[All pour the second glass of wine.]

Leader:

We have known physical bondage and spiritual servitude. We have been subjected to social degradation. Our history moves from slavery toward freedom. Our narration begins with degradation and rises to dignity.

Reader 5:

Our story starts in ancient times, with Abraham, the first person to have the idea that maybe all those little statues his contemporaries worshiped as gods were just statues. The idea of one God, invisible and all-powerful, inspired him to leave his home and begin a new people in Canaan (Kay-nin), the land that would one day bear his grandson Jacob’s adopted name, Israel.

Reader 6:

God had made a promise to Abraham that his family would become a great nation, but this promise came a frightening vision of the troubles along the way: “Your descendants will dwell for a time in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years. However, I will punish the nation that enslaved them, and afterwards [your descendants] shall leave with great wealth."

Reader 1:

Jacob took his descendants to Egypt and their numbers grew mightily. Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt grew alarmed by this great nation growing within their borders, so they enslaved them. They were forced to perform hard labor, building cities of brick and mortar and toiling in the fields. The Egyptians feared that even as slaves, the Israelites might grow strong and rebel.

Reader 2:

So Pharaoh decreed that Israelite baby boys should be drowned, to prevent the Israelites from overthrowing those who had enslaved them. The Israelites cried out to God and God heard the cries of the Israelites. Thus God brought the Israelites out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with great awe, miraculous signs, and wonders.

Leader:

God brought us out not by angel or messenger, but through God’s own intervention.

Group:

[Raise and hold the second glass of wine.]

More than one enemy has risen against us to destroy us. In every generation there are those who rise against us to plot our annihilation. A divine power sustains and delivers us.

[Put down the glass of wine, untasted.]

Leader:

Slavery has affected many other peoples, who have looked to the history of the Israelites as they yearn for their own freedoms. We hear this longing when we look to our own history.

Group:

[Sing “Go Down, Moses” on page 23.]

Leader:

As we rejoice at our deliverance from slavery, we acknowledge that our freedom was hard-earned. The triumph of Passover is diminished by the sacrifice of many human lives when ten plagues were visited upon the people of Egypt. In the ancient story, the plagues that befell the Egyptians resulted from the decisions of tyrants, but the greatest suffering occurred among those who had no choice but to follow.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story