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The plagues that preceded the final calamity were terrible, but so, too, were the plagues that followed the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt.

Those Egyptians who had survived the scourges could not escape the plague of their memories.  There nostrils sniffed the air as if fiery hailstones still burned the earth, and they moved slowly, their bodies recalling the immobility that had come when the darkness had covered them so thickly that they could not find their limbs.

And while the plague of memory still raged, there came the plague of grieving, in every household a wail went up, each mother for her firstborn, and all the other mourners for their dead. And then the plague of doubt fell on them, when they considered that their gods had not been able to save them, and the high priests and magicians could not deliver them from their uncertainty. 

And then the plague of helplessness, as the Egyptians wandered dazed through their unslaved homes and unslaved cities, and the plague of their shame, when they considered how it was that they had been brought so low and by whom, and the plague of blame for their Pharaoh, who had delivered them into their defeat, and the plague of hatred for the Israelites, wily and unworthy, whom they would never forgive, they swore it, pledged themselves to forever feed off the dream of vengeance, which was the plague that preceded the ninth, which was that of pure madness.

But the bitterest of all was the tenth and final plague. It was only when the plague of remorse fell on the crushed Egyptians that they cried out for mercy, and that was the moment that the sweetness of mercy came to them at last. It is one kind of moral victory to be rescued from wrongs that are done to us. It is another kind of moral victory to rescue ourselves by facing the wrongs that we do.

Let some of the drops that we spill be for our own wrongdoing selves, grieving our hurtful mistakes, forgiving ourselves for our lack of moral perfection, remorseful but hopeful that we can learn and go on.


haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues
Source: New American Haggadah