoned the Jewish midwives whose names where Shifra and Pu-ah and ordered that the boy babies be killed as soon as they were born. Slyly, they responded “No way! We mean sir, there is no way because the strong Jewish mothers birth their babes so quickly that they are hidden before we arrive.”

Miriam was five years old when Yochevet became pregnant. Miriam was a prophet and she said, “Yochevet will give birth to a son who will survive and help our people.”

Ah Moses, now comes Moses...teeny-tiny baby boy, cute, but makes a lot of noise, “Whaa, whaa...” What shall we do? If the baby is found, we will all be punished. The baby must be saved! Think Miriam, think; a basket of reeds, one that will float. She said to her brother, “Aaron, we must weave a basket of papyrus reeds,” and they did. Smart young people. All night long they worked together. In the morning, tired, hopeful, the family took the new baby, kissed him all over, patted his “tuchas” and tucked him in his basket. Miriam took the basket to the river and while she hid in the tall grasses, floated her new brother downstream past the very place the Pharaoh’s daughter went swimming every morning.

And there she was, ready to dive in, when a beautiful woven basket floated by. And in the basket? A tiny perfect Jewish baby, cute and very noisy: Whaa, whaa! Pharaoh’s daughter drew him from the water and said with love: “I will raise you but who will feed you?” Miriam, delighted, alert, piped up from her hiding place and said: “I know a good woman, Yochevet, who will nurse him.”

“Perfect,” said the daughter of Pharaoh. “Bring him to me when he is weaned; he will be as my own son for I have no other. Moses, I will call him Moses because I brought him from the river’s water.”

History tells is that Moses grew up in the palace and had no awareness of himself as a Jew. But we know that Moses was nursed by Yochevet and had played with Aaron and Miriam and his father Amram, and though he left when he was weaned, the memory of their warmth, their love, their light, was in his head and heart.

Growing up, Moshe is growing up Restless, very restless
Not at ease in his palace home not at peace with the Pharaoh He goes out walking, is often out Watching and listening... He’s learned all his teachers have to offer...
Lonely, this upper class boy, with no peers, heir to the Pharaoh, honest and compassionate, Moshe tries to ease the burdens of the workers

He has questions
“Who are these Jews to me?” Who are these workers, these slaves, so driven in toil
That the quarries, the cities, the roads, and the tombs are built with the blood of the Jews in their bricks?
Why the Jews

I must speak out
I can’t bear this
Don’t you beat him!
He is dying! She is starving! You, overseer,
why must you be so brutal?

The Taskmaster says to Moses, You mind your own business. young Pharaoh-son!
A slave who can’t work here is useless, is guilty, is worthless. The whip is the master.

But no! You can’t kill them Tho’ slaves, they’re all people! We’re all people!
My just heart is breaking My reason is shattered...

And in the fury, in the pain and confusion, young, idealistic, ready, impulsive Moses killed the taskmaster who beat the slave. And then he fled to the desert, through barren hills and over-dried river beds, to think, and to wait and to grow, beyond the Jordan River. Moses arrived at and stayed many years in Midian. He married Tzeporah and had children. He tended flocks in the wilderness. Life there was good, and yet he never forgot Mitzrayim and the good people enslaved there under Pharaoh.

One day, while grazing his flock and gazing out on the vastness of the desert, he envisioned a bush that burned and burned and did not burn up. And he heard a voice, saying to him what he knew to be true—that the people in his memories were his own people, that he should return to them, and together they would find a way to be free.

Moses left his life and family in Midian, and returned to Mitzrayim.

And what’s happening now back in the Mitzrayim of his youth, his crime, and his vision?

The Jews are hungry.
The Jews are tired.
The Jews are angry.
The Jews are talking with each other.
The Jews are beginning to organize!
Talks of rebellion, talk of escape
Debate argue struggle
Unity struggle unity NO struggle unity struggle—community! New unity—and a plan evolves:
First, negotiate with the Pharaoh, and if that doesn’t work Then, threaten with powerful magic, and if that doesn’t work Then split from Mitzrayim

After all, Pharaoh is not likely to choose to free his entire exploitable labor force just like that! (Snap the fingers.)

Did ya hear?
Hear what?
He’s back in town.
Who’s back in town?
Moses. Remember Moses?
Never expected to see him again.
How does he look?
Older and wiser and...
He’s come out as a Jew!
He wants to work with us, says he has ideas about How we can all get out of here...

So a new committee was formed, the “how to get out of here” committee. They met every Tuesday and Thursday night for two months, down by the fleshpots. At the end of two months, people weren’t sure that much had been accomplished. Some preferred to remain in slavery rather than face the perils of committee life.

They debated questions of violence and non-violence: is property damage acceptable? Causing enemies to suffer? What about the innocent bystanders? How about revenge?

They also debated questions of leadership: “I think Moses has taken too much power. Let’s try rotational leadership—after all, we don’t want him to have a distorted role in history. We’re all working very hard for our liberation!”

And they were. But Moses had an “in” with Pharaoh, and the time for negotiations had arrived. Armed with the best speech the propaganda committee could prepare and several support people, Moses proposed that Pharaoh free the Jews, with as little fuss as possible.

Pharaoh, of course, said “No,” and the peaceful negotiation was ended. Then Miriam spoke for the women:
In sadness, we must proceed with our plans,
Pharaoh, do you hear us?

Great suffering will come to the land of Mitzrayim.
We’d rather our freedom be gained without hurting the people of this land. One plague at a time we will bring you,
And each time we will say: “let my people go!
And Pharaoh didn’t listen.

The Jews marked their doorposts and death “passed over” their homes taking only the children of the people of Pharaoh. And hearing the awful cries of mourning, the grief of all the parents and brothers and sisters, Pharaoh ordered the Jews to leave.

And they did, very quickly, taking only their journey food, matzah. Yet Pharaoh has a change of heart, and mobilized his forces to recapture the fleeing slaves. The chariots reached the Jews when they were nearing the shores of the Red Sea. They turned around to see the army of the Egyptians bearing down on them, and were filled with fear. They turned on Moses for bringing them to this impasse.

But, it is said that one man, Nachson, took a risk and walked into the sea, and the waters divided. In doing this he acted as a free man. Only after Nachson and those who followed him had made their first break with slavery, did the waters divide and drown the army of the Pharaoh.

The Jews never forgot the price that the people of Mitzrayim paid for their freedom. We remember tonight by spilling out a drop of wine from our cups as we recite the plagues one by one. In this way we diminish our pleasure, as the suffering of others diminished our joy. (25)

haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story

Source: Love and Justice in Times of War Haggadah