All together: Our rabbis taught: When the Egyptian armies were drowning in the sea, the army of angels sent by God broke out in songs of jubilation. God silenced them and said, "My creations are perishing, and you sing praises?"

Speaker: A full cup is the symbol of complete joy. Though we celebrate the triumph of our sacred cause, our happiness cannot be complete so long as others had to be sacrificed for its sake. We shall, therefore, diminish the wine in our cups as we recall the plagues visited upon the Egyptians, to give expression to our sorrow over the losses which each plague exacted. We now recite the list of the ten ancient plagues, pouring off wine as each one is mentioned.

All together (Hebrew only): 

Dam, Blood

Tzfardeyah, Frogs

Kinim, Lice

Arov, Beasts

Dever, Pestilence

Sh'chin, Boils

Barad, Hail

Arbeh, Locusts

Choshech, Darkness

Makat B'chorot, Death of the First Born.

Speaker: It's about to get a little heavy handed. Every year we sit around the table and thank God for destroying the land and people of Egypt. We sing songs and laugh and rejoice, and express a moment of remorse at the plagues, but how often do you pause to imagine what they meant in a real tangible way? Blood, rendering the Egyptians without drinkable water. Frogs infesting their homes. Lice infesting their bodies. Wild animals, be they leopards and lions or rats and roaches, eating at the flesh of the Egyptians. Pestilence, the spontaneous death of all the livestock in the land, rendering the people starving. Boils, hail, locusts, God destroyed the nation of Egypt, in its land and its people's own bodies. He blotted out the sun and made the nation blind. And ultimately he killed the first born son of any family that did not publicly declare support for the emancipation of the Israelites. We know that this destruction was just and necessary. However, the age of miracles is long gone, and all subsequent Egypts have been and will be overcome by human action. If our liberation so evidently outweighs the havoc wrought upon the civilians in the land of Egypt who chose to be complicit in our subjugation, so must it be true that those who choose to be complicit in modern Egypts are deserving of similar loss.

Interesting things to note: Many Israelites chose not to stand against their oppressors and did not place lamb's blood on their doors. They were left in Egypt.

Nobody is quite sure how many Israelites remained in Egypt. The sages' estimates range from four fifths to 499 out of 500 Israelites choosing not to escape Egypt.

Similarly nobody is sure how many Israelites left. Liberal estimates range up to 600,000. Not to mention the numerous Egyptians who abandoned their homes to join the nation of Isreal.

Does the use of the singular Tzefardeah, rather than the plural Tzefardim imply that the second plague was a single godzilla frog roaming the land of Egypt? Several ancient scholars think so.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story