Telling the Story | Passover haggadah by Davidson College Hillel

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Telling of the Story

Whoever leads this section will be Pharoah.

We will go around the table reading. This version is the one we learned as kids and truly tells the story we see as a whole.

First reader:

Over three thousand years ago, G‑d saved the Jewish people and took them out of slavery in Egypt, leading them through the Split Sea and into the land of Israel.

For a long time, Pharaoh’s advisors had been warning him as to the growing threat of the Jewish nation and that a Jewish boy would be born who would grow up, overturn the entire Egyptian empire and lead his people to freedom.

So Pharoah said: “All Jews must work from sunrise to sunset…without pay! Egyptians may use a Jewish slave to do whatever they need. All Jewish baby boys are to be thrown into the Nile!”

Next reader:

A Jewish woman called Yocheved had a baby boy and sent him floating down the Nile, to try and save him from being killed. The floating basket was picked up by the Princess of Egypt – Batya – Pharaoh’s own daughter! Discovering the beautiful infant inside, Batya named him Moses and raised him.

Despite the fact that he grew up in the palace, Moses could not bear to see the suffering of the Jewish people. One day, Moses chanced upon an Egyptian taskmaster, savagely whipping a Jewish slave to death. Furious, Moses cried out one of G‑d’s Holy Names, and the Egyptian immediately died. Certain that Pharaoh’s officers would be after him, Moses fled to Midian.

Next reader:

There, he saw a strange sight: a bush covered in fire, yet the bush was not being burnt by the flames! Amazed Moses drew even nearer, and all of a sudden heard a voice (some say it was God) speaking to him.

“Go down to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let My people go!”

So Moses and his brother Aaron came before Pharaoh and said,

Everyone reads: “Let my people go!”

But Pharaoh just laughed. They threatened Pharaoh with 10 terrible plagues if he did not listen to G‑d, but he did not believe them:

Blood | dam | דָּם

Frogs | tzfardeiya | צְפַרְדֵּֽעַ

Lice | kinim | כִּנִּים

Beasts | arov | עָרוֹב

Cattle disease | dever | דֶּֽבֶר

Boils | sh’chin | שְׁחִין

Hail | barad | בָּרָד

Locusts | arbeh | אַרְבֶּה

Darkness | choshech | חֹֽשֶׁךְ

Death of the Firstborn | makat b’chorot | מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת

We also like to include modern plagues today. We live in a very different world, but Passover is a good time to remember that, even after our liberation from slavery in Egypt, there are still many challenges for us to meet:

Hunger, War, Crime, Disease, Racism, Abuse, Poverty, Homophobia, Pollution, Indifference to human suffering.

After the plagues, Pharoah had had enough and yelled: “Go! And take all the Jews with you!”

Moses sent word to all the Jews. “The time has come” he told them, “grab your bags and get ready to leave at once. Don’t wait for your bread to rise, just go!”

Final reader:

The Jews left and walked until they reached the sea where they saw the Egyptian army chasing after them because Pharaoh had changed his mind. G‑d told Moses to stretch his arm out over the waters, and all at once, the sea split! Miraculously, the Jews were able to walk through on dry land, but as soon as the Egyptians stepped foot in the sea, the walls of water came crashing down on them. The Jews were freed!

haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story

Source: http://www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/485982/jewish/Tell-the-Passover-Story.htm; http://www.eszter.com/Haggadah.pdf,