Why is this Haggadah different from all other Haggadot?Ophir Yarden

The children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt because they did not change their names: Reuven and Shim`on went down [to Egypt] and

Reuven and Shim`on came out. They did not call Judah -- Rufus, nor Yosef -- Lustus, nor Benjamin --

Alexander. And because they did not change their language -- they continued to speak in the holy tongue.

(from Midrash Vayikra Rabba 32:5)Hagaddah of Ayelet HaShahar 1946 (and others)

We Were Slaves היינו עבדים

TRADITIONAL Haggadah

We were once slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord our God took us out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not brought our fathers out of Egypt, the we, our children and our children's children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.

and the Lord took us out of Egypt. Not through an angel, not through a seraph and not through a messenger, but the Holy One, blessed be He, He alone ...

KIBBUTZ Haggadot

We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt an we went out from there in the month of Aviv (Spring) with our children and elders. And if we had not gone out of there, then we and our children and our children's children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.Kfar Gil`adi (1941)

"Go, return to Egypt" (Ex. 4:19) and make Me a nation. Do you know how a nation is formed? Call unto you the workers and the miserable and all those who groan from work and toil and who are tortured at the hands of the taskmasters and clerks who have no heart left and in it little feeling. Speak to them and take them out of the house of bondage and redeem them and give them laws and ordinances and make from them a people.

Go to them and tell them that they are slaves--and they will not understand ... and open their eyes with a mighty hand ... and redeem them. And from amongst your brethren many people will follow you ... and you will become the father of many men, the head of their tribes. You will make of the worms--men, and of the men--a people, and from the sands--a land. David Frischmann (Na`an 1940)

Page 1

On Crossing the “Red Sea”

TRADITIONAL Haggadah

Thus how much more so do we owe thanks to the Ever-Present for all His manifold favors! He brought us forth from Egypt, executed judgments upon them and upon their gods, slew their first-born, gave us their wealth, divided the sea for us, led us through it on dry land and drowned our oppressors in it, supplied our needs in the wilderness for forty years ... brought us into the Land of Israel...

KIBBUTZ Haggadot

It is taught: Rabbi Meir said: At the moment when the children of Israel were standing at the edge of the sea, the tribes were arguing with one another. One would say: "I'm going into the sea first." And another would reply: "I'm going into the sea first!"When the tribe of Benjamin jumped in first, they were stoned by the leaders of Judah.It was not so, said Rabbi Yehudah. Rather one would say: "I'm not going into the sea first." And another would reply: "Neither am I going in first!"At just that moment Nahshon ben Aminadav jumped into the sea and was first. (based on Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 36b-37a)

We went out to change the face of the world, to put an end to the enslavement of man by man. The end is wedged in the hiding place of generations. When were we born? At the moment that the first spark of dignity was ignited in a slave's heart. When did we take up the flag? When the first person humiliated rose up against his humiliator. Seven times we may fall and seven times we will rise up for justice and the liberation of Man are with us.

We were born with the dawn of people who become free. We were present at all mankind's struggles for liberty, in every killing field of the oppressed, at every "exodus" of every people in every generation -- on the gallows, at the stake, in prisons and on the barricades.

Yea, even if we should fall seven times, we will rise encouraged -- we and those who will follow in our footsteps after we have followed those who preceeded us. There will come a day when our flag will be the flag of the liberating society, when Man will rise up to his full height seen by all in his hidden eternal light, his mind broad and his heart pure, his hands faithful and his whole life freedom and justice. He will have no Hebrew slave, no Canaanite slave, neither a Black nor a Chinese, and the honor of each person will be the corner-stone of the redeemed society.

That day will certainly come!(Moshe Belinson, used in Haggadah of Kinneret 1942)

Page 2