Haggadah: “Our First Real Job” from The Diary of a Former Slave

We reentered the Cairo Convention Center for our second meeting with Moses as new people. We were in power. We were excited. We wanted to do something, but we were fresh out of slavery. We had no idea what to do, so we turned to Moshe, and waited for him to speak.

“My friends,” said our great Rabbi, “God wants you to do something and it will take great courage. Are you ready?”

We all shouted, “We are ready!”

“Do you want God to ask something of you guys as small people or as great people?”

“Great people!”

“Then you are already different. Listen carefully: God wants you to take sheep and He wants you to use those sheep as an offering to Him.”

There was a dead silence: sheep in front of the Egyptians! They worshiped them as gods. We would be risking our lives.  God was asking for something great.

We all rose again, this time with joy, but not with me giddy happiness with which we stood before. We were serious, dead serious. We understood what God was asking. We committed ourselves to take an animal, the Egyptian deity, and give it as an offering to God.

“Great,” said Moshe with pride, “there’s more…”