One of the most exciting and colourful parts of the story of the Exodus is the Ten Plagues. There is a custom to spill a drop of wine as we say the name of each plague. There are many reasons given for this, but the most beautiful is that of Abudraham (a fourteenth-century rabbi from Spain who is best known for his commentary on the Siddur), who interprets it in accordance with the verse “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Mishlei 24:17). We give thanks for the miraculous plagues which brought our ancestors out of Egypt and granted them freedom, but at the same time, we also shed a symbolic tear for those who suffered.