The Haggada contains instructions, songs, stories, parables, jokes, prayers, number games, and references to obscure legends that most Jews no longer know. The one thing it doesn't contain is the story of the exodus from Egypt. Let's cover some basics.

Passover commemorates the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.

According to Jewish tradition, we came into Egypt as a small tribe, descended from two people -- Abraham and Sarah. They were different because they refused to worship the many gods and goddesses around them who were connected to the natural world. Instead, they believed in a single, all-powerful God, who had no form or representation.

Our small tribe came to Egypt temporarily, during a time of famine, with an intent to return to the land of Canaan. Although we came to Egypt as guests, at the invitation of the king, a new king soon came to power. He enslaved the Jewish people and our temporary stay lasted 430 years.

According to our tradition, our experience in Egypt involved both physical and spiritual slavery. We left our land and become strangers in another, we lost our freedom, our honor, our dignity, and our ability to protect our children. As workers in the massive building projects of ancient Egypt, we experienced exhausting labor, terrifying violence, and intense cruelty. We were reduced to people who had no value other than the value we created for others.

After 400 years of slavery, our Rabbis tell us that we had begun to doubt that Abraham's God still existed or that any of the promises we remembered would be fulfilled. The miracle of the exodus took a group of powerless slaves away from the most powerful empire of the ancient world. This became the foundation story of our people, the one we were commanded to tell our children and their children, so that no one could forget.  

The Rabbis tell us that the Haggada should "begin with shame and end with praise". Why begin with shame? Why not simply praise? Someone who was raised with great privilege is usually quite different from someone who has experienced great suffering.  Everything we have endured as a people is still part of us.  We entered Egypt as a tribe but we left as a nation -- a nation marked by the experience of both slavery and redemption.  

Let's begin ...


haggadah Section: Introduction