Ten Plagues

We dip our finger in our wine and place one drop on our napkin for each plague. 

Dam – Blood
Tzar-deah – Frogs
Kinnim - Vermin 
Arov - Beasts
Dever – Cattle disease 
She-nin - Boils
Barad - Hail
Arbeh – Locusts
Hosheh – Darkness
Makat Behorot – Death of the first born

This year, we also remember 10 modern plagues.  Egyptians were subjected to one plague at a time, but we are subjected to them simultaneously. Only the Egyptian people were subjected to the plagues, but today very person is imperilled by the modern plagues. Instead of the Pharaohs heart being hardened, our hearts have been hardened by greed, materialism and waste.

Dam – Blood
Habitat destruction – Approximately 15 billion trees are cut down each year. The number of trees worldwide has decreased by 46 % since the start of civilization

Tzar-deah – Frogs
Deforestation – A forest area the size of 20 football fields is lost every minute to paper production. 

Kinnim - Vermin 
Plastic pollution – There has been a massive rise in illegal dumping of plastic waste in the Indian Ocean with plastic bags and single use plastic. Many marine-dwelling animals choke to death on microplastics.

Arov - Beasts
Overfishing – Our current fishing practices are decimating fish populations, throwing off natural food chains and allowing invasive species like algae to bloom. Recent studies have shown that if current fishing practices continue all fish stocks could collapse in 50 years. 

Dever – Cattle disease 
Factory farms – Factory farming accounts for 37% of methane emissions, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2.

She-nin - Boils
Lead poisoning – Lead enters our ecosystem through industrial air pollution, corroded piping, and faulty irrigation practices. Without intervention, lead can cause kidney problems and developmental disorders in children and can lead to stillbirths and miscarriages in pregnant women. 

Barad - Hail
Climate change – Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, raising our global temperature, and increasing the risk of coastal flooding.

Hosheh – Darkness
Mining – Mountaintop removal strip mining is the practice of blasting off the tops of mountains to mine coal deposits underneath. When it rains the residue from these mountains form sludge causing huge mudslides and polluting drinking water. 

Arbeh – Locusts
Radiation poisoning – Each year countless numbers of Americans are exposed to higher-than-normal levels of radiation due to nuclear waste and improper x-ray technology. Even small levels of exposure can cause cancer and immune system malfunctions. 

Makat Behorot – Death of the first born
Construction with concrete. Concrete causes up to 8% of global CO2 emissions and is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US.
 


haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues