Haggadah

Avadim hayinu, hayinu
Atah b’nai chorin, b’nai chorin
Avadim hayinu, atah, atah b’nai chorin

עֲבָדִים הָיִינו ( Avadim Hayyinu )

כִּי-יִשְׁאָלְךָ בִנְךָ מָחָר לֵאמֹר מָה הָעֵדֹת וְהַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְיָ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ אֶתְכֶם: וְאָמַרְתָּ לְבִנְךָ עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ לְפַרְעֹה בְּמִצְרָיִם וַיֹּצִיאֵנוּ יְיָ מִמִּצְרַיִם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה: וַיִּתֵּן יְיָ אוֹתֹת וּמֹפְתִים גְּדֹלִים וְרָעִים | בְּמִצְרַיִם בְּפַרְעֹה וּבְכָל-בֵּיתוֹ לְעֵינֵינוּ:

וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם לְמַעַן הָבִיא אֹתָנוּ לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ:

Deut. 6: 20-23

In future, when your son asks you: What are the testimonies, laws, and ordinances which God, our god, commanded you?

You say to your son, We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and God, our god brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm. Before our eyes, God gave us signs and wonders, great and grievous, upon Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Us, he brought from there, that he might bring us and give us the Land which he swore to our fathers.

Exodus 2:11

Now it came to pass in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his brothers and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers.

Rashi, thereon

He was lashing and driving him, and he [the Hebrew man] was the husband of Shelomit the daughter of Dibri [who was mentioned in Lev. 24:10], and he [the taskmaster] laid his eyes on her. So he woke him [the Hebrew] at night and took him out of his house, and he [the taskmaster] returned and entered the house and was intimate with his wife while she thought that he was her husband. The man returned home and became aware of the matter. When that Egyptian saw that he had become aware of the matter, he struck [him] and drove him all day.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story