The Signs

Pharaoh was unwilling to release his labor supply.

Pharaoh thought himself a god. He believed he could do whatever he wanted to with individuals or entire peoples. He needed to learn the difficult lesson: there exists a Source of Power beyond the self.

Faraonu¹

Фараону, Фараону говорю
Отпусти народ мой
Фараону, Фараону говорю
Отпусти народ мой

Отпусти народ Еврейский
На Родину свою
Отпусти народ Еврейский
На Родину свою

Отпусти народ, отпусти народ
Отпусти народ домой.

Faraonu, Faraonu gavaryu; Ahtpusti narod moy. (2)

Ahtpusti narod Yevrayskee; Narodyenu svayu. (2)

Ahtpusti narod, ahtpusti narod, Ahtpusti narod damoy.

To the Pharaoh I say: Let my people go! Let the Jewish people go to our homeland! Let the people, let the people, let the people go home.

A series of signs appeared, transformations of the expected world the Egyptians had come to take for granted. Some of these signs altered the natural realm, others shifted social interactions. Our Biblical text and ancient rabbis expressed these signs as though they occurred on a plane beyond human involvement. Today, we understand that we need to take an active role in the world we encounter, and in our own transformation.

In either case, whether affected by humans, the divine or a combination, our redemption could not and did not take place without a struggle. Due to that struggle, and the resultant loss of life, we take drops from our full cups of wine—this, then, symbolizes the diminution of our joy.

We remember also those who have died in their struggle for freedom. Our joy is diminished because of their sacrifice.

☞ Who can we name who dedicated their lives to the struggle for freedom?

אֵלּוּ עֶשֶׂר מַכּוֹת שֶׁהֵבִיא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא עַל הַמִּצְרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן:

Eilu eser makot sh’heivi haKadosh Baruch Hu al haMitzrim b’Mitzraim, v’eilu hen.

These are the ten Signs that the Holy One brought upon Egypt.²

🌀 Remove a drop of wine from our cups as we weigh in our hearts and recite each action against the Egyptians.

☞ Have we seen these old plagues made real in our own time?³

Rivers of blood flow in once peaceful villages and cities. Other rivers burned red with flame, pollutants igniting⁴ what should give life.

Like Pharaoh, we also treat others as objects we can control. We experience these as plagues of our existence.

Apathy, Brutality, Cruelty, Despair, Envy, Falsehood, Greed, Hatred, Insincerity, Jealousy…

These plagues afflict us in the world of politics as well as in our relationships. There are even ways in which we oppress ourselves. Some are systemic, some are personal.

☞ Can we name another sixteen?

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Our ancestors heeded the signs they saw about them in their day.

☞ How might we recognize these signs?

☞ How will we respond?

Footnotes

¹ A song of the Soviet Jewry movement

² The Frog Song (by Shirley Cohen)

One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed

There were frogs in his bed, and frogs on his head

Frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes

Frogs here, frogs there

Frogs were jumping everywhere.

³ Darkness descended over the Persian Gulf states. A physical, tangible darkness in the middle of the day. The Kuwaiti oil fires were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after conquering the country but being driven out by Coalition military forces.

The resulting fires burned out of control because of the dangers of sending in firefighting crews. Land mines had been placed in areas around the oil wells, and a military cleaning of the areas was necessary before the fires could be put out. Somewhere around 6 million barrels (950,000 m3) of oil were lost each day. Eventually, privately contracted crews extinguished the fires, at a total cost of US$1.5 billion to Kuwait. By that time, however, the fires had burned for months, causing widespread pollution.

It is now known that smoke from the Kuwait Oil Fires dominated the weather pattern throughout the Persian Gulf and surrounding region during 1991, and that lower atmospheric wind blew the smoke along the eastern half of the Arabian Peninsula, and cities such as Dhahran and Riyadh, and countries such as Bahrain experienced days with smoke filled skies and carbon fallout.

⁴ The Cuyahoga River Fire (22 June 1969).