Lefitst and social justice oriented Jews have long used the plagues as metaphor, either in terms of social ills we fight against today or in terms of weapons we use to strike back against them. 

Jews fighting against the occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people talk of the “plagues” of apartheid, of tearing down olive trees, of denial fo basic resources and other crimes daily carried about against Palestinians by the state of Israel. 

Comrades from the All That’s Left Anti-Occupation Collective have also listed the ten plagues exposed by the coronavirus: governmental hubris, police brutality and abuse, lack of healthcare and housing, and so on. 

Meanwhile, the left-wing Jewdas collective in Britain have listed their “ten plagues to fight against capitalism,” provocatively reimagining the plagues as strikes, union drives, and other efforts to promote solidarity among working and oppressed people that give capitalists ulcers. 

The tradition of the Seder tells us to spill a drop of wine for each plague. This ritual maintains the communal memory of resistance to slavery – both our own and that of others. Perhaps then it would be most fitting to think of these drops as symbolizing plague and repression, protest and liberation from that repression, whatever form it may take. We will be surely be facing more of the former and needing more of the latter in the coming months and years

(Maybe add a prompt here for folks to take a moment and think of their own ten plagues and do the ritual if they want?)


haggadah Section: -- Four Children