Passover: The foundations of faith of Seder night

• Published date: 19 April 2024
• Author: RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

We are commanded to recount – to one another, and parents to their children – the foundational story of the Jewish people, the story of our ancestors' exile and bondage in Egypt, and the redemption – the miraculous exodus that occurred on this night

The story is told simply at the beginning of the Passover Haggadah: "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord our God brought us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm." This is, of course, the shortest and most concise way to recount the exodus from Egypt. But throughout the night, we expand upon the story, detailing and reflecting on the suffering endured by our ancestors in Egypt, and delving into the specifics of the liberation, with the Ten Plagues at its center – 10 types of afflictions that God brought upon the Egyptians before the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.

The Ten Plagues

These ten plagues are described in detail in the Torah: blood, frogs, lice, mixed swarms, diseased livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally, the death of the firstborn [son]. In the Haggadah, we mention the custom of Rabbi Judah, a sage from the second century: "Rabbi Judah used to give them mnemonic signs: 'Dtzach,' 'Adash,' 'Be'achav.'" According to Rabbi Judah, the ten plagues are divided into three sets. The first set is 'Dtzach' – the Hebrew initials for the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice; the second set is 'Adash' – mixed swarms, diseased livestock, and boils; and the third set is 'Be'achav' – hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn."

Indeed, when reading the description of the Ten Plagues in the Book of Exodus, we can see that they are three sets, each structured in a fixed internal order, and each with a different purpose indicated by the warning that Moses gave to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The purpose of the first set is "that you may know that I am the Lord"; the purpose of the second is "that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the Earth"; and the third set opens with the declaration "that you may know that there is none like Me in all the Earth."

Let us try to understand these three purposes that we mark on Seder night, the night on which we pass on the...