Notes on the Haggadah

• Matza
• This flat bread avoids the decay of yeast. This is why we can use baking soda and other leavenings during Passover. It's about the yeast, and the five grains that are usually used with yeast to make bread.
• In addition to the yeast decay symbolism, matza is also the national symbol of leaving Egypt quickly.
• Since Egyptians invented bread (and beer) - Reject bread is a rejection of Egypt.
• Matza continues to be used in the later sacrificial system, pure without yeast decay.
• Why 3 Matza in the Seder? Two used in sacrificial system, and one for specialness of the Pesach sacrifice. Just like we traditionally use two challah on Shabbat - one for any standard day, and another for a holy day.
  

• The 4 Sons: A general lesson in parenting.
• Wicked - Exodus 26:27 - Parent uses fear to get the message across.
• Doesn't Ask - Exodus 13:8 - You tell him this is for me, the individual. Open up about your own experience.
• Simple Child - Exodus 13:14 - Parent shows the strength and wonders of God to get message across.
• Wise Child - Deut. 6:20 - Parent tells the whole story. We were slaves, invoke gratitude for being free. Truth and gratitude.
  

• Why "harden" Pharaoh's heart? Doesn't this take away free will?
• Maimonides says it's the opposite. God strengthens Pharaoh's heart  so that he is not bullied into freeing them. He can truly make the decision he would have otherwise. The Hebrew is correctly translated as "strengthened".

• Why 4 cups of wine? Two answers:
• The first four acts God proclaims he will do for the Hebrews: a) I shall take you out of Egypt. b) Save you from their labor. c) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. d) I will bring you to Me as my people.
• We were liberated from Pharaoh's four evil decrees: a) Slavery. b) The ordered murder of all male progeny by the Hebrew midwives. c) The drowning of all Hebrew boys in the Nile by Egyptian thugs. d) The decree ordering the Israelites to collect their own straw for use in their brick production.

• Why these Plagues?
• Except the final plague, these are all Egyptian Gods.
• Bloody Nile: Hapi - god of Nile
• Frogs: Heket (Looks like a frog) - Egyptian Goddess of Fertility, Water, Renewal
• Lice from the dust of the Earth: Geb - Egyptian God of the Earth
• Swarms of Flies: Khepri (Looks like an Insect) - Egyptian God of creation, movement of the Sun, rebirth
• Death of Livestock: Hathor (Looks like a Cow)- Egyptian Goddess of Love and Protection
• Boils: Isis - Egyptian Goddess of Medicine and Peace
• Hail: Nut - Egyptian Goddess of the Sky
• Locusts from Sky: Seth - Egyptian God of Storms and Disorder
• Blocking of the Sun: Ra - The Sun God
• Killing of First Born: Pharaoh's - The Ultimate Demi-God of Egypt
• http://inthedoghouse.hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Plagues-For-Ten-Gods

Click to be Plagued

• Other symbols of Exodus and Freedom
• Mezuzah - Memory of the blood on doorpost
• Tefillin - With a mighty hand, the Lord freed us from Egypt.
• Shabbat - Because you were slaves in Egypt, and now you remember that you are free by not laboring.
• Friday night Kiddush -  "It is the foremost day of the holy festivals marking the Exodus from Egypt."
• Passover is 7 days, just as Creation. It is the creation of the Hebrews as a people.
• Egypt is all about death. Their "bible" was the "Book of the Dead". They were obsessed with the afterlife. Their great works were tombs. Some of the Pharaoh's servants were buried in their tombs. Judaism is a renunciation of Egypt and Death. We hold the Torah as a Tree of Life. 

• Other Notes
• Excepting the final plague, all the plagues have a plausible natural causation. The Nile turning to blood could have just been silt from up river, driving the frogs onto land and giving rise to stagnant waters and gnats. The darkness could have been a solar eclipse or a sandstorm ("A darkness that could be touched"), ash from a volcanic eruption or possibly god.There is even a theory that as Egyptian first-born children were privileged enough to sleep near the ground, a low floating toxic gas could have killed them leaving everyone else alive.  And in the same vein, the Red Sea splitting is cause by the blowing of the winds. The Egyptians could have just assumed the Hebrews got lucky. Like almost all miracles, we can choose whether to attribute them to nature alone or to the God of all nature.
• Plagues as natural phenomena: http://voices.yahoo.com/the-plagues-bible-explained-2021045.html
• There are entertaining moments where the Pharaoh's magicians try (and succeed for the first plagues) to make matters worse by replicating God's plagues. They proved the point, but at a cost.
• The Temple was basically a gigantic slaughter house during Passover time.
• The hardboiled egg is either an ancient fertility symbol that was passed on without much meaning, or the traditional food of mourners -- representing sadness of the loss of the Temples. Maybe it represents the stubbornness of the Jewish people.
• Is this just a spring pagan holiday? Maybe, but it's what Judaism did with is that's profound. There is no drunken, nude entertainment after the meal as was traditional in a Roman meal.
• Traditional Haggadah rarely refer to Moses. It was God that took us out of Egypt. Moses was just the messenger.
• The Egyptians worshiped their livestock - and to slaughter a lamb and eat it was an affront to Egypt. The Hebrew families had to do this in order to not be killed by the Angel of Death. There may very well have been some that were to scared to mark their doorposts and thus had their first-born killed like the Egyptians.
• Blood in the Torah represents life, not death. To smear the blood on the door posts is to counter the Angel of Death with life.
• "Let My people go that they may serve Me." The Hebrews were freed in order to pursue a mission, to bring the Torah and God's Laws to the world. Being free isn't enough. One must make use of this freedom to pursue goodness.