The Passover story begins thousands of years ago in the land of Egypt, which is located in the Middle East, unfortunately, Egypt was ruled by a man called the Pharoh, who was very powerful.

Around this time a nice Jewish boy named Joseph arrived in Egypt, and he came to be an advisor to the Pharaoh because he had a degree in management. He advised the Pharaoh to build storehouses to store the grain, which the Pharaoh thought was a tremendous idea, because up to that point he had been storing the grain in the bathroom, and it was disgusting. The Pharaoh was so pleased that he invited Joseph to stay in Egypt and bring his relatives to hang out also. They became known as the Israelites, and they multiplied and prospered in the various fields, although generally not team sports.

Years passed, and eventually the Pharaoh died. A new Pharaoh took over, and he turned out to be a real schmuck. he was afraid that the Israelites would become too powerful, so he made them into slaves, which for the Jewish people was a very difficult time.

SLAVERY

Slavery totally sucked.  The Pharaoh made the Israelites work from sunrise to sunset with no days off, not even Labor Day.  The Israelites continued to multiply, so Pharaoh Schmuck decreed that every male baby born to an Israelite woman had to be cast into the River Nile.

There was an Israelite couple named Amram and Yocheved who had a male baby, but they didn't want him to be cast into the Nile, so instead, they hid him for 3 months.  Then they put him into a basket...then they put it in the Nile... 

At that moment the Pharaoh's beautiful daughter was bathing in the Nile, which she preferred because the Pharaoh's bathroom still smelled faintly of grain.  She noticed this baby floating past in a basket, and she said, 'I shall keep this baby, as apparently it does not belong to anybody!'

Miriam (Moses sister), offered to raise the baby and have her mom (who of course was Yocheved) be the nurse.  The Pharaoh's daughter was like, 'Sure!'  So the bottom line, this woman went ot take a bath and came home with a baby and 2 new domestic employees.  She decided to name the baby Moses, which was an ancient Egyptian word meaning 'drawn from the water'.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story